Fitness & Recreation Blog Posts

I’ve got to tell you something. And I’m going to be honest with you here when I say that I’m just a regular guy. Sure, I train Jiu-Jitsu, but really, I haven’t ever gotten into the whole “health” thing when it comes to physical fitness in between BJJ classes. I don’t work out, I have never touched a kettlebell and I certainly don’t know what the Paleo Diet is. Or any diet for that matter. The most I’ve done to step up my game was to buy some protein shake to assist with my energy level before jitsu classes. A long way back, I was having issues with my face turning purple half way through sparring matches and not being able to catch my breath for the rest of the night. Beware – those were the old days. Don’t think I just let you behind the curtain of one of my weaknesses.

All right, I may have just lied. About six months ago, I purchased one of those canisters of Gatorade mix to make my own drinks to bring to class. I figured that Gatorade had sugar in it and perhaps that would give me the extra boost I needed to compete with the beasts down in St. Augustine at Fighting Chance. I was but a mere pale Northerner who happened to pass through Florida for a few months and who was seriously not ready for the amount of sweat I would leave there. It only took a few classes for me to realize I needed something more than straight-up water.

Now that I have that out of the way, I want to let you know that a guy named Colin emailed me a while back and asked if I’d be interested in trying out some of his Q5 sports supplements. He wanted to know if I’d give a review on my site (this one). At first, I was a bit hesitant because I’m not good at lying and Colin seemed like a nice guy. What if I didn’t go for his product? Would I just not write a review or would I write one and tell the truth? Whatever. I probably over thought the whole thing because before I knew it, I was holding five mini canisters of a variety of what Q5 has to offer. And since I received the supplements on Friday and Friday is the day Maine’s premier BJJ school, the Foundry, holds open mat, I figured I’d give the contents of one of the canisters, Launch Fuel, a once over. I had already eaten my, before class, bowl of pasta and was ready to try out a glass of Launch Fuel.

Honestly, there are only a few things I care about when it comes to sports supplements, and as I mentioned above, I really don’t have a lot of experience with them, so some of what I look at are merely speculative. But I think if I were one of those supplement junkies, I would certainly look at price, taste, mixture and performance. I know ingredients are in there somewhere, but the Google search I made for “Launch Fuel Reviews” right before starting this post provided me with quite enough articles where this stuff’s ingredients were covered ad nauseum. I’ll simply link to those reviews at the end of this post. As for what I’d like to do – I’d like to give you the simple man’s review of one particular supplement. And I want to give it to you from a guy who works on the computer, who mows the lawn, who splits wood and who likes to roll with the best of them. But I want you to remember, I’m 40 years old and I don’t compete. I wear no-name rash guards and my next gi will be the cheapest one I can find. I am in no way flashy, so don’t expect to find any review on this blog cover the ins and outs of what things are made of and why I should care. Remember, cost and performance come in first with me.

Price

As of this writing, 30 servings of Launch Fuel cost $58.50. You be the judge of whether or not it’s worth it to spend $1.95 on a drink before and during class or a competition. It’s probably the same cost as a regular sports drink, so I’m sure you’re not spending any more than you normally would. You’d have to try this product a few times to see if it worked well enough to justify what you’d spend on it.

Taste

This is where I have experience, as I’m sure you do as well. If something doesn’t taste good, it doesn’t matter how good it is at helping you out – there’s no way it will last. Some how, some way, it will languish in the market and better tasting products will take its place on store shelves. Luckily, I can tell you that Q5 Launch Fuel tastes really good. And I was surprised at that because I’ve never had faith in the supplement segment of the sports arena. Launch Fuel tastes just like those little tarts you can wear around your neck. You know, kind of like pez candy. And now that I think back, I recall that it tastes really good. I actually finished drinking it and wanted more.

Mixture

There really is nothing worse than pouring some powder into a glass of milk or water and having it float on top of the liquid, only to stay there for an infinite length of time. No matter how much you mix it, all you get are clumps of nastiness. I know they’ve come a long way with having supplements mix easily into what you’re mixing them into, but they still have a long way to go. As far as Launch Fuel, I’d say that the powder mixes fairly easily. It took about a minute to completely dissolve into very cold Maine water. And I even have pictures to prove it. The only thing you’ll have to take my word on is the timing.

I promise you, it mixed easily. All I did was fill the glass with water, kind of stir it with a knife and there you go. Ready to drink.

Performance

This is where things get tricky. I can either say, “Yeah man, this is the best stuff I ever tried,” or “I didn’t feel a thing.” I guess the truth and some background on what exactly happened would be more appropriate.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this already (it’s been a long post), but when I tried Launch Fuel out, I was heading to open mat. Usually, open mat lasts for a few hours and while there, I get to roll with a wide variety of guys and gals. Some are heavier than me and some are lighter. I generally last for about six or seven – six minute rounds. That’s right around the time I see people start to sit against the wall and talk. Which is fine because that’s around the time I’m exhausted.

On the day at hand, we had a full house. A full house means there were about twelve people on the mats, which is good for me because I like a variety of bodies to slap my triangle on. Seriously, I need to switch gears to a more varied plethora of submissions, but I’ll talk about that later. Anyway, it was the perfect day to try out Launch Fuel.

My report is this: at the end of eight – six minute rounds last Friday, I sat there wanting more. I can’t tell you why that was. I’d be lying if I said it was because I tried a spectacular new sports supplement called Q5 Launch Fuel, but I will tell you that I drank it before class and after class I was still interested in kicking someone’s ass. You be the judge as to why that was. I just lay out the facts. I still had energy, I still had stamina and I was interested in rolling a few more rounds. Simply put, I wasn’t tired.

There. That was my review. If you though that was fun, just wait for me to cover what’s in the next four little canisters Colin sent over. We’ll see how those affect my fighting ability and whether or not they aided in my surviving open mat down at the Foundry.

I’m really getting into this whole Winter thing. At this point, I’d confidently say that I prefer it over Summer. For most of my life, I avoided Winter. It got in the way of me riding my bike down to the lake to go swimming. I mean, it did offer those occasional snow days from school, but other than that, it was just cold. And the fact that I never admitted that it was indeed Winter by dressing like a fool, just made things worse.

When you move to the North country, you don’t dress like a fool anymore. When Laura and I head outside, we wear things that will keep us snug and warm. People ask me nowadays if we’re cold up here. I tell them that we’re really not. It’s not like it used to be – with me running around in slippers wondering why my feet were freezing. Most of the time, I wear boots in the house. It’s only when I get ready for bed that I notice how I’m dressed. It only took a few weeks up here for me to realize that fashion was out the window.

You know we’ve had our share of ice here. We’ve been slipping and sliding all over the place. I’ve been to the store a few times and have seen these rubber things that you can slip over your shoes. They have spikes in them to keep you steady on the ice. I almost bought two pairs when I remembered that I can easily stud our own boots for much less than what the store was asking for their solution. Check out what I did.

I studded Laura’s new Baffin boots. I also did mine, but I don’t have Baffins yet. I just have my mud boots. I’m saving up for the Baffins. And if you weren’t aware, these boots are rated to -145 degrees. That’s pretty damn cold. Here’s a view of their side.

So how did I stud our boots? Well, all I did was pick up a few screws (80 to be exact) from the hardware store and screw them into the bottom of each boot. I got two sizes of screw – a half inch and a three eighths inch. And I made sure to get the hex head so it can grip into the ice. You should see us walk around now. No slipping at all. You can actually hear the screws scratching into the surface.

This really isn’t the reason I wrote this post. I suppose I got side tracked a bit. What I really wanted to show you was a video of two guys who camped out in Minnesota at minus 40 degrees. Awesome video. You should watch it and get all sorts of inspired to try something like this yourself.

Minus 40ºF Hammock Backpack Trip in Ely, Minnesota

I was talking to my mother last night after my Jiu-Jitsu class, trying to explain to her how cool the woods were in the rear of the property. I said, “Yeah, there are tons of pines and maples and the water is so clear in the river.” It’s difficult to imagine, I’m sure, because you need to see something to get the vibe of it.

I told her about the beaver dams and how I was going to search for the hut one of these days. Little did I know, this morning I would venture out in the cold wind to do just that.

I didn’t give it any real sustained effort. I basically grabbed my camera and made the same walk Laura and I already made. Only this time, I took a few pictures along the way. There’s a lot to look at back there and taking these kinds of up-close photos is the best I could do with little to no planning. I did cover a few bases though. Bases such as the water, the types of pine trees that grow here and also a beaver dam or two. I’ll show you below.

I took this picture about twenty feet away from the water. I’m not sure why it’s so clear up here. Probably has something to do with no silt or something. Whatever the cause, I can’t get over the fact that I can see straight to the bottom of any stream or pond I find.

The beavers have been very active back in the river. Every time I visit the area, I see freshly chopped branches floating around. Also, it was windy and cold last night and icicles are forming in the beaver dam.

This is a little hideout I found along the river. For some reason, I thought of my friend Seth when I was crouched down under the trees last week. I crumbled up a few pine needles in my hand and man – what a strong pine scent. I’ll show him when he comes to visit. I’m not sure why I thought of him. I just think he’s interested in this kind of stuff.

This is a really nice part of the river where it splits and then comes back together, forming an island. There’s a beaver dam in front of and behind the island, creating higher levels of water than would normally be there.

Oddly enough, I found two stone walls back behind and adjacent to the property. It’s strange because up here in Maine, it’s not like Connecticut, where there’s a stone wall every two feet. To stumble upon one was like finding a needle in a haystack.

I was pretty excited when I walked past this pine tree laying on the ground. Laura and I have been discussing places to search for our Christmas tree this year. The reason for my excitement when finding this tree was that it looked like what we have in mind. The only problem is, it’s too early to bring inside. I suppose we can leave it there in the woods and then see if it has any life to it in a few weeks. If it does, we’ll drag it back to the house. The tree fell last night because of the wind. You can see the fallen top, the butt and the tall stump.

I took this picture while standing on the island between the two sections of river. I walked across one of the beaver dams to get there. It’s not a large island, but it’s fun to see the various sections of water around it.

There are so many things to take pictures of here, I figured I would throw this into the mix. I got this shot just before I stepped back onto the beaver dam to get back to the regular trail I had come in on. I thought it looked good, so I went for it.

When talking about the types of pine trees we had around here with my mother last night, I explained how we had cedar, hemlock, norway spruce and white pine. I decided to grab a few pictures of them this morning for a better illustration. I think they look good in the sun.

Well, there you have it folks. Just a short post about some random things I discovered during this morning’s walk. I’m sure I’ll come across so many more interesting areas, so I’ll keep on taking pictures and writing about them.