TRAINING LEAD-UP
Monday, Sept 5:
I attended a memorial hike for those who were lost in the Kabul Airport attack. I decided to use my 50# ruck, to bump up the distance. I was flexible on what weight I'd carry, depending on what the estimated pace of the group ruck would be, but it was reasonable, so I attempted the 50. The group mainly consisted of Marines, but there was also a kid and some family members. It sprinkled, and we took a break in the middle, which gave me the opportunity to use the restroom in the woods. Afterwards, we had BBQ and beer, which was great.
8.5 miles in 2:35:49. I had a little extra mileage in the ended, so I walked a little extra to round it out.
Tuesday, Sept 6:
Slow Flow Yoga at the USNWC, followed by a 2 mile ruck in 39:36 with 30# plus the yoga mat in the Salomon Speedcross around the parade loop, since it was Bosco's first time, and I wanted to show him the highlights.
Wednesday, Sept 7:
Went to the office, had Ecuadorian food for the first time with a co-worker.
Went to the local skate park after work, to try out the board there for the first time, and also learned my first "trick".
The reason I got into skateboarding (again... the first time I attempted it was when I was a little kid, but I never stuck with it, because it was hard... I don't know whether the fact that I had been using a board that I bought for like $20 from Walmart had anything to do with the difficulty level) at my age was that I first bought a GORUCK skate ruck, and of course when the board came out, I had to get the board, too. I decided to give it another go. It is easier this time. The board was a deck only, and I bought a few types of wheels, and took it to a local skate shop, where I got bearings, the truck, bolts, and top grippy tape added and installed, as well. All in, it was $100+.
The skate park has a small section with props for tricks, but I mostly stayed out of that area, because it's too advanced for me. I used the blocked off section of asphalt, which offered smooth and car-free skating.
HDT 31.1.2 (CORE) in 33 min, followed by the GT&T "Flat Tire" 15 min AMRAP with a 20#RPC and a 30#R for curls that quickly got challenging, and a 60#SB for the DLs, which wasn't heavy enough, followed by 2 miles with a 50#R in the Ballistic Trainers.
ADVANCED PRECISION RIFLE
Saturday, Sept 10:
SB and I went to Ohio for the GORUCK APR class with Cadre Jonesy. It's always fun to shoot at a new range. We chronoed, zeroed, and collected dope out to 12,000yd.
After lunch, we tried a cold bore shot, which might've went just a bit to the right for me, although we weren't shooting at a very specific target, so that's guesstimated. We practiced holding over and under, dry and live. Holding under is difficult when you don't have stadia in your reticle for the first mil! Holding over and under is also difficult when you try to go really quickly and have to do the math... even going in the right direction consistently is difficult.
Since I had gone for 2 shots at 200yd at Basic PR, for the "Pick your poison" challenge, I now had to step up to 3@300yd within 30s. Fortunately, two of my rounds landed on the 3x3 patch.
SB and I were allowed to partner up for this class, since Jonesy knew that we were #trainingforMammoth and would benefit the most from time spent with each other. During free dope collection time, SB and I decided to try some positional shooting, since we had both gotten out to the maximum range distance of 12K already.
After that, we did a 1 mile ruck with whatever gear we wanted to carry. This was a bonus for this class, since the range offered us a good place to do that without getting too many weird looks. We wanted to hit our 16:00/mi target pace, but we also needed to stay together as a class, which meant that the first one had to give. With the rifle on the back of the pack, I have to lean way forward to get the center of mass of the pack closer to my mid-line, as the pictures indicate. We also had a bipod, backup QD strap clip, and a lens cap come loose, so it was good to do that bit of stress testing.
We played a fun balloon game, which the Cadre and helper had set up during our ruck. We had to do a shuttle run and then shoot a round at a time, going for balloons at different distances. There was strategy and good shooting under physical stressors involved. The balloons even moved in the wind, a bit.
We finished the day by going for a mile, which was made easier by a wide dirt field in front of the 3-feet wide circles. I was fortunate that there was no wind when it was my turn. I was the second to give it a go, and made it in 4 shots, after dialing 22 and holding the extra 2 mil, with an eventual adjustment of 23.7 mil. It was good to get it out of the way quickly, which meant that I could spot everyone else afterwards.
It was a good day for everyone except the bird.
We took another cold bore shot, and mine was about 2 inches to the right, at 200. So the going to the right part seems like it could be a pattern.
We learned how to shoot from different props, like a slack line, a ladder, a wobbly music stand, blue tubs, seated, and standing supported by a post.
We learned how to mil targets to determine ranges in a practice exercise, followed by a test.
We then had more free time to collect dope, go for the mile target, or practice more positional. We did more positional work, and added a touch of rucking and PT before each mini stage that we made up for ourselves. The other participants probably laughed at us.
At different games throughout the weekend, we'd work to earn points, and each point would earn us a round that we'd be able to use to go for a 3x3 patch target at 400yd at the end. I had 5 shots to use, and decided to intentionally move my holds around a bit for wind, in case it was doing anything I didn't expect it to, since all I needed to earn the patch was a single hit out of the 5.
I ended up earning the top shooter award for the class, which was nice. I did wonder how much of it was my gun vs my skill, but I'll take it, and am appreciative of the honor!
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