Epic Training (eBook)

Acknowledgements

I would like to start off by thanking my wonderful wife, Arianne. Without you there is so much I would not have accomplished. You truly made sacrifices and cleared so many obstacles from the path for me to be able to author this book. You contributed to this book in so many ways, from the cover to listening to my roadblocks. You rescheduled our life to give me space to write, wrangled the kids out of the office and encouraged me to keep going when it got tough. Without your support and encouragement my life would be full of high school war stories and not of accomplishments. I love you and thank you deeply.

To my sons, I do all these things so one day when you dream of doing something grand, I can say and mean it when I tell you that you can do anything. I hope one day to be able to watch you do what others call impossible.

To Mom and Dad, you gave me all I needed in life and more. You always let me be myself and encouraged me to do all I wanted to do. Thank you for all the support, calls, driving to sports practices and games, and above all the lessons on being a good person.

Over the many years I have had quite a few involved mentors in my life, of which I am extremely grateful for their guidance and encouragement.

To Frank Massaro, my Scoutmaster of Troop 18 Revere, you saw something in this little city kid, you guided me to leadership and the outdoors. You cared at a time I thought I was alone, outcast, and quite lost. You did more for me than I was able to articulate in my teenage mind. Lessons that took years to bloom. You showed me that I could be a leader. Thank you for helping lay the foundation of leadership skills that I now have.

To Mark Davis, My martial arts teacher, friend, guide and first business mentor. You have never ceased to amaze me with your lessons, wisdom and caring. You helped me forge my body and mind together. You gave me tests of character and encouraged me after every fall. All the while showing me that a smile and strength of character are stronger than any martial technique. My confidence was built through your guidance and Dojo, The Boston Martial Arts Center. Thank you for being such a strong example of what I could be.

To Chris Cooper, you inspired me from afar at first with your blog posts. When I reached the hardest moments in my business you answered the call. You saved my dream. My family and I thank you. You encouraged me when I wanted to go all in on OCR training as a coach and gave me a platform to bring it to others. You lifted me up and gave my passion light and helped me grow as a coach and business owner. You gave me permission to reach farther and do so with a helping hand.

To Jeff Godin and Joe DiStefano, thank you both for creating the Spartan SGX coaches’ course. This Coaching Certification was needed for our racing community and you both made something amazing. It truly set a high bar for standards as coaches in a complex and evolving industry. Thank you for the years of friendship and trust. You allowed me to better myself as well as others. I am so proud to have collaborated with you both and the community of coaches that you brought together.

To TJ Murphy, you saved this book. You may not have known it at the time when you walked through the doors at my gym, but you did. Your advice and confidence in this project made me jump back in full force. It was overwhelming and I was at a loss on how to continue. Thank you for encouraging me, reading early drafts, and allowing me to expand my writing to the Spartan website. Every time I wrote a blog post it opened another piece of inspiration for this book. Without our meeting this project may have never seen the light of day. Thank you.

To all my mentors and guides in the Two Brain Business family, Chris Cooper, Josh Price, Peter Brasovan, I owe you all a big hug, high five and a cup of coffee. To my Editors, Mike Warkentin and Andrea Maria Cecil Topper, thank you so much.

To Josh, your calm and reassuring voice and guidance was most needed juggling multiple projects and businesses. Thank you for cutting through the noise and saying, “Do This”.

To Peter, thank you for helping keep me on track mentoring me and my business during a pandemic and then back on track to publish this book.

To Mike, your confidence that this could be a good book was what I needed to hear. Thank you for taking this project on and getting the right people in the right seats.

To, Andrea, you took my mess of writing and made it look like a book. Who knew I needed chapters? You organized and restructured such a mess that I am impressed at what we turned it into. Thank you for all the phone calls, editing and lessons on writing and focus.

To everyone past and present that has ever been involved in the Mountain Strength CrossFit community and gym. Thank you for trusting me with your fitness and adding to the amazing community that we have.

To Paul Bernardi and John Mariani, thank you for training and racing all those early OCRs with me. It meant the world to me to be at the start line with you. To all my coaches past and present, thank you for being part of the team and changing lives through fitness.

To my private OCR athletes, much of this book came from what I needed to learn to support you in your racing seasons. You brought enthusiasm and passion for OCR to every workout and race. I am truly one lucky coach to have collaborated with you all. Keep the fire alive and race on!

Brandon Stumpf, Alex Wisch, Caroline Straudt, Danielle and Mike Fenton Rosevalley, Dave and Ami Fatula, Mike Downey, Josh Fiore, Jay Oppenheim, Justin Moss, Nele Schulze, Paul Jones and the scores of NE Spahtens and all athletes online that answered my call to test out the workouts in this book. Thank you all!

Thank you, Brooke Bass and Dave Fatula, for taking time out of your day to get the pictures into the book. Your “let’s get it done” attitude really helped speed those photo sessions along. Much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone that has attended my OCR classes, workshops, and seminars over the past 10 years. It has been an enlightening ride and I hope for more to come.

Thank you so much to all who helped back this book on Kickstarter. We would not have been able to publish this book without your help.

Margaret Hoffman

Linda Borgatti

Diane and Ed Boggs

Dorothy McCuen

Walter “JR” Kuketz

Tony Fanara

Sara Fleming

Robb Ellis

The Creative Fund by BackerKit

Theodore E. Jeveli

Jasper Walters

Brooke Bass

David Fatula

Mike LeJeune

Brian Vernaglia

M L

Andrea Savard

Le Grand Reynolds

Troy Midkiff

Brad Cox

William Band

Dylan Reach

Joe Pagliuca

Joseph Crehan

Anthony Passamonte

Matthew Fanara

Chris Cooper

Emanuel Pacheco

Stratton Newbert

Eric Jeveli

Laura Wolfinger

CM Frampton

Jahx

Jim Heffernan

Shannon Davis

Marco Caromba

Ben Gould

Dawn P.

Chris Couture

Rebecca Winter

Kevin Cafferty

Mike Flanagan

Sarah Adelmann

Christine Ouellette

Angela Froio Doyle

Marie Simpson

Lisa Ouellette

Bill Brickman

Karen

Kel

Jeff Godin

Peter B.

George Kalos

Joshua J Grenell

Gary Lombardo

Chris Canfield

Todd Cambio

Jay Oppenheim

Sean M.

Charlene Band

Kristen Webb

Sean McDermott

Christopher Tretter

Sarah Visinski

Balazs Szemes

Arianne d'Entremont Borgatti

Lyska BE

Rob Walsh

Dave McManus

Terri Feldman

Ron Fuller

Robert Doyle

Sally Robinson

Gena Bronson

Mark Andersen

Leanne Marrama

Rachel Miller

John C. Mariani

Jay Celat

Warren

Jasmine

Joseph B Towers

Covering New England

Brandon Stumpf

Paul Bernardi

Justin Keane

Danielle Rosvally

Nanci Johnson

Mike...