Riding With Courage - Done

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Well everyone, this will be the official last post on this blog.  It will still exist for people to come to and check out info on riding across the country and all, but I will be focusing 100% of my time on Courage Performance and the new CrossFit Courage for the summer, before I hit the road and move out west to open the gym.

Thanks so much for the support to everyone, I really hope you can continue to follow along with my adventures as I will have aton of stuff I'll be doing, not just this summer, but for the rest of my life.  But most of all, I hope that some of my words and actions have inspired you to get out and be a little more active yourself, and maybe, to being a friend along and start to spread the greatness of fitness all around!

All the best,

Josh Courage

The WORKOUT

Friday, April 30, 2010


Well everyone, today represents the day I would be finishing my ride.  As I write this, I would probably be somewhere just north of Charlottsville, pounding away towards home.  Oh, to have a healthy thumb!  Either way, tomorrow is the official Riding With Courage WOD day with 30+ affiliates on board and ready to get after it together.  I can not express enough how excited I am to have so many people getting together from all over the place to sweat and work hard, it is a dream come true for me to know that this is happening.

So, if you don't have a gym, or if your gym is not doing this WOD, go do something about it!  Tell your coaches, find the equipment and get after it!  If you don;t have the equipment, no worries at all, I have a non-gym version of the WOD ready for you. 

Remember, if you have any questions at all, please comment, email, call, anything.  And please post up your time and comments to the comments box here so I can make any and all official announcements about it afterward!

Riding With Courage WOD
Perform each triplet twice before moving to the next.  Total time.

15 Deadlifts 225/185
15 Toes to Bar
50 Doube Unders

15 Overhead Squats 95/65
15 SDLHP 95/65
50 Walking Lunges

15 Walk Outs (walk hands out, perform push up, walk hands back to feet, stand.  Repeat!)
15 Double Wall Balls (just perform another squat while ball is in air)
500 Meter Row

No Gym WOD
15 Air Squats
15 Sit Ups
50 Meter out and back Sprint/50 Jumping Jacks

15 Decline Push Ups
15 Inverted Rows/Pull Ups
50 Meter out and back Run/ Jumping Jacks

15 Walk Outs
15 Tuck Jumps
50 Meter out and back Run/Jumping Jacks

So let's all get in the gym and work hard together!  Hope everyone has fun!!!

Josh Courage

Looking Back (Part 3 of 3)

[Pictures would not upload, I will try to post them all to facebook today]

So, with an extra day to recollect I am now posting up the last post about the actual ride on my Riding With Courage journey.  I will post about the workout soon, then about the results of the workout after.

A client of mine came in this morning for a workout and of course, we talked a good deal about my experience.  He mentioned to me that he thought it was pretty incredible the things that was able to take away form the 3 weeks I was gone.  And it hit me, he is totally right.  In three weeks, I was able to experience some of the most life-changing events I have ever had.  There were huge ups, there were very huge downs, but I came away a so much different and better person.  The mere idea of attempting something like that would change a person, it did me for sure, and then, being out there every day, just riding, seeing the land, feeling the weather, meeting new people.  Wow.

The hills hit.  I remember the day after Placerville being physically the toughest day of the entire trip.  It started off nice enough though, with a decent climb, then a long, long downhill into Ridgeway, one of the nicest little towns I had seen.  And that's where more kindness hit.  I had breakfast payed for by a great guy who sat and chatted me up a bit, I had a whole crowd of people gather around post-breakfast, it was so cool!  It was flat and non-descrpt for a long while, I just listened to some Harry Potter and zoned out for a bunch of hours.  But then, after riding through Montrose, all hell broke loose.  It was not just the 3+ hours of climbs, but also the fact that for the first day, in over two weeks, I was down to just my riding shorts and a sleeveless shirt.  It was hot!  And the road was very crowded.  Now, I guess I can better articulate it in retrospect, but when you are struggling for dear life, peddling at around 2 mph, it is very demoralizing to have car after car just breeze past you like your standing still.  I recall about half way up, zig-zagging up the shoulder and just yelling "come on baby, keep going!" like I was pushing through the last round of Fight Gone Bad or something.  I got to the top, rested for a minute and took the downhill.

About 5 miles into it I had to pull over and practically rip my now frozen hands off the bars.  Apparently this was the "dark side" of the mountain, AND, the sun was going down.  I went from sleeveless, to long sleeves and jacket; from bike shorts, to long socks and thermal pants.  My shoe booties went on, my thermal hat, my gloves and my ski goggles.  Holy cow did things change fast.  And now I was pumping like crazy to get to the next rest area to set up my tent before it got too dark and cold.  But the rest area never came.

It never really hit me at the time, but I guess I would have just set up my tent off the side of the road if that couple hadn't stopped out of the blue and offered to drive me to the next town.  And I'll tell you what, with the temperature in the low 30's at night, and winds like something out of a horror movie, I am very, VERY happy people continued to pop up to help me!  They drove me to Gunnison, and I scrabbled to grab some food.  Ready for this CrossFitters and health nuts?  I went to Sonic.  Ugh.  Luckily, my metabolism was churning like crazy from the climbs that I think that food just disintegrated the second it hit my stomach.  And the next day I was off for the tallest peak of the whole trip.

What I remember most from this day was the little shop I stopped at just below the climb up Monarch pass.  I went in to stock up on water and snacks and there was this morbidly obese guy working the counter.  I grabbed some food and asked if I could sit in the empty restaurant to eat, and he joined me, playing some computer game about two chairs down from me while I munched away watching Divorce Court on the tiny TV.  So priceless.  I thanked him and got to climbing.  This climb was not as physically hard as the last, just mentally.  There was nothing at all to look at besides snow-filled trees and asphalt, and even at the top, not much in terms of cool views.  So I booked it down.  It was at the bottom that I had this next crazy experience.  I was on this long, straight 4-5% down grade and a gust of wind hit from straight on.  I decided to test how strong it was and just not peddle at all.  It stopped me.  I mean, literally brought me to a complete stop, on a steep downhill.  I was pretty impressed by that, a little annoyed that I had to work so hard to go down a hill, but still, that is some crazy powerful wind.

I hit a Mexican place for some light chicken and chips and salsa before headed off to find a hotel for the night in Solida.  And then I got yelled at my some woman in a car, who ended up pulling over and saying she was trying to flag me down to see if I needed a place to crash.  More nice people!!  Zach, Robin and Ethan welcomed me to their home and again, so, so kind and nice it just blew my mind.  Ethan rocked, a little fire cracker of a kind with so much energy.  I wish I could have stayed another day just to play with all his toys and goof off.  But alas, I had to get going.  It had rained and stormed like crazy all night, and they had warned me about the roads being pretty rough after wind like that, so I kept my focus on the ground as I headed out of town.

This was an awesome portion of the ride.  A big river to my left, cliffs of solid rock to my right, and every now and then I could see the mountains towering off in the distance.  As the sun began to shine through, the weather began to warm and I began to heat up a bit.  So I took off one of my gloves, and as I grabbed the handle bars I hit the first rock.  Well, I don't really feel like playing that over any more than I already do, so, to make a long story short: bike moving very fast, no control over bike, flip off bike, crash into the brush, break thumb and worry about lots of other injury, get ride to next city, go to hospital and just like that, the adventure is over.

Lindsey came out and we spent the next few days relaxing (well she worked a lot, I relaxed!) in Colorado before heading back home.  And here is what I have to say about everything:

I learned so much about myself.  I found out just how hard I am on myself when I can not do something i truley want, and think I should be able to do.  I found that when all is said and done, I can actually come out having made decisions that truly put my future health at the top (as difficult as I make it to get there).  I found that America is an absolutely huge, and increadibly beautiful place.  That no ater how much crazy stuff goes on the world, no matter how much we and other societies decide to focus on the evil and bad and ugly and depressing; thre are places out there (and if I can find them right here in this country, it is safe to assume they are everywhere) where just looking out over the land makes you smile and feel good to be alive.  I re-learned that there is much more to life then just getting to work, making money and complaining about your day, much, much more.  In fact, somehow those tended to be the only things I feel I focused on, and that will never happen again.

I learned that biking is very challenging mentally, you are stuck to a contraption, forced to move the way it tells you too.  While biking rocks, 9 hours a day, every day does not.  The views, the people and the grandness of what I was actually doing helped to take my mind of the monotony and frustration of being stuck on the bike.  I earned that falling off your bike at 25mph hurts, really bad.  I learned that you don't need as much food in your bag as I thought, there is always some place to get a snack if you need t it seems.  I learned that having somebody with you when you are attempting something extreme is unexplainably better then being alone.  Besides the obvious fact that that person can help with equipment and such, it's the moral support of knowing there is really someone right there for you, no matter what.

And I learned that setting your mind out to do things that seem crazy at first thought, that scare you and make you question your actual ability, well, thos are so important to do, as often as you can in your life.  I technically failed in my quest to ride my bike acrss the country, and while I am dissapointed and frustrated that I was not able to finish the ride, I am so proud of myslef for just getting my things together and going out and trying.  It scared the living hell out of me to think f being out in a place I have never been, all by myslef, with just a bag and a bike, but I did it anyway and came out the other side and very different person.  It proves to me that the only way to truly change ones self, the only way to noticiably grow in life and not just take different steps sideways, is to acceot challenges.  Failure will inevitably occur, but it is the acceptance, the preperation and the journey that cause the change, the finish is just the reward, and there will always be plenty of rewards in life.

I hope everyone enjoyed following along, I appreciate to no end the support everyone showed for me along the way, and especially when it all took a turn for the worst.  I hope that my adventures could inspire a little adventure in you and you might take a ittle more time each day to enjoy te outdoors, smile at someone you do not know and appreciate how increadible your own body and mind are.  And I hope that as I continue to challenge myslef, as I will do for the rest of my life, that you too will take on challnges, perhaps even join me in one some day!

Here's to the challenge and to the advenure!

Josh Courage

Looking Back (Part 2 of 3)

Sunday, April 25, 2010



I can remember so distinctly the best day of this trip.  There was a pretty decent climb to start the day, and that meant the weather was a little on the cold side.  But, it started off scenic, and filling enough.  Lindsey and I hit up a little restaurant behind our hotel for breakfast and I got the "Fisherman's Breakfast" I believe it was called.  It came out with eggs, bacon, toast, and potatoes; then came the 3-stack of pancakes the size of my head.  This was, almost literally my fuel for the entire day, crazy.  When I started riding, I entered into a sort of national park area with towering red rocks that arched and slated their way into the sky, it was so cool.  I had a little rough time because I was on a 4-6% grade on a very narrow road.  There was a bike path but there were snow drifts covering so much of it I had to stay on the road.  I kept climbing and climbing, weaving back and forth as the rocks and trees slowly just disappeared.  At the top, Lindsey was there, just below 10,000 feet with some pretty amazing views.  I had some more pancake, soaked in the views, slipped on my ski goggles and headed down the other side.  The snow started to lessen, the trees got thicker and thicker and the rocks started to tear through the open areas and slowly but surly, they were towering over the line of sight.  What added to the joy of this rode was the lack of cars, I must have had maybe 10 or so all the way up and all the way down, and there is something very nice about not having to hug the side of the road when flying above 40mph down a steep mountain out in the middle of nowhere (a few days later this almost wrecked me...).

I spotted the red car about 5 miles from the bottom and I pulled over in search of Lindsey.  She was perched atop a big mound of rocks and trees and I hiked up to sit with her.  The air was still, the weather perfect, and we looked out into the canyon filled with massive red rocks in the distance.  What a peaceful time that was, and we just sat there, not talking, tossing small rocks down a steep cliff of snow and watching the deep trench the rocks made as they picked up speed and raced towards the street.  It became moments like these that I am looking back now and just really appreciating.  How often will you be able to sit with a great person, in the middle of nowhere, enjoying such a simple, playful, yet silent time.  Well, I hope to have countless experiences like that, but an, what a great moment.

I then finished up the ride to the bottom where we sat at a coffee shop in Torrey before the greatest 10 miles I have ever biked.

I described this portion of the ride through pictures when I actually did it, and even now words fail me.  Awe-inspiring.  I now know exactly what that means.  I was riding with my jaw wide open, almost crashed a couple times because I was craning my neck so much to soak everything in.  It was absolutely incredible.  I want a house out there, where people can come and hang, kayak, climb, mountain bike, run, just do it all.  It is beautiful land, I very strongly recommend you try to get out there and check it out for yourself some day.

This made the next couple days just breeze by for me, I was riding high.  And I needed this as the next day we rolled towards the Colorado line and Blanding, Utah where Lindsey would leave to head back to work and I would begin the rest of my journey on my own.

She headed out very early in the morning out of a crummy little hotel we stayed at in the eastern most area of Utah.  I packed up my gear and started off an hour or so after she left, and had some great support form the hotel staff in the lobby as I got everything secure.  The first few miles of this section was just brutal, lonely, boring, slow.  It was so tough.  But that's when the audio books kicked in, about 6 books over the next three days or so.

And the first of the kindness of the people kicked in (well, Amy and Carter Morrison were technically the first...).  An old friend of mine I hadn't really been in touch with for almost two years contacted me, telling me she had friends in the Dolores area.  She hooked me up with their info and I was able to meet them up for a good Chinese dinner before headed to their house for a great nights sleep, a filling breakfast and just great company all around.  The kindness of this family jump started a trend that seemed to follow me throughout the remainder of my trip.  A realization that convince me that people can truly be genuinely good.  In fact thanks to l the kindness that surrounded me during this trip, I am that much more dedicated to spreading fitness and health to people however I can, because I love it and because people want it.  If people out there could be so nice to me, with no reason to be at all, I have no reason to NOT be nice to everyone I pass.
This life changing realization for me is thanks to families like Adam, Trayce and Noah, and thanks to the long list of other people you will soon read about.  Like the three people I met this next day.  It was a tough day, all climbing, up through Rico, past Telluride, and into Placerville

Bill hooked me up with a house he was selling for the night.  Stocked the fridge and shared about an hour of conversation that was so enjoyable.  His genuine desire to just help people out was contagious and re-opened my eyes to every human being that passed me from then on out.  I have been dulled to this living in a city for the past few years.  I keep my head down, I don't acknowledge people when they pass me in the street.  But no more, we are all on this earth, we are all searching for something to keep our lives going, and that base commonality connects all of us more than we can ever know.  I want to appreciate that connection in people more and open myself up more to being a part of this world, even if that means just saying hi to a person you stand next to while waiting to cross the street.  Weather or not that person decides to appreciate it, it does not matter.  Being nice, being friendly, it finds its way deep into people, even the rudest of the rude.  Try it.  Really, just go out tomorrow and say hi with a genuine smile on your face to a perfect stranger on the street, chances are they will be caught off guard a little bit (which is really too bad), but on top of that, you just might make their day.  Think about how it would make YOU feel if someone where out of the blue nice to you.
In two short weeks I have an entirely rejuvenated perspective on how great people can be.  And I choose to focus on THAT side, on the GOOD side of us all.

Riding out of Placerville and into the two biggest climbs of the entire trip, I was feeling good, but nervous about how these climbs would weight on me physically.  Little did i know that directly following the two most intense days of riding, everything would come crashing to a painful stop.


I'll finish it all off tomorrow!

Looking Back (Part 1 of 3)

Saturday, April 24, 2010

It's now a little over a week since I decided to tumble head over heels off my bike into the side of the road.  I am already missing the excitement of waking up each day and not having a clue as to what the scenery might be and who I might meet.  The other interesting thing that has been occurring is that I am getting so out of control restless every night.  It's the fact that I had been churning my legs for 7,8, 9 hours a a day for a little more than a couple weeks.  Now, even with the couple workouts I am throwing into my days, I am still not moving as much, and my body is craving it.

Maybe getting on the bike for an hour or so in the evening might be a good cool down.  But this post is not about all that, or my prep for the Regionals or anything like that; this is all about looking back at the adventures I had for those couple weeks.  So, after a quick hand update, that is exactly what I will do!

So my hand.  I went to a great orthopedic guy yesterday, a baseball player at Stanford in his prime, and he checked out the hand.  After my third set of x-rays, he showed me that a small portion of the bone on the very upper portion of my thumb is actually completely broken off.  The joint is helping to hold it in place and he said it is unavoidable that I will be arthritic in that joint at a pretty young age.  He said there is some ligament damage to the lower joint of the thumb, but nothing too bad, and he said that I need to keep the thumb completely secure if I plan to use it in the future.  So, he fixed up a special hard cast that allows full range of motion in my wrist and all other fingers.  While this is great, it limits me to what I can do CrossFit wise.  But I want to use my hand when all this is over, so it's for the best.

Now, the ride.  I started this thing with as open I mind as I could.  I knew I hadn't trained physically like I probably should have, but I honestly was not all that concerned about it.  I knew I was prepared in terms of gear and supplies, but what I was most worried about going in to the ride, was the unknown.  I just had no clue what to expect.  This was both scary as all hell, and wildly exciting.  So in the two days I had hanging out in San Francisco before I took off, I just tried to relax as much as possible and calm those nerves.  And I was able to do just that.  When Lindsey got to town, I was feeling pretty confident with everything, and knowing that she would be with me for that first week was a huge boost for me.

The First Day:
Thursday, April 1st we woke up early, I repacked my backpack and we got into the car and rode just outside of Vallejo.  We literally pulled over on the side of a wide road out in the middle of nowhere and popped the truck so I could throw on my extra clothes (it was cold), get the "butt butter" on (like body glide but much thicker), then, just got on my bike and very un-glamorously started riding.
The first day was a haze.  I rode from there all the way past Folsom and into the hills.  It was a perfect day, the bike felt great (except for a slow leak in the rear wheel that i got fixed up in a place in Davis), and my body seemed to be fine with sitting on the bike for so long.  I got a bit restless in the last five miles, but I think that was more excitement that the first day was about over.  And when it was, we got the first of all the wonderful experiences I got during this trip.  Carter and Amy Morrison, my good friend Blair's parents, cooked us a great meal (that ended up lasting me two more days!) and welcomed us into their great house.  It was an absolute joy hanging with them, and while I was eager to get back on my bike the next day, I just wanted to stay there for a couple more day.  It was a great, great first day.  So of course the second had to be a bit worse right?
The Second Day:
Yeah, this day, besides the day I crashed, was by far the worst.  In retrospect it was kind of funny, and the company was great.  But as a whole, it was just straight out brutal!  Within the first mile I had a massive climb that seemed to just never end.  And because of the location, and the elevation, the weather began to get a bit nasty.  I had my books on tape, "Alice In Wonderland", I had Lindsey stopping by every now and then, giving a burst of energy to keep going.  But the weather just got worse and worse.  So bad in fact, that by the time I hit a road-side restaurant, I had to pull off the road with the hopes that the snow would pass over.  But it didn't.  We had some good food, and some fun conversation with a collection of people that passed through, then, we headed back down the mountain with the goal of driving around.  But even that didn't work.  After much deliberation we found to get through, we would have to get chains for the tires and just tough it out.  And that's what we ended up doing.  Driving thought the whiteout all the way to Carson City.  The snow was gone, but the cold was still there.  and in the morning we drove back into California so I could get a good long ride across the lines and beyond.

The Next Few Days:
For a few days following that debacle we were hit and miss with luck.  I rode, we drove through the snow and ice of...yeah, Nevada!  Who would have thought that Nevada would get hit with such cold, crazy weather.  But it was a fun time.  I saw some crazy towns, up in the mountains in Eureka, had a burger for the first time in over a couple years in Ely, in a total dive restaurant/casino.  Got a piece of beef jerky pulled from my gum at a small dentist.  Saw a huge sand dune with ATV racing going on in the gypsy-like community all around them.  Saw, well, a huge tree, that had no business being out in the middle of dessert, covered in shoes.  Saw roads that stretched farther than I could see, without a turn in site, mountains surrounding miles upon miles of empty plain.  I listened to audio books, I got lost in my mind looking at the vast emptiness of the bare Nevada land.  Every time I saw a little red dot in the distance I knew Lindsey was ahead, waiting to chat me up while I sat in the warmth of the car for a few minutes snacking on some fuel.


I learned a huge amount in the first four or five days.  I learned that the weather through the mountain changes at the drop of a hat, without any rhyme or reason (to those of us uneducated in the realm of meteorology).  I learned that biking is very, very restrictive.  What I mean by that is, sitting on a bike for more than a couple hours actually began to make me feel a little claustrophobic.  And if that was going to be the case for this entire trip, I would have to find a way to cope.  I learned that having somebody with you when attempting such a big adventure is absolutely wonderful, and, a must, to be honest.  I learned that carrying so much food is really not needed.  If your route is planned, and mine was thanks to AdventureCycling.org, you will be hitting fuel stations all on a relatively regular basis.  Having a small collection is a great idea of course, but there is no need to have cans and cans of soups and chili's and tuna and what not like I had.  Also, There are plenty of places to stay.  Lindsey and I had some sort of hotel every evening, it was great.  After she left, I found that having a tent was a good idea, even tough I didn't end up using it, it was the kindness of many people that led to my not needing it.

My butt was killing me, my legs were all right, a little sore each morning but nothing too serious.  My back was fine, which was a great thing seeing how that was always a problem for me before this ride began.  And Nevada was now behind me.  Utah was proving to be a pretty nice place.  I had ridden (with a little help of the car thanks to the weather) clear through two states and was on to my third.  Lindsey had just a couple days more with me which meant that I would be with all my equipment, and all alone with the biggest climbs about to hit in the east of the state.  But having her there for the greatest day of the entire trip was priceless.  I'll tell you all about that next!

Josh Courage

Headed Home

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I am actually on the plane headed home now (sitting first class thanks to the insane travel miles and super elite status of wonderful Lindsey).  While I am still pretty down about the whole not-being-able-to-finish situation, and will be for a bit, I certainly do understand that this sort of thing is bound to happen to people who attempt crazy things, and, that I am making the right decision to call it off.

The emails, texts, comments and calls I have received have been overwhelmingly comforting and supportive and I want to thank everyone so much for all your kind words.  For those of you who know me, and those of you who are getting to now me through my adventures, you can be certain I will be back to do this again soon enough.  And, I will be doing a few other adventures...well, many, many other adventures for the rest of my life.

My next post will be a big review of my experience, so I will hold off on talking about any of that for the time being.  I would like to post up here what the rest of the summer is going to look like, and hope that all of you can continue to follow along as I delve into a whole slew of fun in the warm summer months.

As many of you know, this will be my last summer on the East Coast.  Lindsey and I will be moving out West in the early fall where I will be starting up the dream gym I have in my mind and living my life the way I have always envisioned: shoeless, shirtless, and in the wilderness.  But I am not there yet, and in the mean time I have an awesome Garage Gym and tons (and I mean tons!) of perfect outdoor space to train.  Below you will find a nice little list of all the happenings of this summer:

- Riding With Courage WOD takes place (May 1st!)
- CrossFit Courage becomes official!
- I attend the CrossFit Games Regional competition (come on thumb heal!)
- CrossFit classes begin at The Garage (expect to be doing just about everything imaginable in terms of physical training!)
- Baseball Strength and Conditioning classes all summer long
- Headfirst Gamer baseball season gets underway
- CrossFit Courage Outdoor Competition takes place (official registration coming very, very soon)

Believe me when I say there will be many more exciting happenings before I head out, so keep your eyes peeled, and try to make it out to as many of them as you can.  What will end up happening, is that this blog will automatically transition over to either the Courage Performance site, or the CrossFit Courage site, and that will make everything pretty easy to follow.  I hope...

Again everyone, thank you so much for following along my journey, I day dream about what I would have experienced through Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, but I guess I'll just have something to look forward to now.   As I mentioned, you can expect one more big post on this blog before it transitions, so keep on following and commenting; I am all about building a fun, healthy, active community, so I hope all of you can join me in mine as it grows!

Thank you so much!

Josh Courage

The Tough Decision

Monday, April 19, 2010

Well folks, this is withut a doubt one of the toughest things I have had to deal with in my life.  The other I went to the hospital in Colorado Springs and they put me into this crazy cast/splint thing.  The doc then recommended highly that I get an appointment with a hand specialist asap on Monday when they open up. He was pretty certain that I have some muscular/tendon/ligament damage in the palm and lower thumb joint areas of that left hand and that if I want to make sure I heal properly, I should definitely get it checked out.

This is the main thing I have been worried about.  While this ride is a huge deal to me, and I have this deep, deep, need to always finish what I start, I also want to make sure I am not putting myself at some later risk by not letting my hand recover.

So now what has happened is this: it is the 19th and I am still in mid-Colorado, with a huge cast on, and probably needing to stay here another night to see this specialist.  Where this puts me is in a place, honestly, I just do not want to be.  I am not willing to extend this journey more time, honestly, I can't really afford to do that.  I need to get back to work at some point soon.  I also really want to go to the Regionals the second weekend of May.  But that is really secondary to all this.  The main thing is knowing that if I continue this ride, it's not going to be for another couple days.  At that point I will be at least a week behind schedule, and I will be moving at a carefully slower pace than before.

This is eating me up and causing a pretty tough feeling of depressed failure for me to say this not only to all of you, but to myself, but I am going to have to cut my losses here and cancel the rest of my ride.

I hate myself for this, and I feel like this is letting everyone down a ton.  It will be cause of many hours of lost sleep until I finally get myself back on the bike to do it again; not from where I left off, but from start to finish.

I don't know what else to say really, but to hide my head in shame for a little bit, then pick myself back up and make the best of the situation by working out a ton, and getting back home to get back to work a week early.

I apologize for this happening everyone, I hope you know that there is nothing I struggle with more than not being able to do something I attempt to do.  And believe me, I will be doing many, many more crazy adventures for charity for the rest of my life, so I guess this is something I need to learn to cope with.  I am sure it will happen again at some point.

I'll be posting up another video soon, and probably a couple more posts to recapture the adventures that I had, so please keep following along here.  In a week or so, this blog will all be transfered over to my company site, where I hope all of you can continue to follow the adventure that is my life!

Thank you all!

Josh Courage

Riding With Courage. For Sure!

Friday, April 16, 2010

So, with todays struggle of a ride, I have decided on a little something for the time being.  I'll get to it in a sec.  So, today, I rode out fo Pueblo with all my attention focused on how it felt.  When I was just cruising along, things felt ok.  But when a strong wind came, or when I hit a small crack or rock, or when I went down hill, or when I went up a steep hill, things just got painful.  It was so frustrating for it to feel this way because it was challenging my inner-most workings.  Every time I put something out there to do, I get so, overwhelmingly dedicated to actually doing it that I can not imagine myself not doing it.  And here I am, faced with the potential of not being able to do something I have put forth for myself.

So, tomorrow, I will work out with Lindsey in the morning, then I think I'll head over to the Pueblo hospital to get it re-checked out, perhaps get the thing in a cast as I would very much like to use my hand in the future.  From there on out I will ride my bike for a good while, and workout again in the evening.  We will just make some slight progress each day for the next few days as I feel out my recovery.  If by monday things are still this brutal, I may have to call it a valiant effort and cut my losses.  But for now, I am going to ride a bit each day, with this wonderful suport I have coming in, and see what happens.  And while there are so many OTHER things I can do physically, I will be sure to do so.  After all, I do have the CrossFit Regionals coming up in 3 weeks.  I may not be able to participate, but I might as well get some extra work in while I can.

Thank you so much to all the comments and support you all have given, it is amazing to know you all are out there filled with good wishes.  Believe me, I will do everything in my power to do this as safely and intelligently as I can!

Keep following!  These next few days are going to be interesting.

Update

Quick one here. I woke up this morning and am still in a pretty good amount of pain. With ice and tylenol and epsom salt baths, the swelling in the hand has not gone down at all. This makes me very nervous and I am thinking I may need to go get a cast on it, rather then just this splint and an ace bandage.  Seeing how this is clearly a little more than just a break, I need to focus on the rest of my crazy fitness life and make sure I have the use of my thumb before I go ahead and just meat-head my way through the rest of this ride.

So, the second I finish writing this, I am headed to get another helmet )man those cracks in my old one are eye-opening), and then I am going to just ride out of down for a few hours.  Ill try to get some hills, some speed, some wind, some bad pavement and see how I can handel.

My mentality is to get back into this adventure, and finish the thing off.  But, and this is so hard for me, I need to think about what is honestly best for me and my hand.  If it is a major struggle to ride for 30-40 miles with no trailer, there is no way I can do 100+ with all my gear, for anther 15 days.  So, saddening and pride-shattering as it is, I am headed out today with all my senses in top form and hoping I can come to some conclusion as to what I should do.  This has been one of the most difficult situations for me mentally, perhaps insight into just how thick headed I can be when I decide I am going to do something.

I'll let you all know...

Halfway Point Montage

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Still In Pueblo...

Had to take another day.  Lindsey is coming in tomorrow, and I am hoping to get enough recovery in to just tough out as many miles as I can over the next few days.  While it's a rather small injury in the grand scheme of things, it's not in a very conducive spot to be biking.  My risk of another accident has just gone up ten-fold.



I'll post again soon!

WIPEOUT!!!!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I am sitting now in a coffee shop (4/13) in Cañon City, CO feeling, well, really, really crappy.  The goal was to ride the 100 miles to Pueblo, and then maybe ride a bit more.

Right off the bat I felt pretty good.  The ride was a gradual downhill and the scenery was great; moving along a river with looming rock cliffs separating cow farms, it was really nice.  It was a little chilly, but the sun was out and I was excited because the forecast had called for thunder storms (we got some crazy thunder, wind and rain the night before in Salida).  But everything looked good along the ride, and I knew I was making some good time.  I stopped in a tiny town called Cotipaxi for a breakfast burrito and some more snacks for later around 8am, switched up audiobooks (just finished Deception Point by Dan Brown, on to Consent To Kill, by someone) and headed back on the road.

The road was super windy, had very narrow to no shoulder, and because of the wind the night before, there was a good amount of rubble along the way, having tumbled off the rock cliffs hugging the road.  On a few occasions I skimmed off a rock and had to grab the handel bars tight to avoid wobbling out of control.  My speed was pretty good because of the slight down angle, an I was just enjoying things as the sun began to break the crisp morning weather.

Then, bang, I hit a small rock as I re-grabbed the handel bars after removing my glove.  Not a problem, the bike wobbled a bit ad the BOB trailer sure didn't help keep things under control.  But I gripped tightly and tried to settle things.  But just as I started to get the thing under control I hit another one.  This time things just went wild.  The trailers weight overpowered the bike and began to fishtail.  The front tire just shot back and forth, so violently in fact, that I lost my grip with one hand.  I knew I was finished.

I went flying.  I literally careened over the right handel bar, into the air, and just crashed into the side of the road.  I could feel my bike crashing behind me as I tumbled, head over heels another few yards before coming to a stop in a ball, my head and knees touching in a heap in the tall grass.  I could not get myself to move as I heard a truck pull up.  I thought I had broken my neck.  As two people rushed out of the car, I was able to slowly topple to my side and start to move my limbs around to make sure I could still function.  My knee hurt, my hand felt like it was missing, and my head was a bit in pain as I adjusted my helmet which was now pushed over my face.  I looked down and saw my tights ripped open at the knee, blood pouring out, brown with dirt.  I looked at my left hand, it too was bleeding something awful, and I could not move my fingers.

Another car pulled over, a nurse, and she checked me over.  I was able to get up just fine and help get the bike and trailer onto the truck.  They drove it, with me in the nice nurse's car, to Cañon City where I could get to the hospital.  The pain began to set in in the car.  My hand, more directly, my left thumb was  in so much pain.  My right knee and elbow hurt, and my neck was stiffening up like crazy.  I checked in quickly to the hospital where they cleaned me up, took some x-rays and bandaged me up.  My thumb is broken, almost all the way through the top portion, leaving my entire hand swollen and in tons of pain.  the cuts and scrapes are alright, but they will swell and my joints are going to be in some serious pain.

I checked out, and a really nice woman from the hospital drove me and my bike to the shop to get fixed. She then allowed me to hold on to her truck while she went back to work and that's where I am now, in a coffee shop, in pain, and trying to figure out a couple things:  do I stay at this woman's house for the night and see how things feel tomorrow?  Do I hitch a ride to Pueblo to crash and see how things turn out? Or do I head back to the hospital and re-admit myself because my head is starting to hurt and my neck is killing me.

Going back to the hospital.  I'll finish this later.

So, it's the next day (4/14), I am resting up in a hotel in Pueblo, CO, taking a day off to recover from yesterday.  After a CT scan we found that nothing too serious happened to my head or spine, just some pretty bad muscle strain down the neck.  I go all these drugs to take with me, but I'll probably just stick with some basic ibuprofen and get some easy stretching today.

What an ordeal!  I knew something along these lines was bound to happen at some point, I just hope that this little injury won't make riding impossible.  As of right now, my hand is pretty swollen, and putting pressure on my palm, the area where I would put all pressure when riding, just kills.  So, I am hoping with the rest of today, I will be able to hop back on tomorrow and get some good miles in.  My neck and head are feeling a good deal better, but I still need to be pretty careful because riding is a bit of a strain right on those aras that are sensitive.

So, keeping my brutal scrapes in check, icing up the hand, stretching the neck and back, and just relaxing.  Tomorrow I am going to get back on the bike and see what happens!

Here's to overcoming adversity!

Day 12 - Gunnison, CO to Salida, CO

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

So today was a short day.  And I mean that in terms of milage, not time.  I took off out of Gunnison without refilling my water (I expected to hit a gas station leaving town, and when I did not, I really didn't feel like turning around...).  So, it was 32 miles later, at the base of Monarch Mountain when I finally had my first sips of water.

I had some food as well and then took off for about a mile of gradual uphill.  Then it hit.  6% grade for 10 straight miles to a summet of 11,320 feet.  This climb got me big time.  There only a few viewpoints which meant I had nothing but asphalt and snow banks to look at while I climbed.  And boy did I climb.  The altitude started to get to me as well, and my head began to pound, but I kept on going.  It took me about 2.5 hours to get those ten miles, and I probably walked about a mile of it (generally when I get off the bike to rest, I just walk).

I peaked with a wheezing last push to the end and looked out over the snowy mountains.  It was a pretty cool sight, not quite Utah, but pretty damn cool for sure.  Then came the down.  10 miles of 6% grade down.  And I just flew!  With a pretty smooth length of road for 15 more miles into Salida, I stopped for a super late lunch, toying with the idea of calling it a day.  I came to the decision to shack up, and as I headed for the nearest hotel, a woman and her son called out to me if I needed a place to stay.  How cool!

I crashed at their house for the evening which was wonderful.  We stayed up a little late talking about all sorts of things, and I am sure this is yet another group of people I will be in touch with for a while.  Then it was up super early to head out to Pueblo.

Wait until you hear what happened...

Technical Post

Monday, April 12, 2010

This post is all about how I am taking car of my bike and myself during this ride.  Every day is a little different as I learn more and more about what is best for me and how I can make my riding that much more efficient.

I have taken zero supplements so far.  This includes electrolyte tablets and protein powder as well.  This may be an unintelligent decision on my part, but my body has not asked for anything at all.  My muscles have been mildly sore, mostly in the hips and quads, as well as my traps and scaps a little (just from resting weight on the upper body); but nothing that has made me hobble out of bed in the morning.  So far, the only negative I need to address is my lack of sleep.  I stay awake later than I should, then wake up super early, and when you are riding every single day for 7-10 hours, you really need to sleep more!

In the morning I've been having oatmeal, fruit and eggs (when I can, and when there is more, I usually have some juice and a pastry of some sorts as well.  Almost every morning I have made myself a hot chocolate packet with coffee and water, it just tastes good, and I know that caffeine is helping me out.  I try to consume a good deal in the morning, without weighing myself down with too mush protein and processed sugars.  The main thing, is to store p a great deal of balanced calories for what I'm about to do to myself each day.  I then get on the bike and always start off a little slow, just to get things warmed up.

I try to eat something about every hour.  I have been taking in builders bara, clif bars and roks, almond butter, fruit, cookies and nuts as my quick fuel stops.  And when I am on the road and want a bit more, I turn to Paleo Kits and add some of the before mentioned items.  I've actually ditched about 80% of the food I initially brought, on account that the route I am on hits so many locations with fuel.  I have been able to grab wonderful meals all along, and feel as though I may still have a bit of food left in my bag when I am done with this thing.

I try to eat a pretty big dinner as well.  The goal here is to initiate recovery as quickly as possible.  This is where I just take in pretty much anything; tons of calories, lots of protein and good fat.  I have not been eating as cleanly as I am used to.  In fact, I have had two hamburgers (it's been years), hoards of cheese its (my go-to snack on endurance adventures!), cookies (still addicted) and a few other not-so-healthy choices (pringles, chex mix, a couple sodas, some candy here and there).  I have just been trying to eat what I can, and to be honest, I think I am still UNDER-fueling.

I stay aware of how I feel.  If I am hungry, I eat.  If my body is stiffening up, I pull over and walk around a bit and so on.  And so far I have not found anything I have been doing cause any major change in how I feel during the day.  I may start to experiment a little here and there.  Perhaps more fruit one day, more non-water liquid another; just to see how it effects me.  But then again, I may choose to not screw around and just stick to what has been working.  The past couple days I feel were the toughest on my body, the climbs, the altitude and the loneliness.

Besides sleeping more, I also need to remember to stretch a little more, I will be doing that the second I finish this post and take a shower.  And lastly (this is weighing on my mind like crazy), I need to get some strength work in here and there.  After all, I do have Regionals a week afte this thing is done.  And while I do not have any expectations to actually finish in the top 3 after this, I would like to at least come across as a decent CrossFitter when the WODs begin.  So, a few pull ups and push ups here and there may be in order...

I'll talk about bike stuff next technical post!

Day 11 - Placerville, CO to Gunnison, CO

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Alright, this whole "people being awesome" thing is just getting pretty incredible.  Makes me realize how little respect I have for those people out there who choose to be mean.

Todays ride was brutal.  Physically, it was by far the hardest day.  The climbs were long and steep, the weather changes were drastic and the roads were long.  Out of Placerville, it was pretty smooth for a few miles, and then the long climbs began.  It was pretty gradual for a bit until I had a great, long downhill into Ridgeway.  This town was so great.  I really wish it was not Sunday and all the stores would have been open, but, it was quiet, clean, and surrounded by gorgeous views.  From there is was up and down into Montrose.  And then it was just brutally up hill.  To a point where my body was just screaming.  Then a short downhill, and right back up!

The tough part about these hills was that they were long switchback style.  So every time I thought they would flatten out, or that the pass was around the next bend, they just kept on climbing.  The first of the hills had me sweating so much, I was down to a sleeveless shirt and just bike shorts.  By the time I got to the second of those long ones, it was so cold I was back in my thermal pants, hat and thick gloves.  Crazy.  My legs were burning and my feet were cramping up something awful!

But all the pain was made up for completely and totally by the views and the people I met.

My energy levels were great right off the bat thanks to this house I was able to crash at (a picture of the house in in the last post).  Then, rolling into Ridgeway, I asked around as to where I might get some food.  I was directed to Kate's Place, a completely local food restaurant with a down-home feel to it.  The place was busy, but the food was perfect!  While I waited for my food, a nice guy sat down at my table and we talked biking for a bit.  When the check came, the server told me my meal had been taken care of!  So nice!  Outside, I got to talking with a large group of about 9 people.  We talked biking for a minute, but then the conversation moved to Vibram Five Fingers as one of them was wearing the great shoes.  They were all so supportive, it really boosted my moral as I started climbing.

In Montrose, I tried to visit CrossFit Agoge, but no one was around, so I started the first of the tough climbs.  A woman rode up next to me and proceeded to ride along with me for about 5 miles just talking about what inspires us.  It was so great to have someone with me as I rode, and she had some very rough times she was dealing with, and I was so happy to be able to inspire her a bit.  It's one of the main reasons I do this stuff after all.

Finally, I was coming down off the second major climb, it was freezing cold and the sun was going down.  My plan was to find an area to pitch the tent and crash, and just as I was coming up to what i thought a good area would be, a truck pulled over and asked if I needed any help.  The husband and wife had done a Colorado to Virginia ride a while back with their young daughter, and knew knew how rough they can be.  So they offered to drive me to Gunnison where I could get a hotel room.  We rode and chatted and I am so thankful they decided to stop and hel out.

So, siting here in a warm hotel room, fueled up and ready for sleep, I sit back and smile a bit at just how great people can truly be.  I can not put to words how good it makes me feel to run in to people wh are willing to help out without any need for anything in return.  Being a good person can be defined in so many ways, but in my mind, selflessly heling another person is just about as good as one can be.  For all the good I experience on this trip, even if I see nothing from here on out, I plan to pay forward tenfold.  It is a great reminder that there really is good out there.

Tomorrow I ride up to the highest peak of the entire trip, from just under 8000 where I am now, to about 11,500!

Do some good today people, help make someones day!

Day 10 - Dolores, CO to Placerville, CO

Yet another day with no service. I woke up bright and early in Cortez, CO (4/10) and set off back up through Dolores, CO and into the mountains. It was a steady climb, through Rico, and all the way to a peak of a bit over 10,000 feet! All in all, I climbed just under 5000 feet in 30 miles, very, very slowly.

I finished the day in Placerville (the second Placerville of the trip!) at an empty house that is up for sale. To get to the house, I had a joyous downhill of about 14 miles. And when I mean downhill, I mean I maybe got about 20-40 pedals in the entire way. Besides that, I just cruised in.

I gave a brief little about the trip because there are three things I want to write about besides that. The first is the family I stayed with In Cortez. Friends of an old friend of mine in DC (I haven't seen her in way too long!), Adam, Trayce and cute little Noah were so nice to let me stay at their place for the night. I met up with them for dinner at a great Chinese place, then off to their place where I was able to clean my bike, do a load of laundry and get a great nights sleep. Adam and I hit it off really well and talked at length about adventuring and endurance sports. I plan to be in touch with that great family for a good long while!

The second was a great lunch I had in Rico. I stopped at a tiny little drive through coffee shop where I got a wrap and a coffee, then sat outside with these two cool guys ad chatted for about 45 minutes. One of them is a Mono Skier named Felix Snow (no legs, so he sits on a chair with skies and goes hardcore down the mountain), and he was not only just a chill, cool guy, but a damn well educated one as well. Told me all about the area, how it came to be, where things were and why. Rico is a tiny little town, and he told me it was not a small town, but a big family and they he really didn't want me going around and telling people how great it was as to keep it that way. How around the area was the site of the tallest volcano, and over the thousands of years, the land had dropped to the levels it was at now, some 8 or so 14,000 foot peaks. The craziest thing was that he told me back in the day there were huge bodies of water up there, mountain oceans I believe he called them. So, the San Juan Mountains are a pretty cool place to check out at some point.

He had told me I had to get to Telluruide. But I just wanted to keep on pushing. My time was so slow, I could not bare to think going 10 or so miles out of the way, downhill, even if it was some of the most beautiful land in the world. I will have to come back. As I climbed another pass, a man in a truck stopped to see if I needed any help. We ended up chatting for some time about directions and such (apparently I could have saved myself tons of climbs going another way… oh well!). He then met me upabout 14 miles outside of Placerville where I had stopped for snack and told me he had a place for sale that I could crèche at. Bill turned out to be a damn cool guy. Wild and a bit eccentric, but with a heart as big as these mountains I was riding through. He was just out there to help out, do good things and do it all with an energy I was envious of. I am so thankful to have met him, and I wlll be in touch with him as well for a good long time.

This is a big part of this trip I was excited about, the people I would meet.  I have had nothing but pretty cool things happen all along, even when they were a bit frustrating, they ended up being pretty interesting, and of course, a good story.  My legs are still working fine, the pain in my leg is still there, but not as strong, and my body in general is just feeling like biking is what it's supposed to do.

I'll post again when I can!