I'll start this blog post as I do with all my other blog posts, with a training recap leading up to the main event. Of course, training had nothing to do with the weekend, but the weekend was an endurance event in another sense...
TRAINING LEAD-UP
Tuesday, June 4:
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-DAY, GORUCK had a series of workouts and rucking distances that they challenged us with. I took on the 75th Anniversary and Operation Overlord workouts at my new favorite neighborhood ruck workout spot at 11pm, with 20# of fun.
75th Anniversary
- 1 mi ruck for time in 12:49
- 75 squats with ruck
- 75 pushups with ruck (this was hard.... I did 20, then sets of 5, then sets of 1 or 2... each one was a battle to squeeze out by the end)
- 75 dead lifts
- 75 OH shoulder press (also kind of hard... 30, then sets of 5)
- 1 mi ruck in 13:20
Operation Overlord (20 min AMRAP)
- 60 m suitcase carry
- 60 m bear crawl
- 44 Russian twists
- 60 m suitcase carry
- 60 m bear crawl
- 44 burpees (I opted for the ruckless version)
I got through 1 round, which seems a little odd for an AMRAP workout. Maybe you can do more if you're fresh. Or maybe they just wanted to keep their workouts manageable by making it short. Who knows.
Thursday, Jun 6:
A conditioning ruck in a parking garage, to get in some hills. Conditioning for the body and the mind. 13.6 miles of concrete in 4 hrs and 10 min. Lots of little ovals, going up and down the 6 level / 5 flight garage, but great views and a welcomed breeze greeted me at the top each time.
I got to watch the Charlotte skyline transform as it went from day to night. Phone GPS was kind of useless there (estimating 8.26 miles after a 0.6 mi bonus from a GPS bounce, which would mean a 30min/mi pace), but MapMyRun helped me get the distance of the oval later on, and I estimated the total distance afterwards. 18:27/mi pace.
I didn't notice the hills, and my feet felt fine despite all the concrete (apart from the hints of a hot spot mid-way on my outer right pinky toe), which was a good confidence booster ahead of the CLT Star Course. 20# in a Rucker v2.1... felt stiff, so I'm glad to get back to using my Bullet 15L for Star Course.
BACHELORETTE PARTY WEEKEND
I drove down to ATL after work. We kicked things off with a dinner at Endive. A lot of the guests were TT's friends from more recent years, so I didn't know them yet, but it was fun getting to meet them.
After dinner, some games involving cards.
I was ready to crash for the night after that, though, so I skipped the clubbing. We had rented a big AirBNB, with lots of rooms. It was a good place to have everyone get together for the weekend.
The next morning, a party van came to pick us up for a wine tasting tour in Northern Georgia (about 1.5 hrs north of ATL). Who knew Northern Georgia had a wine industry! There were so many wineries up in that area.
It was rainy, but it was still beautiful, and at least it wasn't hot! We had 4 stopped planned, and each one had its own atmosphere. The first place, Serenity Cellars, made Italian-style wines.
The Bachelorette got to participate in a challenge, where she had to bounce a cork into a cup, and even though the seasoned bar tender took many tries to do it, she got it on her first attempt, and one us all an extra tasting! Clutch!
I've never been on a wine tour before. I also don't really get tasting and dumping, but I did have to start pacing myself a bit, since this was only the first stop of four.
Serenity did have a cool "cellar" building where they host events, and the winery owner, also a producer for 90's boy bands, shows off his records there.
The next place was also our lunch spot. It was a tasting room for Stonewall Creek. Since we had our sandwiches at the same time as the wine, it was a lot more difficult to appreciate all of the intricacies of the wine, and it felt a bit rushed. It was a pretty spot, though... a place that would be nice to visit in the summer. It was like a craft store mixed with a little cafe that also served wine.
I think I fell asleep on the ride to the next place, after the food and wine, even with the blaring music in the party bus.
The next place was probably the most scenic. It was a building that served wine atop a hill with great views. If anything, the clouds and fog made it even more pretty.
This is the place where endurance kicked in. Like in an event, the first quarter you get through just fine, from training. In the second quarter, you have to focus a bit more. In the third quarter, you gotta use some determination to gut it out. I ended up dumping a decent amount of wine, even though it was good. It was just a lot.
Fortunately, I had recovered some by the fourth quarter, and got a second wind that let me finish strong at the last place. Cavender Creek Vineyards felt the most like an actual vineyard with grapes. The tasting room had the feel of a brewpub, with lots of places to sit and enjoy the afternoon, cornhole, and the vineyards' guard dogs (who protect the grapes against deer) freely roaming around.
It was a fun and relaxed way to end the tour. We rode back to ATL, and on to more weekending!
More games, including Moniker, where everyone writes random phrases / names / words onto sheets of paper. You're in two teams, and the teams take turns having one person from the team first get their own team to say the contents of as many of the cards as they can in the time limit, without saying the words when giving clues. You count up how many cards they get, and then the next team does the same. Once all of the cards are done, you repeat, except you use charades, instead of words. In the third round, you're only allowed to say a single word as the clue. You have to pick wisely, since you only get one word, and you can't change once you say it. But by then, you've already seen all of the cards twice, so it's challenging, but doable, if you're creative.
After lots of games and lots of laughs, we called it a night.
The next morning, we went out to brunch for a last hurrah.
It was Sunday, so everyone started making their way back home. It was a nice way to end an awesome weekend!
I gotta say, though... there's some sleep deprivation and physical endurance there that rivals what I do in my other hobbies!
I gotta say, though... there's some sleep deprivation and physical endurance there that rivals what I do in my other hobbies!
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