 Last night Lindsey and I drove to the city to meet up with my client and buddy Jon and his girl for dinner. We had an awesome time! I must say, good company and good food really do make for a happier life! But I am sure all of you know that, so I'll fill in a bit about what it is that we ate. We met at House Of Prime Rib, and super old-school meat joint, something out the the show "Mad Men". The decor was rustic and old, the place was packed and loud, there was a divers mixture of old business types and young hipsters (as San Francisco tends to have!) and then there was the food. Basically, your meal was paced for you. You ordered off a small menu, telling them what type of cut you'd like (thin, medium and thick) and how you wanted your meat cooked. Yup, there was one thing on the menu: prime rib! Then you could modify your sides, but you generally, everyone got the same thing to eat: Bread and corn bread Salad Prime rib (and a CRAP-LOAD of it!) with Creamed spinach, potato, some bread-type thing (honestly not sure what it was, but it was good!) It was the first time in a very long time that I walked away from a meal feeling like I needed to unbutton my pants a tad! Sometimes there's nothing like feeling that primal excitement of gorging a ton of red meat. And interestingly enough, I was overcome by a very strong desire to lift heavy weights! I had a good feeling about the deadlifts scheduled for Friday. So, today rolled around and I was able to get some solid work in. I worked up in sets of 3 on the deadlifts through 225, 315 and 405, then moved to singles or 455 and 485. So a quick run-down before I go into my last attempt. I pulled 485 about 2 yeas ago, and my max between then and the DC's Most Primal CrossFit Competition a few months ago where I PR'd at 500. But that PR came with a lifting belt and a TON of people screaming motivation at me. Today's 500 had no belt, and nobody paying any attention to me. Very, very, very happy about that pull! I then attempted 515 and...it didn't budge. Oh well! I then hit a sneaky-brutal workout thought by Lindsey: 200 meter run 30 power snatch 95# 30 tire jumps (just like a box jump but onto a tire) 200 meter run 20 power snatch 30 tire jumps 200 meter run 10 power snatch 30 tire jumps 200 meter run ROUGH! I was very surprised at how this one crushed me. I think the fact that my grip was still a bit tender from the Open Sectionals Workout made the snatches harder, and my ankles (Achilles and calves as well) are still messed up from Open Sectionals Workout 2 (the one with tons of box jumps...). But I'm not gonna lie, the feeling of exhaustion was really nice today!  Finally, tonight I whipped up a great meal for Lindsey and myself: broiled bison with brussel sprouts and steamed sweet potatoes. That followed by client/friend Lena's awesome gluten-free pumpkin bread and some almond milk and I am feeling all sorts of good! Now I can look forward to a chill and potentially adventure-filled weekend!
Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage
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 Along with Lindsey and my ‘splorin the neighborhoods for our new lives in the greater Washington DC area, I had an additional positive for being in DC this past weekend. The great folks at the CrossFit and Parkour gym Primal Fitness were putting on their second DC’s Most Primal CrossFit competition. Last years event was a huge hit and I finished with a come-from-behind sprint on the final WOD to win 2nd place (I was apparently about 10 seconds away from tying for 1rst…). This time around I guess I just lucked out with the competition being on the same weekend we’d be in town! Things started off with two attempts at a 1 rep max deadlift. I decided to declare my first attempt at 465# and then, depending on what the competitive field was like, I’d jack it up or stay conservative. That first lift felt real good, fast, smooth and such, and seeing how there were a couple people working with weights around 500#, I decided to go for it. If I could pull 500# (technically a 15# PR from the PR I set almost two years ago! I would really say my PR at that point would be the 465# I pulled about a month back) I would get a 4th place spot on the first event. I had a great feeling approaching the bar, felt confident and strong. The crowd added a whole level of motivation and I fed off that energy right from the get-go. Pulling that weight up felt awesome! I rounded only a little in my thoracic spine (upper back) , and I had a small little dip past the knees, but besides that, so strong! And yes, I am proud to say I am officially part of the 500# club! Sweetness! Before the second event was announced, I had a great time catching up with all my friends. Being able to hang with all of them and just talk about this and that really helped to fuel the excitement building up inside of me for our big move back to the area. It was really nice. It also seemed to make the day just fly by, the second workout was set up and ready to go! For time: 15 or so meter prowler push, down and back with 90# added 100# sandbag under rope, over 46” hurdle, under rope, over 36” hurdle, placed on top of 56” platform. Return back over and under hurdles and ropes. 80# sandbag through same course. Return back. Repeat prowler push This was sneaky hard! What was so cool about this one was that you were so focused on maneuvering around the obstacles you never really noticed how tiring it actually was until you got back to the prowler. That second prowler push felt like trying to move a mac truck, not easy at all. My focus through this one was to just keep moving no matter what. I noticed that people were getting stuck on the last length with the prowler and that was eating up all the time; so, I decided to go at around 90% through the sandbag course so that I could go all out on the prowler. I feel as though I could have given a tad more on the obstacle course portion and still had about the same energy for that last push. I crossed the line at 1:56, enough for 5th overall on that event and placing me 4th overall going into the final workout. At this point I was happy to have a bit of a break because my lungs and legs were on fire! I love the prowler so much; it has got to be one of the most humbling and effective tools I can think of. So fun! The final workout was announced and the air was a mix of moans, groans and excitement. For Time do: 800 meter run 50 burpees 50 overhead lunges w/ 45# 800 meter run The run was a loop around the neighborhoods in the rough terrain that is the Washington DC sidewalks. I was excited. This type of workout, while hard as hell, I tend to do pretty well with; just a “put you head down and GO” type of thing. The only negative was that it had a 15-minute cap and there were 7 heats going...I was in the 7th heat. I started off at a comfortable pace, just ahead of the rest of the group. I felt very good, short, light steps, agile, relaxed. Entering into the gym I knew I was about 10 steps ahead of the guy behind me, so I just ran up to my station and began the burpees. Again, stayed at a good pace, tried staying light and rhythmical. After getting all 50 burpees unbroken, I grabbed my plate and hoisted it up for the lunges. I chose to do reverse lunges instead as to decrease the impact I would have to take; and while this helped out my legs, it was my shoulders that really failed me. I was able to get 10 right off the bat, but from there on through 50 I was only able to get 5 at a time. The thing that helped me however, was the fact that I never let go of the plate. Even when I rested it on the ground, I kept my hands on it as to not break momentum. I finished that up in a fatiguing mess and just took off for the run. Oh lord was the first half of that second run brutal. Slightly nauseous I just kept moving, and when I rounded the second to last turn I glanced back. The red shoes of Jason Gerrard (last years winner and the man to beat this year) caught my eye; I switched gears and took off. The last bit of motivation was seeing my good ol’ dad all the way around that last turn just pumping motivation at me! I got a final burst of energy and crossed the line at 11:29, good enough for a solid 3rd place in the event.  When the scores were tallied, just like last year I was able to push myself up to a 2nd place finish. Not enough to de-thrown Jason (an absolute beast of an athlete and an awesome guy), but still, very happy with how things turned out. Having not competed since last years Sectionals, I was in some serious need of one, and finishing 2nd after a red-eye flight and two days of driving around searching for housing and gyms boosted my confidence quite a bit! Big Dan (a great friend and training partner) gathered up the 3rd place spot!
A HUGE amount of respect to Jesse and Mark at Primal for putting on such an awesome event, and to their whole crew for helping out and being such warm-hearted people. And then, to all the competitors, impressive work all around! It was a blast to be able to be around all my old friends (AND to have my dad and Penda out there to cheer me on!). I am feeling that excitement of being around all those people soon! A day off yesterday and I am back at it. Open Sectionals begin in two weeks exactly! Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage   The workout today called for a bit of deadlifting (my legs are getting their butt kicked this week!), some floor presses paired with RDL's, and a fun little weight vest metcon. I was able to very comfortably pull 445.5# for a single, and this got me excited to work up my 1RM in the near-500# range next week! The floor presses and RDL's were great supplemental work, and I got to 87.5 and 100 kilos respectively. Then I moved on (after a few minutes rest) to my metcon: 100 meter bear crawl 10 jump overs 75 meter bear crawl 10 jump overs 50 meter bear crawl 10 jump overs 25 meter bear crawl 10 jump overs 20 burpees 10 jump overs This was just fun. The 20# vest made it pretty tough of course, but it was cool. I wanted to get to the track, but bad rain and my inability to organize my time led me to stick to The Gym. So, I used the GHD as my hurdle, which was actually pretty cool. The only tough part was that I had to turn around a bunch when getting the longer distances on the bear crawl. Physically it wasn't all that demanding, it was just doing new movements, and that was the point. I finished in 11:06 and am pretty sure it would be a bit better in a different setting, like out in the woods somewhere! On another note, things are starting to build up for me at the gym, clients are beginning to come in and I'm excited, I miss training people! Also, I got the final fixings and screws needed to get my pull up rig up and running in the gym, so I'll be putting it all together tomorrow morning and posting about how I did it! Can't wait to have this thing up and usable!
Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage   Today the workout ended up being a little tougher then i think it should have. I ended up delaying the start on account of dealing with damn Bank Of America for god knows how long on the phone; so, starting a little annoyed, but pumped all the same for deadlifts!
I started off easy enough with 100kg and worked up to a final, very strong set of 3 at 185 (that's 407#). The focus being on these sets to never let go of the bar, and to not bounce off the ground at all. Besides the second to last set (I was attacked with a slew of questions from a couple people mid workout!), I felt very, very strong with the lifts. My second straight very positive session on the deadlifts and that leaves me confident in my ever-better strength gains. Next I moved to a few sets of 10, alternating between good mornings and bent rows. I kept the weights light working with 95#, 115# and 115# on the good mornings, and 95#, 115# and 135# on the rows. Both felt very strong through the core and that was the whole idea. Finally, I moved on to my big challenge: 4 rounds for time of: 100 meters DB farmers walk 75# 75 double unders 25 push ups (hands off ground at the bottom each rep) 25 air squats Oh yeah, this killed me. I think it was because there was nothing but awkward, uncomfortableness the entire time. Besides the squats, I really had nothing to zone out at all with, and the added mental challenge of this one made it that much tougher. With a couple delays of getting around some cars (I was in the back alley at The Gym and people were coming and going like crazy), I finished up in roughly 16 minutes (I also didn't really have a clock, and i video taped the first round, then timed the final 3 rounds and just added them together...). All in all it was the perfect "get-through-it" sort of thing that I needed today. With a long bike ride planned for tomorrow, and the comfort in knowing a whole bunch of things I needed to get done have been taken care of, I will have plenty of time to focus back on the couple posts I have been planning. So expect a more insightful one tomorrow! Never Stop, GET FIT. Josh Courage |
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