TRAINING LEAD-UP
Monday, Mar 10:
Flow - Day 20 - Inward & Day 24 - Rejuvenate | BREATH Yoga with Adriene
Tuesday, Mar 11:
Glute and pec PT v1 in 31:00, HDT 19.1.2 (core) in 26:32 (good lightweight active recovery after lsat weekend's high activity level)
Thursday, Mar 13:
Day 4 - Flow | MOVE & Rainbow Yoga for all ages with Adriene
In the morning, there was a nice sunrise.
That night, there was a lunar eclipse. My binos came in handy! The spotting scope was harder to use because its lower level magnification is so high that it's hard to be on target. The shooting tripod isn't designed to tilt the scope up at the required angle, and my arca clamp spec for the scope is off, which caused the scope to slide backwards into my eyeball.
GORUCK BRAGG BASIC & WS&FB
There was an HTB again this year, but it started on Thursday, which meant that the Basic would be on Saturday. I could've made it to the Tough, but I wanted to try another GBF Mountain event and had signed up for Operation Buckwheat on Sunday. There was also an Operation Scout on Saturday, but the terrain on Operation Buckwheat is friendlier. My joints and body want something more runnable, so I chose Buckwheat over Scout. I wanted to earn dog tags, which requires a tougher time standard. Doing a TB beforehand would've made that impossible, but I felt like I could swing doing the Basic plus Buckwheat.
The Basic started at 2pm, so I could leave home at a reasonable time and make my way towards Fayetteville.
As a warmup activity, Cadre Dan had us go into a flooded field to toss handfuls of water as mortars, into the air, and then we did hydro burpees or hydro pushups.
This year, they made the Basic a series of little competitions. First, there was a loop ruck for time. I came in 11th. 1st place got a special patch.
Next, we were paired up... fortunately, it wasn't that #1 went with #2, and so on... #1 went with #11, #2 went with #12, etc. In theory, it's your slower person on each team who limits you, and I would be the fastest of the slower people. Our first loop was ruck only, so we did well there. Next, we each had to fill a disposable sandbag, up to where no material would show above your fist if you were to ball your fist at the top of the sandbag, after grabbing all the loose material. That didn't leave much material to tie a knot around. It makes for an awkward carry, since there are no straps to hold. We also had to stop a few times to re-tie the knots. If you came back light, who knows what we'd have to do... a whole makeup loop? We came back, and one of our sandbags wasn't up to standard, but we just had to walk about 1/4 mile extra to top it off. Once we were back, it was time to do a KIMS game. After the first loop, I had realized that the signs posted on top of cones weren't for later events... even though it hadn't been explicitly mentioned (though there were hints about SFAS looking for character, intellect, and physical capabilities), KIMS was a part of this task. I tried to pay attention to them and memorize them a few cards in, but I hadn't caught all of them, and there's a lot to remember on each one. We did our rough best on the quiz. It turned out that we did come in first, though, after taking into account the ruck time and the KIMS game. We did finish long before some of the other teams. My partner had done the H and T, but he was still blazing fast. Others were understandably slower after having done the H and T.
The third and last competition was squad-level. We had 12/team, and we had to carry a variety of sandbags and a jerry can around the loop. The cones were still up, so we came up with a strategy for memorizing them along the way, in case we had a re-test. We wanted to ace it this time. Not everyone is used to carrying sandbags at a beginner-level event, but you try to coach and encourage everyone that they can do it. At the end, we actually had a different mini KIMS puzzle to solve on the spot. We memorized a sequence of colored blocks right then, and then re-created it with physical blocks, while still holding onto all the sandbags. We ended up mid-pack... respectable.
We put away all the gear, then went to War Stories and Free Beer. The Free Beer was provided by Hatchet Brewing Co this time. We scarfed down pizza, celebrated the HTBers and everyone else, and listened to the GBs share their wisdom.
GORUCK SCARS had a table and pile of gear to buy stuff from afterwards, too.
GBF OPERATION BUCKWHEAT
After driving home (leaving after it got dark), getting some sleep, and then heading out again bright and early to drive to Asheville, it was time to do the GBF event.
I had reconned it back in January, so I knew where to park, where the trailhead was, and what the route would be like. It would be good to not have to stop or slow down to check my map all the time.
It was raining that morning. The tougher the conditions, the more of an advantage I have, though.
We took our "pre" picture under the [still closed] restroom overhang.
Another advantage of having already reconned the route is that I didn't need to stop to enjoy the sights or to take a bunch of pictures. I just snagged on this time.
I started off at the front of the pack, but a guy named Steve caught up to me near mile 4. I was surprised. He was even carrying a rubber ducky, so he was taking the extra hard route. He had done Operation Scout yesterday and had dog tagged there, too! As tired as my legs might've been from going max effort during the 3 competitive ruck loops, I'm sure his legs had suffered way more.
I caught back up to him about half a mile later at a turning point for Avery Creek Trail, and he paced off of me for the next 2 or so miles. He wasn't able to sustain a running-ish pace, so I broke away and kept going. I had to stop one more time to refill my smaller water bottle with my bigger Platypus, before the last big climb. From the climb up, you loop back and can see if anyone is coming up behind you. I could tell that I had a very strong lead then.
The route finishes with a steep downhill, though, and with about 1 mile left, my left knee tweaked going down and forward. After that happened, it would periodically just shoot with pain and buckle from under me, completely unexpectedly. I could change my gait a little bit to reduce the chances of it happening, but it would still happen, and it would hurt a lot every time. It's a little frightening, not knowing when you'd be moving along, and you'd suddenly feel like you were shot in the knee, and you'd have to catch yourself. I had to slow down a lot, since I couldn't afford to go too fast while this was happening, and I was still going downhill. At least this was just a mile from the finish, vs a long ways from the finish.
I hobbled to the end, then spent a couple hours stretching, while the others came in. I ended up in first, but Steve still had an impressive finish. I finished 11.1 miles in 3:33:44, with 2,802 feet of ascent.
The rain had stopped for a while, but it came back and then poured the hardest that it poured all day. I could sit under the overhang of the restrooms, though. Even though it's not a team event, it feels wrong to not hang around and wait until at least the official finisher time ends.
An added benefit of hanging out after GBF events is that Gregg often brings his dogs, so I got to watch them interact. They are so cute.
Hopefully, the knee thing will get better on its own. I have lots of events that still need to be done!
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