I had the first of a few dental visits... 3 over the course of about a week!
My parents visited. I took them to McAdenville, aka Christmastown, USA, for the first time. I didn't ruck it this time, since I had done plenty over the weekend. It was chilly, but I think they enjoyed it.
Wednesday, Dec 13:
Dropped my parents off at the airport, so that they could fly to Denver. I'd meet the fam there later in the month.
Yoga for Celebrating & Center - Day 18 - Gaze with Adriene.
Thursday, Dec 14:
Went out to Waxhaw for their 5am Thursday morning workout. That's quite early! On the bright side, you can avoid traffic, so the drive's not that bad.
We did a 0.8 mile warmup ruck/run, me wearing a 30# ruck. Then, we did a 30 min AMRAP of 5 burpee devils presses with a 40#SB for me, 10 slick HRPU, a 100m 30#R/40#SB carry, and then a coupon ruck finisher of 0.7 miles. When I got to the office, I did 18A "Hollow" for 16 min, before hitting the shower and starting work.
The usual patch of grass in front of the Petsmart had been overtaken by a Christmas tree vendor, which gave us a more festive background.
Friday, Dec 15:
I went to Coleman's Creek for a last tune-up session before Mammoth. With my upcoming trip to Denver, this would likely be it. I thought about getting a Vortex Impact since it was now out, but I'd only have this day to get it set up and to practice with it. Maybe it would've been doable, but it was nice to not have the added stress of figuring it out.
I zeroed and chronoed with the Garmin, getting 2966fps and an SD of 19. The Garmin is so fast and efficient and compact, compared to the Labradar.
I also zeroed the red dot on QD on my old LMT, since it had gotten a little loose at GBF Operation Shooter... I guess that can make me feel slightly better about how I shot.
I also did some positional AR work and a bit of moving and shooting up close at 15yd.
Next, I went to the wide open range #6, to practice positional precision rifle shooting on 660, 560, and 730yd targets. I went slowly and deliberately, to build solid positions and establish good muscle memory. I did about an equal amount live and dry, to get practice while saving ammo and barrel life.
I then went to the long narrow range #7, gathering some more chrono data while shooting (ave 2963, SD 22) and chasing some longer targets. I sometimes choose to fight to hit certain targets and end up using up a bunch of ammo in the process.
I did get to see some deer out there, making poor life choices.
I went back to the zero range at the end to make sure everything was still good... I was about 0.1 high but didn't change anything.
I also shot some pistol at 20yd 6" steel. It's hard to have a bad day at the range!
GORUCK TOY DROP LIGHT
GORUCK had an official Christmas time event in town this year, and Cadre LDB led it. He always puts a lot of effort into making his events meaningful and unique, so I was excited to have him.
There were fun costumes. Events where people dress up are always a ton of fun. It's hard to have poopy faces, even when you're doing something hard, when you're in a costume.
The class split up into three teams, which competed against each other for points. Each team had a kid leading it, and they got to choose the team names... "Santa's Helpers", "Firetruck", and I don't remember the third team. Kids are funny. Losing a game also meant rolling the exercise dice for a number of reps or minutes of a particular exercises.
Since it was kid-friendly, most of the first part of the event involved doing mini ruck loops around half of the park, which allowed us to get a bit of rucking in, while not requiring a huge commitment from the little ones in case they got tired. It also gave LDB a little time to set up each new game/evolution in between.
Team "Firetruck" ended up dominating. After the fun and games, we rucked about half a mile to a nearby Children's Hospital, where we donated a bunch of toys. We were able to surprise the hospital with how much we ended up bringing, which was awesome, especially since the rep came in on her day off to accept the donation.
We went back and got patched, plus we got little goodie bags. It was really nice spending time with the GORUCK fam at the end of the year like this.
We covered about 2 miles in all I used 30#, which came as a surprise to some during the pass-the-ruck-like-a-bucket-brigade evolution.
A few of us went to "The Peoples' Market Elizabeth" for food afterwards, too. They had some nice vegan options there.
Later that evening, I did a 4 mile ruck at 14:52 pace with 50#, although my left achilles felt a bit strained afterwards.
Here's a recap that I made of the event:
FINAL DAYS OF THE YEAR IN CLT
Sunday, Dec 17:
Morning Yoga to Start Your Day and Cneter - Day 19 - Play with Adriene
I also did 90 rounds of dry fire with the G19C with almost no shots detected due to issues with the Mantis, but I trained anyways, drawing from holster and pressing out to the click.
I then did dry fire with the precision rifle, standing and seated, practicing finding targets, looking up dope based on made-up ranges, and focusing on my shot process. I wanted to build that muscle and mental memory.
Monday, Dec 18:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 30:33, "Pullups" in 49:09, not being able to do as many reps as I used to be able to do when I was going harder in training.
Later on, I did glute and pec PT v2 for 27:53 and "Lower Push BW" in 37:47, and at least this workout felt easier and better than it ever has, fortunately.
It would be tougher to fit in workouts once I was in Denver and away from my normal routine.
Wednesday, Dec 20:
My final test ruck for Mammoth was a 5 mile trail ruck at Latta Nature Preserve. I used 50# of plates. The route covered 486 feet of gain and was slightly technical in some parts, but I managed to do it in 1:13:09, which I was very happy with. This was my biggest confidence booster of the buildup.
I wasn't able to do a 4/6/8-mile back-to-back with 50# in my prep this year like I had last year in the lead-up to Mammoth, since I was training with a strained glute the whole time this year. This 5 miler on trail was consolation.
Thursday, Dec 21:
Before my flight to Denver, I squeezed in one more 5am workout with Waxhaw Ruck Club. It was a sandbag workout with some tough overhead lunges. My crazy friend used a 60# ruck. I only had a 30# ruck. That's why she's stronger than me!
I also made one last trip to Blackstone to make sure that aluminum Blazer still worked fine in my CZP10C, and to make sure my pistol shooting was still good to go.
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