GORUCK Light - Extortion 17 - Charleston, SC

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Wednesday, Aug 8:

I spent Monday and Tuesday of this week recovering from Asheville.  My Course Advisor recommended at least attempting the Army Phyiscal Fitness Test in the first week or two.  If you pass with a score of 250, then you've knocked out one of your challenges. Even if you don't pass, you can get your baseline and make 3 more attempts during the program, and as long as you show improvement, you're good. 

Based on the standards for my age and gender, I'd probably be fine, but I was super nervous beforehand, anyways.  Excited during the day, then nervous, like I get before 5Ks, in the hour beforehand.  I did 33 pushups in 2 min, then 68 situps, then a 13:46 run.  That was good for 79 + 85 + 100 points = 264, based on my age and gender.  Next year, I'll get a significant bump in points if I can maintain current performance, just by aging up, though!

It's kind of as I expected... weakest on pushups, ok on situps, crushed the run (in light rain, but ok temps - 76* wasn't too hot, and I was glad to not have sun beating down on me).  The APFT kicked my butt... I was pushing hard and running scared.  I followed that up with a 2 mile ruck, to fill out the day a little bit.  I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.   

Thursday, Aug 9:

The next day, I gave my first Ruck Workout a try.  I did the one that my Pathfinder Course Advisor (CA) had recently done - 11s and Penalty Holds.  I was giving IT training for work in South Carolina that day, so I decided to stop at Crowder's Mountain on the way back to do this and get in a few miles on the trail.  I did the workout at the trailhead, in a grassy area.  OMG, it was brutal. 

• 11s
• 11 reps repeatedly, with ratios tilting between two exercises (ex: 10/1, 9/2, 8/3, etc)
• Plank Jacks & Pushups
• Burpees & Squats
• Jumping Jacks & 4-ct Mountain Climbers

• Penalty Holds
• Hold the following stress positions for 5 min, and if you break form, do a penalty of 20 burpees and 20 ruck thrusters each time
• Overhead Ruck Hold
• High Plank Hold

I did one set of penalties, mid-way through the overhead hold... after doing the penalties, I was determined to not have to do them again, since they were as painful as the holds.  My form might not have been perfect, and I was a bit contorted at times, trying to shift weight from one hand or another, but I pushed through to make it through the rest without another set of penalties.

It took only about 45 min in all, but it was a painful and intense 45 min.   Even though it was cloudy with no sun, there was sweat streaming down my face the whole time. 





After that ordeal, a gentle 4 mile ruck up and down Tower Trail, to the summit of Crowder's Mountain, in 95 min.

GORUCK LIGHT EXTORTION 17

I drove down to Charleston for my next event, a Light.  With OCR race season and not wanting to risk injury or impacting my running workouts, I only had 4 Lights planned during the 12 weeks of Pathfinder, no Toughs. 

I grew up in Charleston, but I haven't lived there in 14 years, so it was nice to re-visit and be a tourist in my old town again.  We met at the famous Pineapple Fountain.  I saw a couple of ruckers that I knew from previous events.  There was a good number of rookies, too.

We had Cadre Fagan, who I knew from Expedition 12 in Rock Hill, SC.  I had only done one Light before, so I didn't have a good sample size to know what to expect.  This Light was much more physically challenging than the previous one.  The previous one had some Special Ops lessons mixed in, and some V-day Massacre history lessons mixed in, which I enjoyed.  This one didn't really have either of those, but there were more coupons, so I got much more of a workout.  Every Cadre and every event is unique... that's part of the fun.  It'll always be different.

 

We started off with a Welcome Party of some PT, plus group activities like Tunnel of Love and Bridge of People.  Some people at Waterfront Park were intrigued by us and filmed us on their iPhones.  We also low crawled through the Pineapple Fountain.  Normally, I don't enjoy getting wet in normal clothes, but it was hot, so I was appreciative of the opportunity each time it came.

We first went out to Brittlebank Park.  It was a Saturday afternoon in Downtown Charleston, so many people were out and about.  Downtown's nice.  I enjoyed going by the palmetto trees and the pretty buildings.  During the first leg, I carried an ammo can for the first mile, then switched with someone who had done the Tough, for a 60lb sandbag which I carried for the rest of the leg.  It had been getting heavy, so I was glad when we finally made it to the park.  We stopped for a bit, someone briefly described what happened at Extortion 17 (I had done a little bit of research beforehand), we ate, and then it was time to go again.

 

 (photo credit: Shawn Whittington)

For the next leg, we pretty much went the whole time until we got back to the start point.  I had the ammo can the whole time, and got practice switching up ways of carrying it.  It got tough towards the end, and I was switching way more frequently, but we eventually made it back to the parking garage!  Another group took turns on the stretcher, but nobody was my height, like with most events.

 (photo credit: Shawn Whittington)

At the end, we finished with a rendition of Spongebob Squarepants and Baby Shark, in the Pineapple Fountain.  And beer... macro lagers somehow always taste amazing after events.  The cooler that the stretcher people carried around all over Downtown had goodies in it!

In all, we covered 7.2 miles.