Conditioning. Risk.

"If you are never scared, embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances" - Julia Soul

George and Cory, the last two remaining High Schoolers came in today to share this one with me:

10 x 25 meter sled push w/ 150# (30 seconds rest between rounds)

rest 5 minutes

250 double unders w/ 5 squat snatches at the top of each minute (75#)

The first was an absolute quad killer!  The sleds, being of the home-made brand, are seeing their last days with the ski's that are on them now.  This proved to make the pushing a LOT harder then expected.  But the 25 meters was not too long, and the 30 second recovery was just enough.  We all made it through in one piece (although the sleds will have a nice makeover once out West).  The double under workout was taken from a workout I did a while ago called "The Lullaby", taken from Blair Morrison of Anywherefit.  This was a bit modified, but, after the sled, and the crazy shoulder workout yesterday, I knew it would be sneaky exhausting.  And it did not disappoint!  I finished in 7:53 and had nothing, and I mean nothing left in the tank.  In rare form, I had to walk across the street to some shade and sit down for a minute or two until I caught my breath.  George tore up his version of it (65# power snatches and 400 single jumps), and Cory (having not really done anything like this in... his life), struggled through, but got through.

The rest of the day was dedicated to packing and organizing.  As I packed, and searched for promising gym locations, I got to thinking about just how big a change this is in my life.  I guess it is safe to admit that I am a bit scared.  Of plenty of things with this whole moving across the country thing, but what I want to touch on here is the part of leaving what I have built, to go out to nothing.  I have heard the words "big risk" being thrown my way for a while now, and interestingly enough, I have never really thought of what I am doing as being one of those.  And after a long talk with my good buddy JP, I realized something about myself: I rarely factor the actual risk of a situation into what I do.  I love attempting new things, seeing what is out there to try, challenging myself to succeed through as many situations as I can come up with.  But, while I know what I do would commonly be defined as Risk, I define it as opportunity.  A chance to grow, to learn, and to share with others so that they might grow and learn as well.

The greatest pieces of my heaven: Lindsey and Nature.

This does not mean that I do not get nervous, worried, or scared.  Hell, when I am looking up at a cliff with the desire to climb it, sure I realize that I could die if I fall, and sure it makes my heart race a little faster.  But it is very rare that I can think of a situation where I would NOT go ahead and do it anyway.  There are so many things that could go wrong with our move to CA: well CA could suck, the city could be harsh, people could not gravitate towards my training, the state could crumble into financial hell and cease to exist, shoot, the chances of an earthquake hitting us and and causing US to cease to exist is pretty great.  And so I am scared, my heart rate elevates, and I become so excited to take on these challenges.  Because what would I be if I turned away every time something scary looked me in the face?  What opportunities would I be passing up if I let my fears define who I am in life?

No man, have faith.  And I don't mean faith in God or anything like that (although, if that works for you, then do that!), I mean faith that no matter how things turn out, they will turn out.  And you will never, and I mean never grow as a human being if you don't just have faith in yourself, and "the system" (I mean life by the way), and just go out and do what feels right.

I have passion for what I do, I believe that it is what I am best at.  I have a girl, a companion that I love even more passionately than what I do, one that I want to personally share everything with.  I have an idea for what I want my life to be like, and I mean that in the most general of ways.  And I have faith.  I have faith that if I am faced with any opportunity that seems intriguing, desirable, exciting and helpful to me and the people around me, I will jump in with a smile on my face.  And I hope that people will jump with me.

Chilling in California

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage