Well, I drove on down to San Jose Saturday morning to hit the Open Sectionals 3rd workout. I felt very ready to go and was excited to see what I could do. Not to make excuses, but I realized in retrospect why I did not score as many as I really expected. I finished with 28.5 rounds (that 28 squat clean and jerks and one squat clean) and to be honest, I was rally expecting to get in the 35 range. What happened was that we we ended up taking a TON of time between the two heats and I found myself just pacing back and forth for a good 30 minutes. Then all of a sudden, I was standing in front of my bar and my biddy Neal Maddox (who got 45 freaking rounds by the way, beast!!) was violently getting my attention. When I looked up I had 2 seconds and boom, the buzzer sounded to go. It took me about 4 or 4 reps to actually realize that we were doing the workout! My technique was thrown off like crazy and I ended up dropping the bar twice. Let me tell you, in a workout like this, dropping the bar is about the most demoralizing thing that could happen. I was just NOT there mentally for this one.
Still, in the end I was happy enough that I was keeping my placement high enough to make Regionals in the end; after all, that's all that really matters right now! So, Lindsey and I hit the gym and I got a few rounds of heavy pause squats and a crap lad of body weight reps to work on control of the body. But my mind kept on drifting back to how I wasn't mentally prepared and I really, really wanted to try it again. So, even though I was a little sore, I decided to just go for it!
Today's effort went a little better, 30 rounds, but it was the process that made it just so much more exciting! Apparently the clock decided to count all randomly and confused Brendon and Lindsey (my support/count/judge group). Because of this I ended up getting an additional 40ish seconds of work in and I banged out 33 reps. Going back to video and counting it next to a stop watch was quite a downer, having done 33 and having to take 3 away! Oh well, a better score is a better score. And to be honest, being able to up the score after doing the workout AND heavy back squats makes me feel pretty good (even though I expected more...).
On to other news: I have decided to push my move back east forward a few weeks. This came about because Lindsey and I are headed out to Utah for some adventure on that last week of April (for my Birthday) and I figured if we are headed out then, I may as well hang out here until then! So, to all my East Coasters waiting for me, it'll be just a little longer! And to all my West Coasters, let's live it up for a little longer!
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
 The Soon To Be Home Area As most of you should know at this point, I am making huge transition in my life and job only 9 months after making the biggest transition of my life. My girl and I are moving back to the East Coast. This is a very bitter sweet process for me as I have fallen so madly in love with the California life-style but am excited to the core to return to the community I had spent so long creating in the greater DC area. Even though I’ve only been in CA for less than a year I feel as though have made friends for life and I fully expect to be making continuous trips back to workout and hang out with all the great people I have bonded with.
Right now Lindsey and I are faced with the overwhelming task of figuring out how to get our lives moved back across the country. Our memories of the crazy times we had in getting things out here are still pretty fresh on our minds so the intensity of the stress is multiplied a bit. But, I have a great deal of confidence that things will work out pretty damn well because we have our sights set on our awesome future and the journey towards that!
So, this past weekend saw the start of our physical search. We hopped a redeye out to DC, getting in at around 7:30am ready to explore. The goal for the weekend was twofold: to find a neighborhood to live in, and to search around for gym locations for my business. Basically we picked out a collection of neighborhoods and drove on through them to get a gut feeling. We did this a bit before we moved out to California and it worked out great. Over the course of three days we were able to find the place we wanted to be and we love it! So, with the couple days in the DC area, we were hoping for the same thing; and for the most part, we did. We narrowed it down a good bit to a few different areas we liked best, AND, I was able to search out a good collection of spaces and locations for my new gym! All in all, I think it increased our excitement for this new transition.
I'll throw in some updates about this process as we continue on as it basically is taking over about 85% of my energy these days (the rest is gearing up for the CrossFit Games Sectionals coming up in two weeks!!). Its a crazy process and I am expecting the best from it all!
Never S
 One of my many 'splorin adventures in the hills between the Bay and the Ocean Well, besides the crazy programming with traveling around to so many affiliates, and the planning for the Courage Games 2011, I have been at the highest level of stress I have ever been in my life. This difficulty has come since around the holidays when Lindsey and I began discussions on our future and how we wanted to approach it. As many of my readers here know, our move out here was based on literally ONE thing: to live in California. Both of us were leaving quite a bit in the East Coast and we knew that going into this crazy move. So after settling down a little bit (living together for the first time as well!) we began the long discussion of family and future. In the end, we came to the difficult conclusion that our future would be better off back in the East Coast.We initially planned to really sink in here for a while, up to five years, but while enjoying what California has to offer us, we would have in the back of our heads that we would most likely be leaving at some point soon. This began to weigh on me as I left so much in the DC area to recreate my business here. And I was struggling with the idea of getting everything going here and then leaving it all once again to start fresh in a new place. I just could not see this as a plausible choice for me and what I want out of life. So, when push came to shove, we realized that it would be best for both of us to pack up our gear and head back East to really sink our roots in and settle down. This has been a very, very tough process for both us as we both really like it out here. I have had nothing but positive experiences in the short time exploring the greater Bay Area and I have made friends and connections quicker than I ever thought possible. While I do not struggle very much with the actual decision to move back East, what I do struggle with is the knowledge that I am leaving days like today. Today, as I write this, I am sitting at my kitchen counter, windows and patio door open to the 68 degree weather, birds chirping and not a could in the sky. After I finish this I will head over to a park right on the Bay to do some tumbling and ring work, then it's off to the gym to train a large group of kids, workout with a couple training buddies, train another group of athlete, cook dinner and read some of my book. That right there is the perfect life to me (if Lindsey was not traveling for work it would truly be perfect!). I know we will have this life, and better (because Lindsey won't be traveling so much) back East, but this weather, and these people! Man, I will miss those a ton.  A wonderful bike ride along the San Francisco Bay So what it is looking like now is that I will be returning to the greater Washington, DC area in early April, setting up shop in The Garage again while pushing like crazy to open up a much larger gym. I have a whole slew of things prepared for getting up and running when I get back there, so all you Washingtonians, Marylanders and Virginians better be ready!In the mean time, I have folded my CrossFit affiliate in Burlingame out of 1st String and have partnered with CrossFit San Mateo. I am helping out a local High School baseball team as well. Once I have the CrossFit Kids class, Powerlifting/Strength class and baseball teams up and running, and once the Courage Games 2011 are over and done with, I will bid farewell to lovely California as my place of residence and return to my home town area of Greater Washington, DC. To all my athletes who were so committed to me before I scampered out West, please send me a note and let me know if you are game to get back into things. I will set a date for my return and will plan on having people back in The Garage within a couple days of that date. So spread the word, and get yourselves ready to have a Spring and Summer filled with massive gains!To everyone I have met and connected with in my short time in California, you better believe I will be back out here on a VERY regular basis to workout, hang out, explore and chill with everyone. California was everything and more than I expected and I will be be visiting every chance I get. And of course, each and every one of you will have a place to stay and train if you ever want to visit the East Coast; and I would expect a ton of you to come let me show the same hospitality all of you have shown me since I have been out here.So, for the final 1.5 to 2 months I have left here, I will be re-visiting gyms, exploring more areas, introducing more people to CrossFit and basking in the intensely active calm that is Northern California. For those of you who have never been out here, get your butts out here, it freaking rocks! I look forward to the life Lindsey and I have ahead of us. I am eager to grow my business and see where it takes me. I am excited with the knowledge that I will be living in an area I truly do love. Yet I will travel back with the bittersweet feeling of knowing I am leaving behind something that connected with me in the deepest of ways. I will miss California intensely, but I am overjoyed with what is to come.  7 miles from our house, looking out over the Pacific Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage
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