Monday, Dec 9:
As part of the registration for the GORUCK Rucking World Championships, I got a Speed Rucker. Since I had been away for the weekend during the Pearl Harbor Tough, I didn't get to test it the day that I got it, but I was eager to try it the day after I got home.
I incorporated the trial with the "Opener and Closer" TEAM SPEARHEAD ruck workout (28 min for the opener, 7 min for the closer). That was actually a great workout since I've been wanting to work on my overhead holds. During the ruck, I also tried going in the Altra Torin Plush, which I had previously only worn in everyday life. The shoes were great and soft. After the struggle bus Tough, this felt like a great change. The ruck was relatively slow, since I was still feeling the Tough. I did 6.0 in 1:38:15, 16:22 average.
I would try the Speed Rucker more later on, and the rucks would feel fine if I didn't use the sternum strap. By the end of 2019, I haven't tried it on long rucks, though.
Wednesday, Dec 11:
I did the "Frantic" ruck workout from TEAM SPEARHEAD. It starts with a 4 mile ruck with a 1 hour time hack. I wasn't sure how well I'd do with the time hack since I was still getting over the Tough, but it was a good chance to put the Speed Rucker with 20# to the test. I ended up doing it in 52:52, 13:13 average. I had to shuffle the whole way to stay on pace. I wore the Salomons. The workout didn't involve any violent actions (like ruck swings), so I felt comfortable doing that with the Speed Rucker, too. It involves a lot of burpees. The workout lived up to its name with what it did to my hair.
Friday, Dec 13:
I want to stay in good fighting shape for the Bragg Heavy in Feb 2020. I'm not doing Heavy Drop Training with this round of PATHFINDER Endure, because of the cost and because I need a break from the high volume of work that HDT requires. I still mix in old HDT workouts, though. I chose a 22.5 min AMRAP. Sandbag work feels good. Since the workout was short, I added in box cutters, SB+ruck squats, and 2.5 min holds of overhead hold, plank with ruck, and 6 in with ruck (still working on those overhead holds!). 43 min of total work.
This morning, I was actually supposed to do a Cookies and Milk ruck club callout, so I woke up at 3-something for a 5am meeting in the pouring rain and near-freezing temps, only to have it get cancelled because the organizer and I were the only ones to show up. We would reschedule. I drove to work and napped in the car until it was time to work.
Sunday, Dec 15:
More sandbag work with HDT workouts. I did Upper Body and Core, with 65 total minutes of work. I did take a few minutes in between to read a long-awaited AAR for the Hard Hitter Heavy. It's awesome re-living memories and seeing the event through another person's eyes.
Monday, Dec 16:
My arms and abs were a little sore from the previous day (I don't remember being sore often when I was doing HDT originally), so I did an HDT legs workout for 53 min. HDT's default is to have you do exercises in multiple sets with a certain max rest. When I did the program originally, I'd try to push through without rest when I could (which I could do because I guess I wasn't using that much weight). This time, I didn't want to push it, though. I wanted to play it safe and not risk straining anything... good call.
Wednesday, work hosted a holiday lunch. Things were starting to wind down work-wise.
A friend invited me to the KLOVE Christmas Tour concert, too, which was a good time and way to remember the reason for the season and share the holidays with people that you care about.
During the concert, it occurred to me that almost exactly a year ago, I had decided to quit my job, and was planning to move to Germany. It was a tumultuous couple of months, but I was glad that I ended up staying. I think back to all the cool things I've gotten to do this year with cool people, and none of that would've happened if I had left. If I had gone to Germany, there would've been some awesome experiences, too, for sure, but this year here has been good.
Thursday, a friend from my college years happened to be passing through town, so we met up at Starbucks. I had an opportunity to watch a private screening of the new Star Wars movie on opening night, and I got to bring him along.
Friday, Dec 20:
The Team Spearhead ruck club tried the Ruck Club Callout again. This time, we had better weather and more people. After a ruck along a greenway that I've been to before but didn't recognize at first (because we entered from a different entrance), we visited a police department to deliver cookies and express our thanks for what they do.
3.0 in 59:23, 19:19 average. The knock-off lightsaber that I had gotten at the movie ended up being a nice tool for getting our group pic.
Saturday, Dec 21:
2019 Selection Candidate #4 led a training session for the Bragg Heavy. He told us to carb up and load our rucks with 10 more pounds than our plate requirement, to account for gear. I think I was as anxious about this training session that I've been about real Heavies, partially because I didn't know what to expect from a training session with him.
#4 was great about sharing his knowledge of the event, and despite being a revered hero in the community, was really humble about what he had to offer, and acknowledged the experience that others had to offer, too. We started with some warmup exercises like 50 jumping jacks and some number of pushups (4-count with ruck! - we didn't get very far until we weren't staying together with the fast pace being called and we moved on to the next thing). We did overhead holds... well, we were going to, but when we were too slow, just like in the real thing, we had to switch to some other kind of hold. It was a good lesson. He pointed out how the cadre at Bragg liked to instruct us while we were in some kind of hold, too, so be prepared for that.
We continued the warmup with a 1/4 mi run, where he shared more advice, and then a 1/4 mi ruck, where he kept a brisk pace. He encouraged us to not ever feel like we're holding back the team. The team paces off of its slowest member. It's better if you stay, even if you don't feel like you're performing as well as you should, since at least you're able to contribute something.
We did the exercise portion of the Robbie Miller WOD at a playground. The ground was soft synthetic material, which was good for not getting too dirty during the ruck getups. We did the 4-ct mountain climbers with rucks on.
Afterwards, we did a variation of the Jerome WOD. It includes farmer carrying rucks, burpees, and buddy drags. We were allowed to fireman carry our buddies instead. I dragged until I was "done", and then switched to the much easier fireman carry.
We closed by going around to mention something we did today that we wanted to improve on in the future, which was great. It shows how everyone has something that they can work on.
Afterwards, some of us stuck around for the LKN Milk and Cookies Ruck where we stopped by the Mooresville FD.
After that, we met up with Waterlynn Ruck Club for their first Donut Ruck.
Monday, Dec 23:
An NC ruck club challenge between was announced for the holiday weeks. The first week was 250 pushups and 250 2-ct flutter kicks per day, for 5 days. If you spread out the push-ups, it's more manageable. I squeezed some sets in at work. Since it's a little deserted at work, that was doable.
250 is challenging when you leave most of it for the end of the day, though. I finished mine up after doing a 5 mi run in 39:34. The flutter kicks took no time, compared to the push-ups. I did sets of 10-20 of them, with stretching while I waited for recovery.
Tuesday, Dec 24:
Tuesday, I did them and finished up in the evening, so that I could ruck around McAdenville Christmas village. The houses in that neighborhood almost all (there was only 1 house I saw that didn't have anything) decorate for the season. Cars line up for blocks during peak times to drive through the main street. The bulk of the neighborhood can be seen on the smaller streets, which is open to driving only for residents, but which is open for pedestrians.
5.5 in 1:49:43, 19:57 average.
When I got home, I did the "12 Days of Christmas" TEAM SPEARHEAD ruck workout. It seemed fitting. I didn't enjoy having to do even more push-ups, but I got through it, though. The workout took 50 min. It was a good one. I'd probably like it more if I hadn't already done 750 push-ups that week.
Christmas, just did the 250 and 250.
Thursday, Dec 26:
The "Devil's Mile" TEAM SPEARHEAD WOD looked like a good workout. It's similar in concept to what the Selection candidates had to do, and I had been wanting to try something like that. Plus, it had overhead holds.
It looked simple. 1/4 mi bear crawls (I assume with ruck), 1/4 mi crab walk (I assume with ruck), 1/4 lunges with ruck, 1/4 mi OH hold walk. I got through the bear crawls. The crab walks were taking forever, partially because of the bear crawls that preceded it, and partially because my arms were smoked from the push-ups all week.
I ended up deciding to sub in half of the crab walks and lunges for farmer's carries, instead. It took me 75 min to do what I did. If I had kept going with the crab walks, it might've taken me 2 hours to do the mile. I normally try very hard to do the whole workout, RX, but this just wasn't happening, and it wasn't worth it to try to do it.
There were some cool moments, though. I was out on my neighborhood soccer field. It was cold, and the grass was damp. It felt like low crawling through a battle field or something. I liked that feeling.
I finished up the 250 and 250 afterwards.
Friday, Dec 27:
Finished the 250 and 250, at last. It was a good challenge. I never imagined that I'd be able to do 1,250 push-ups in a week. I think it has helped. My arms are used to doing it now. Muscle memory. My form is better than I thought, in terms of breaking parallel. I can do better with keeping my butt down, though. That was one benefit of taking videos to snag pics for the ruck club's facebook group - getting to analyze my form.
Saturday, Dec 28:
I finally started reading a book that's been sitting by my bed for a while. It's the story of 1st Lt. Ashley White, who served on a Cultural Support Team attached to a Special Operations Task Force. I read the first half of the book, which talked about her background, selection, and training.
Mobility work, followed by a 10.5 mi trail run at 11:05/mi ave to try to gain back some cardio before the 10K Star Course. It was in the lower 70's. They still had the ice rink up at the Whitewater Center! I'm surprised that thing didn't melt!
I wanted to get in pure running (and other workouts) while I could, since I planned to start PATHFINDER Horizon on Jan 1st. I wanted to wrap up as much of PATHFINDER Endure as I could before then. I wanted to get in running, because there would be plenty of rucking and prescribed mobility, core, and fully body workouts once Horizon started. You can count certain workouts towards both programs, but I want to try to fully complete both, if I can.
Sunday, I finished the book. The second half talked about the missions they went on. I was amazed by the stories of what they went through and what they did. The whole time, I knew in the back of my mind that at some point, the story would end a certain way. I filled a trash can full of tissues.
Take-aways:
- Different people have different strengths. Everyone has something to offer. Badass women come from all backgrounds, in all shapes and sizes and demeanors. A desire to do and be one's best and help others are the unifying factors.
- Change the world by proving how badass and capable women are, by putting in the work each day and performing to the highest standards.
- Sleeping in uniform between events and not letting cadres get into your head are good strategies for Assessment and Selection, as well as GORUCK events like the HTL. It was surprising yet un-surprising to see.
- Finding "your people" and finding your purpose are wonderful things. I'm glad I have the friends that I've met through rucking.
- Sharing best practices and staying connected via tech are valuable alternatives to being able to train together as much as we'd like. Many of us are on similar missions, and can share best practices and experiences with each other.
- The women in the book are superhuman in my mind, yet it strikes me how so many of them came from difficult circumstances and tough backgrounds that so many of us mortals can relate to. They overcame and succeeded despite, and in many cases, because of what they had gone through and learned in those challenges.
- I hope to find a way to serve and find purpose as much as they did.
I highly recommend this book. Even all the guys who have happened to read it rave about it. Definitely read it if you're a women, but even men who really want to understand.
Monday, Dec 30:
For New Year's week, our winning ruck club got to pick the exercises for the ruck club challenge. It was 250 side squats (step laterally, squat, reset, step to the other side, squat, reset = 2 reps) and either 250 leg lifts or 5 min of 6 in. I misread it, though, and did side lunges for the first 4 days of the challenge, instead of side squats.
I did 6 miles of rucking in 1:21:06, 13:31 average. Speed Rucker with 20# and some water was speedy tonight! I shuffled all the way and wore the Altra Torin Plush again. It felt almost too plush.
Tuesday, more side lunges and leg lifts.
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