Constellation doesn't really require a lot of physical training. You might be jogging at times, but it's based on your group's desire to move faster for certain spurts during the night. Constellation non-beta Class 001 in Cary, NC, was my second event ever, after I had done the Veterans Day Tough 2016 in Columbia, SC, the year before. After the memorable physicality of the Tough, I remembered loving the lack of PT in the Constellation. It was more about learning and practicing skills with a mixture of classroom sessions and missions through the night.
With that said, here's what I did in the week leading up to it...
Wednesday, Apr 10:
GORUCK's April rucking challenge for individuals was "Lucky 7". Complete 7 prescribed ruck workouts during the month of April.
Since I had a big first week of April, where I was recovering from the Coupon Ruck and Spartan Volunteering (it was probably the latter that banged me up), and then tapering for and doing the Spartan Sprint / Vol / Super / GORUCK Bataan Light, I didn't start with the first workout until the 10th.
Some people had started already and were posting their times online. That was helpful, since I could assess how long I could expect each one to take, and plan and mentally prepare accordingly.
I started with the 1 mile ruck on a 2 degree incline treadmill in 14 minutes, followed by the 10 x [10 ruck squats, 10 ruck pushups, and 10 russian twists], with each set taking about 2:30 each. My pushup form deteriorated a lot in the last 2 sets. My Russian Twist form wasn't great at any point, either... I didn't go too deep on the twists. It's what I could manage with the 20# that I used, though.
Since it's been almost 6 months since I did Pathfinder, I've forgotten how much ruck workouts suck ;)
Thursday, Apr 11:
I feel like I've been tired since January. Fortunately, I was feeling a bit more energetic after work today, so I got in 6.0 in 48:09, 8:02 ave, 2 degrees of incline. The run did feel harder than it should've felt. Maybe it was because I had peanuts, a Fiber 1 bar, chocolate, and a mustard shot prior to the run, and I was still digesting. The pace was pretty good, though.
Splits> 8:36, 8:23, 8:14, 7:59, 7:93, 7:17.
GORUCK CONSTELLATION
In 2018, GORUCK revamped their Constellation course modules, based on feedback that they had received the year before. The syllabus still looked pretty similar to the one I originally took in 2017, and my 2018 schedule was already full of a bunch of other GORUCK challenge events, OCRs, and the other 2 survival series events, so I didn't try to take the new version last year.
Since they were offering Constellation in my home town this year, though, and since I had snagged some good deals on events towards the end of 2018, I signed up this year. It was nice to have a hometown event, where I wouldn't have to drive a bunch to get to the event location.
I had gone into 2017 without a team, and was adopted by a group from a local crossfit box. This time, a fellow participant from a Light had reached out prior to the event, and we were planning on teaming up with some of his friends. His friends ended up bailing, haha, but we found a group of 3 to join. We ended up with 2 teams of 5 and 1 team of 6 at this event. This was much smaller than the massive class that we had had in 2017, where there were 3 cadres and like 9+ teams of 6.
We had one Cadre, but he was a good one. Cleve was back. I had him for the first time a week ago, at the Bataan Light. My impression of him was that he was funny, chill, and good at connecting with participants. I'm sure a Tough or Heavy version of him would be different, but now I'd see the Constellation version of him.
The event was based at Crossfit Eternal. They let us meet inside their box, which was awesome. In 2017, we also met at a crossfit gym, but we only got to use the parking lot. It was great to have lights, a whiteboard, plenty of space, and restrooms to make the classroom sessions easier. That gym was close to IKEA, so I knew a bit about the area, although our area of operation was pretty small, so I never got as far as IKEA and the places that I knew. It wasn't a bad thing that our AO was small... you don't want the missions to take you miles away, and have you walk miles back each time... you wouldn't be able to cover as much content, if most of your time was spent walking around.
Our first class and mission was about finding good hiding spots. Using a map of the AO, we found 3 candidates for good hiding spots that gave cover and concealment. We went to the one we liked the most, planning a route that would allow us to move around with the least risk of detection. We went in one way, scoped out the area, found ways of egress, and sent photos of our spot to HQ.
I loved our hiding spot. We could've lived like kings there, although you're only supposed to stay in one spot for 12 hrs max. I'm surprised we didn't run into security or homeless people there, because it was that good of a spot.
We took an alternate route back, and on our way back, we received instructions to try to snipe other teams. While we were on a parking deck, I spotted another team, and we all got down. They came up the staircase, and we sniped them.
We learned to make fire, with 0000 grade steel wool and a 9v battery. In a real SHTF situation, I don't know how easy it would be to find 0000 grade steel wool, but it was cool to learn (and be forced to use) an alternate technique for fire making, rather than reverting other techniques that we may have encountered in the past.
As usual, I'm not good at making fires. Fortunately, my teammates were.
We learned first aid ("MARCH"), we learned how to make a stretcher out of rucks with waist belts. I was glad that I brought some extra gear that wasn't on the packing list, like my tourniquet from Constellation 2017, and paracord, since we used those. We learned how to escape from restraints, using paracord. As a nice new twist, we also learned about how to take down sentries.
We learned how to make improvised weapons, using stuff that we scavenged. It's fun to see peoples' creativity. It's amazing what kinds of stuff you'll find lying around the city, too. You can make some pretty effective weapons with random stuff. Wouldn't want to run into the wrong side of this group in a Mad Max scenario.
We made maps. We hid and found caches. We had a final evolution that mixed together a bunch of elements from the skills that we learned during the night. We had to cook chicken feet, and we tried it. It tasted like fatty chicken skin. Bleh.
We also couldn't leave without getting pepper sprayed.
At Constellation 2017, I had tossed my gas mask into a dumpster after we got sprayed, since I didn't want that stuff to touch everything else I had. I made a new one prior to the event, so that I wouldn't have to worry about rushing to construct it during the event.
Good times. Something different. As the Cadre mentioned, these skills are perishable, so it's always worth doing these events, even if you've done them before. Learned new stuff. Gained confidence in my ability to better handle things if SHTF.
I enjoyed our team. As Cadre mentioned, sometimes, when emergencies arise, you know the people you'll be working with. Other times, you have to come together with strangers to accomplish your mission. We helped each other get through the challenges, we worked together well and incorporated everyone's ideas.
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