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Bright and early Saturday morning, people began to roll in for the third installment of the Courage Games.  I really wasn't totally sure what to expect in terms of how many people would show as the only marketing I did for it was to create a Facebook event.  But, given the "local, fun throwdown" feel of it all, I was really happy with the turnout.  The weather was perfect, the athletes were wonderfully energized, the support was perfect (Lindsey and myself ran the show and things went off without a hitch!) and when the day was done, and a handful of us were enjoying grilled meat and a couple drinks, we all agreed that the day could not have been all that much better!

Things got started with a bang with workout #1:
Push a car 50 meters, push it back 50 meters
(women did 30 meters)

The push down for the first 50 meters clearly put everyone at a physiological disadvantage; it was so damn easy!  But, when they ran around and tried to get the things going back, all of a sudden things became real tough, fast.  Eric Kolarick took home the fasted time with 54 seconds while Leah Vanhoose and Christie Wheatly tied at 51 seconds for the women; most people were in the mid to upper 90+ second range.  People sure were walking a little funny after this one, quad burn galore!

After a little break, workout #2 was announced (follow along as best you can...):
Cross short bridge, run a rough single track tail about 150 meters, run up a crazy steep hill about 30 meters, military crawl 20 meters (knees and forearms crawl), cross the blacktop, 5 rope climbs, each about 15 feet (women do 3), then throw a 52#/32# sandbag three consecutive times as far as you can.

When your time is stopped, you get to take 3 seconds off your total time for every 10 feet you throw your bag.  Always a little fun twist to throw into the workout to make people think!

Eric Grant took home the top time for men, while Leah Vanhoose blasted through it for the women.  What proved to be the best strategy was to just get the sandbags thrown as fast as possible as to not waste any extra time.  But people were good and worn out with the combination of skill and raw power after a touch run and crawling face first in freshly mowed, wet grass!

The third one proved to take the most out of people! (follow along closely with this one as well!):
Grab a large bucket, run under two hurdles, over a sandbag pile, through a collection of tires, across a 10' 2x4 and across the blacktop to a sand pit.  Hand fill your bucket half way with sand, then run about a 300 meter, very hilly course and back through the obstacles.  Hand fill your bucket to the top now with sand (this is heavy by the way...) and repeat the run.  End with dumping your bucket back into the sand pit!

Man was this one fun to watch!  People shoveling sand into the buckets then taking off around the great outdoors!  But it was that second run that just crushed everyone.  Word from the athletes was that right around the 3/4 mark of the run loop, it just hit people so damn hard.  Running with that crazy heavy bucket was just about as awkward as a run could ever get as well!  But the best part: people had a bucket at hand right there just in case things got a little worked up in their stomachs after the workout...

Adam Chudy tore this one up with Cory Spera close at his heels, and Leah Vanhoose yet again grabbed the top time for the women. 

A little extra break was given out here as thing were rolling WAY ahead of schedule.  And the last one would be a brutal sprint of sneaky-hard proportions! 

Sprint 30 meters across the blacktop, up a little hill, grab a sledge hammer then hammer a tire across the 30 meters of the blacktop.

This one felt like it took 20 minutes even tough most people were getting it around 2-3.  The go-to strategy for this was to straddle the tire and over-head slam it between your legs.  The trick was hitting the tire just right so that it got the slightest big of air under it and could skid across the concrete about 4-6 feet.  But peoples hips, shoulders and hands were just burned!

Eric Kolarick came in first for the men, with Dave Shaw just seconds behind him, while Diane Cole took first for the women.

In the end, Dave Shaw proved to be the most consistent across the board (winners were decided by fasted overall combined time) for the men taking home the top prize, while Leah Vanhose blazed through for the win for the women.  Below are the top three from both sides:

Men:
Dave Shaw - 639 seconds
Eric Grant - 6 seconds
Joseph Barlia - 650 seconds


Women:
Leah Vanhoose - 767
Diane Cole - 802
Christie Wheatly - 876

Special thanks to Core Warrior Bars and 2XU for helping out, both are awesome brands that I personally love and am so pumped that they continuously support these awesome athletes as they challenge themselves!  Also a huge special thanks to Lindsey for yet again coming out and choosing to spend her wonderful off day outside with me and helping out!  Could not have done this without her at all!

And of course, thanks so much to all the athletes who came out and pushed yourselves!  So happy to have to you all out for the day and believe me, I'll be getting people together again very soon!

I'll have a nice little video up from the days fun in the next couple days, so look for that! 

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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I sort of fell off the table a little this past week; while the new workout program has been going really well, I have been getting way too little sleep, and my nutrition ha seen better days (can anyone say cookies and coconut ice cream?!!).  Anyway, I decided that it was about time to kick it into high gear this summer with a few experiments and what better time to start then now?  Today marked the day of a month-long trial of a nutrition program introduced to me by a client/friend who tried it out with great success.  It caught my eye because of it’s simplicity and because its similarity to the program I was just about to start: Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Body” plan.  I still plan to try that one out, and really break it down as best I can, but I’ll just wait at least a month until after I give this one a try.

The only differences between what I’ve been doing (up until this past week) and this program is the timing of my meals and the specific distribution of macro-nutrients.  I’m eating eggs, chicken, turkey, fish, lots of veggies, sweet potatoes, nuts, whey protein and oats (oats are the only addition to my plan), it’s pretty great.  I’m taking out any sort of oil, no condiments at all, no sweetener of any kind, and while tea and coffee are a little questionable on this I will probably cut back to about 3 or so cups of tea a week.  The main aspect of this is that I am eating at the same times every day: 8:15, 11:30, 2:45, 5:15, 7:15 and 10pm.  In fact, I have even set an alarm on my phone to go off at these times to make sure I don’t miss a meal (something I tend to do all the time).  Also, this will just help me keep my portions a bit more under control (I do have a tendency to grab a bit “extra” here and there, and I think for my body type, that has been a very limiting factor in me getting to where I want to be).

So, that’s my food; I’ll be sure to give updates as I go along, as this is purely experimental.  I always talk about trial and error in the journey of finding what works best for you, so here I am doing just that!  Now, on to the workouts for the past week. 

Monday:
Afternoon – 5x5 floor press
3x10 skull crushers
3x10 barbell curls
3x8 each prone I, T, Y
2x8 external rotation
3x15 sec. Pallof press hold
Evening – outdoors - 3 rounds of:
25 box jumps (Regionals standard)
30 push ups (games standard)
35 OH squats w/ 52# sandbag

Fun all around, and yes, you saw that correctly, I did bi’s and tri’s!!  So much fun to get a little isolation work in, I’m excited to work a little vanity and all joking aside, I expect it to help my other lifts and movements later on (isolation DOES help, but there’s no need to do it all the time!).  The evening workout was brought over by big Dan from Outlaw CrossFit and we headed over to the school to get it done.  I finished in 17:01 and really felt the main difficulty was the OH squats with a sandbag.

Tuesday:
This day was pretty brutal.  I rode my bike into DC, did an easy 2-mile trail run, rode further into DC, did 5x5 back squats at 295# (along with a whole slew of other exercises), rode the bike to a park and did a 10-1 ladder of KB swings, toes to bar and a 120 meter hill shuttle run; then, rode my bike the 8 or so miles back home.  Yeah, this is why I was feeling so beat up on Thursday!

Wednesday:
Just did my strength program, getting 5x5 strict press at 135#, pretty light but felt very stable.  My supplemental work felt very good as well.  My legs were starting to feel a bit fatigued and my energy levels about hit rock bottom by around 3pm.  I had to get to a baseball game then and it was one of the toughest things to sit through with such low energy.  This is when the nutrition fell off a little, I guess my craving for sugar and complete fatigue did not mix well and I just gave in.  Oh well!  It all tasted so good!  And, I didn’t really feel bad or anything after, I just enjoyed it.

Thursday:
Rest day.  Sore as hell!!

Friday, today:
Officially started the meal plan and get some great deadlift work in, 5 solid sets of 3 at 375#.  I know my strength numbers are not where they were a few weeks ago but I am not worried at all, they will get up there so soon, I can feel it!  I am really looking forward to tomorrows workouts; we have a baseball tournament up in Harrisburg, PA and I’ll get my isolation work in at some gym out there, then, its off to the explore the town looking for an awesome place to get a crazy workout in!

Well, that the wrap for the week.  I’ll be posting more regularly stating this weekend!

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage
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