My Most Difficult 20 Miler (30#)

 Sunday, Jun 21:

The day after the 12 miler, ED was still here, so we decided to explore more street art in Uptown.  I definitely wanted to see the Black Lives Matter street mural that I had only walked past the day before.  We parked at a school that looks like it's been abandoned forever, and not something only temporarily abandoned for COVID.

The route ended up being great, since we passed a number of murals on our way into Uptown, and then saw more in Uptown itself.

The mood on that street was interesting.  It was on a Sunday morning, and people there were masked because of COVID.  There wasn't a big crowd out, but the mood there was somber and respectful.

We stopped by a little Vietnamese-owned cafe, twice, for ED to get take-out drinks, but I didn't get anything.

We covered 7 miles in 3 hrs and 11 minutes.

After that ruck, we made a quick stop at a shopping center, where I got some groceries at Trader Joes.  A picture of COVID times... My first time visiting TJ since COVID.

We went to the NODA area afterwards, since they had some street art, as well as a good brewery.  We decided to just do the brewery part, though.  Chocolate Mint Beer... difficult to execute, probably.  Fun to try... it wasn't bad or good.  Just their attempt at making something unique.  

Another sign of the times... QR code menus to reduce the risk of transmission:

Monday, Jun 22:

HDT IR.1.1 (Arms and Core) in 31 min, followed by IR.1.2 (Core and Legs) in 43 min.  It felt good to work out again, even though I felt weak prior to the workout.  It had been 5 days since my last workout (Deck of Cards).

Wednesday, Jun 24:

I decided to go for the 20 mile overnight.  Early in this round of PATHFINDER, I had done the 15 mile overnight with 20#, when I was still signed up for Forward.  I remember thinking at the end of that 15 that I was glad that it was just 15.  Now that I was doing Advanced, I had to do 20 miles with 30#.

I decided to post updates in the PATHFINDER Class 024 Group 17 Facebook Group along the way.

Once I drank Celcius with its caffeine, there was no turning back.  I needed the little boost to get myself out the door and make me brave enough to take it on, somewhat on a whim.  It was a Wednesday night, after all.  I wanted to do it then, to give myself more recovery time before the July 4th TL.  I also wanted to get it out of the way in case "life happened" in the last month of this PATHFINDER class.  It's also good to not have 20 milers looming over you when you have to stay on track with HDT, too.  I was already feeling a bit restless, so why not use it to burn some energy.  I just had to be done before my first meeting of the day, which would be at 9am.  I had no pace goals.  I just wanted to go slow and steady enough to finish.

(I was still optimistic at this time!)

I started off in MACV1s, but after 6 miles, the left heel was folding in weird way that kept bugging me, so I switched to the Salomon X-Missions for the rest of the ruck.  I used the restroom while I was home.

The first 12 miles went pretty well, with a 20:34/mi average pace.  I had to stop about then to start recharging my watch battery, though.  I don't know if stopping is what did it, or if I was going to start slowing down anyways, but the ruck got painfully difficult after that.  I started slowing down and needing breaks.  

I took my first stretch break at a crossroad of a dead-end road where cars don't go.  I started needing breaks every mile from miles 12-17.  Nothing was injured... my legs were just out of juice.  It was a death march.  I was struggling.  I couldn't believe that I had to break so often just to keep going.

I was giving updates the whole time.  At 4-something am, there was actually someone else in the group who commented back, asking if I was nervous about rucking alone.  I feel like I know my neighborhood well, and almost all of my rucks are at night, anyways.

The last 3 miles, my feet started feeling more normal again, and I was able to go without stopping all the time.  I don't know why the 20 had been so hard.  It was my first 20 with 30# plus food and water, but I'm not sure that this would've made a huge difference.  I thought my fueling was fine... the usual.  I think I probably should've taken my first break at mile 7-8, in retrospect.  The last 8 miles were at 28:36 average pace.

I made it, though, in enough time for a shower and a nap before my meeting.  Had some recovery products, too.

Saturday, Jun 27:

Did another TA PT test, hitting 26 pushups, 41 situps, and 7 squat cleans at 65#.  I decided to step back from 70#, since 70# didn't feel like it was going to happen.

Monday, Jun 29:

I did a 5K slick run in 23:30, followed by HDT 19.1.1 (Arms) in 40 min.

Tuesday, Jun 30:

HDT 19.1.CP in 20 min, the usual Sanddoom 30# SB AMRAP, then HDT 19.1.2 (Core) in 26 min.

July 2nd bunny...

July 3rd range day...