TRAINING LEAD-UP
Tuesday, Aug 18:
After some warmups of doubles, triples, quads with rifle, Em helped me run through the AET Rifle Drill, to see if I could improve on my previous time of 4.98. I ended up with 3.92, an over 20% improvement, which is pretty awesome.
The handguard got hot as time went on, and my left arm got tired.
Pulling the rifle into my body helped with stability, which led to more speed. Throttling speed down a bit on transitions helped with accuracy. Trigger freeze still popped up occasionally.
We did observe more keyholing... they would be triangular holes in addition to the rounds fired. Since this was indoors, at 5yd, it wasn't shrapnel from the ground.
Afterwards, I attended my second Skills & Drills.
We worked off of baby turtle targets, with 2 per person.
We started with shuttle runs to retrieve mags, load, and shoot from the firing line, with 2, reload from belt, 2. We ran this 3-4x, at about 4yd. Then, we did a variation where we did 2 and 2, then ran back for another mag to do another 2 + 2, for a couple of runs.
We then did a new-to-me drill called rolling thunder, where everyone in the class of 5 people got on then line, and then you sequentially have each person shoot an increasing number of rounds, starting with 1 round for the first guy, 2 for the second, etc, and even after you get through all 5 people, you start back at the first person with the next number... the goal is to have it sound like one steady cadence the whole time. Doing a proactive mag change when needed is important. On my turns, I'd mess up the cadence by going too fast after the previous person, since I guess I'm used to somewhat going as soon as my partner is done, in team matches, and/or I have a harder time timing my first shot, although I do practice that with the Delorian drill, albeit at a slower count-down. Another issue I had was that I'd naturally speed up the cadence as I went, since the shots would feel too comfortable at the slow cadence... couldn't help it.
Next, we did a bunch of Bill Drill variations, normal at 3yd, 3x, from hands up at 3yd, 3x, normal @ 6yd, 3x, normal at 9yd, 3x, normal at 12yd, 3x. I wasn't happy with how weak my grip was, leading to wild recoil... maybe I gave up good grip in favor of draw speed, too much.
Back home, I gave the barrel a good nylon brushing with Boretech Eliminator.
Wednesday, Aug 19:
Day 27 - Heal & Day 13 - Feel | BREATH yoga with Adriene
Thursday, Aug 20:
Glute and pec PT v2 in 29:13, then a free trial 20 min Peloton ride with Emma Lovewell with 114 Watts, 37% resistance, 88rpm cadence, 5.88 mi, 196 cal.
Friday, Aug 21:
SB and I did lateral movement drills with Emily. We started with a shorter movement (~2m), then switched to a longer movement (~5m). We'd shoot 2-3 targets from one position, 2x ea, then move to the other position and repeat the shots, so that we could mix in target transitions as well.
Next, we did backwards runs, going left and going right. I need to focus on a specific spot on the ground to move towards, then pivot.
We ended with forward and backward, left and right, as a nice culex to bring it all together. I did a proactive mag change so that I wouldn't have to deal with a mag change while moving backwards.
After the lessons, I spent time zeroing the swapped pistol optic on my ported CZP10C. Then, I did a little bit of Delorian. Then, I did some cadence at the end to test grip.
SPARTAN DEKA ULTRA
My ribs were still feeling the effects of the bike accident. I decided to keep my registration and go for the Deka Ultra, though. There were no good deferral options, since the 2027 calendar wasn't out yet. Even if I did defer, it wouldn't be this convenient to get to. Whereas an obstacle course would've felt too risky, with a ton of momentum and gravity pulling on your body and landing hard in play, the more controlled nature of the exercises here made me feel like I had a chance of getting through it as long as I kept up good form and did everything intentionally.
My dad came along for the road trip and dropped me off at the convention center in Raleigh, while he went to look at the trolls and go shopping. The Ultra is run on day 2 of the event. We were the first batch of athletes to go through, and teams would have their heats later on. There was a pit stop area, but this is a pretty controlled environment where you don't need that much, compared to a Spartan Ultra, where clothes and gear will get dirty, and you're far away from your gear most of the time. Here, you'd run by your stuf every single lap, and you had the option to visit your gear whenever you wanted. I just had a backpack with drinks and food. Bathrooms and water filling stations were nearby, too.
They released us three at a time, every 5 min or so, to help ease congestion on the stations. It turned out that for this event, only top 3 females and top 3 males would be recognized, but at the time, I was hoping for and going for an AG podium.
I wore GORUCK Ballistic Trainers, since I exercise in them all the time after work. The GORUCK Rough Runners had been fine at the Spartan Deka Fit, but they're a little bulkier and heavier, I feel, and with this distance, I wanted to be as lightweight as possible. We got bibs indicating that we were doing the ultra. The Ultra event consists of 5 rounds of the normal Deka event, so my plan was to add a knot to the strings of the bib every time I did a round.
Before you go to an exercise station, you have to do 2 running laps. On your first lap, you'd run by the station that you'd be exercising on... I'd think of that as the preview lap. The next time around, you actually go in and do the exercises for that station. It turns out that they have mats to make sure that you hit all the stations on every round, but I'm not sure whether they have a way to track that you did 2 laps instead of only 1. That would make a big difference. It takes a lot of mental focus to keep track of your laps.
I took a picture before the event started, when I was still in the pit area, and my plan was to take a picture after every Deka round that I completed, too. There were 10 stations, and my plan was to do 3 pit stops per round... one after station 3, one after station 6, and one after station 10 where I'd get a round completion picture. That equates to about a stop every mile. With 5K/round, the whole "ultra" would be 25K. That's not ultra from an ultramarathon distance perspective, but from a time and energy perspective, because of all the added work you do at the exercise stations, it gets close to being like a 27 mile effort, maybe.
There weren't a ton of ultra runners. They have some kind of cap, but I don't know how close we were to it. You're running the same laps over and over again, though, so you see everyone the whole time. That's also different from a Spartan race, because on a big course, once you pass someone, unless you're going at a similar pace, you probably won't see them again. Here, everyone sees everyone else, regardless of pace. That gives a nice sense of unity. We're all running our own race, but together.
The 10-Zone Circuit (Repeated 5 Times)
- Zone 1: 30 RAM alternate reverse lunges
- Zone 2: 500m row
- Zone 3: 20 box jump/step-overs
- Zone 4: 25 medicine ball sit-up throws
- Zone 5: 500m SkiErg
- Zone 6: 100m farmers carry
- Zone 7: 25 calories on the air bike
- Zone 8: 20 dead ball wall-overs
- Zone 9: 100m sled push/pull
- Zone 10: 20 RAM burpees
After 2 more laps, it's time for a 500m row. This was a marathon, not a sprint, so I was going to use very reasonable resistance levels on all the ergs. It would be a bit of a break from running, a chance to use some different muscles.
After 2 more laps, 20 box step-overs. If you're used to doing box step-ups with rucks on, this isn't bad at all. There are techniques for doing it efficiently, too, which you can pull off if you have some decent mobility. For this, I was careful about my ribs, since they can get squashed a little depending on how you do the movement. This might've been the only exercise where I felt them at all during the event.
It starts to get a little more challenging with the 14# med ball situp throws, at least if you don't have super long arms. Long-armed people can just raise and tap the ball against the target, potentially. It takes more effort to have to throw hard enough to make it go airborne and have enough momentum to get to the target. This was the one exercise where I had to take little rests in later rounds, vs going unbroken.
The 500m ski erg can also be a little bit of a break, although for this one, you're still on your feet, whereas for bike and row, you're at least sitting down.
The first lap of the farmer's carry at 2x40# was surprisingly easy. When I first picked up the weights and saw the length, I thought "this is it?" It did get harder in the last two rounds, after the fatigue accumulated, and I had to reset my grip and place them on the ground a couple of times.
The 25cal air bike can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it. When I did the Deka, I was going balls to the wall, and it felt extremely difficult. Here, I made it my break on purpose, so it never felt hard.
The 20 dead ball over bars with 40# weren't bad. I did kind of a cleaning / reverse situp movement with momentum yanking the ball up to my chest, to get it to the right height to push over the bar. When you do exercises with sandbags all the time, the awkward weights are no big deal.
The 100m sled pushes weren't bad, either. I remember them being harder last time, but that could've been because I was smoked from going all-out on the single-round Deka Fit, and that would've been right after the brutal assault bike, too. This also felt like a rest break. You're not moving fast, just steady, so your HR could recover. I haven't researched how the resistance mechanism works on these sleds, but the harder you push, the harder it pushes back at you, or something.
The last station was 20 RAM burpees with 22#. I used momentum to sort of throw and snatch the RAM roller up each time, vs having to do a slow press that burned up muscles. Then, do it all over again.
End of round 1...
End of round 2...
I was having fun in rounds 1 and 2, I think. It felt like a festival atmosphere, with the music and the excitement of all the competitors and volunteers and staff. I mentioned it in my Deka Fit AAR, but it's a cool environment to be in, where everyone is pushing themselves, and where movement standards matter and are being judged, so you know that everything's as fair as it can be.
Rounds 3 and 4, maybe, were when I started getting flashbacks from the GORUCK SERE HH event, though. It was a combination of the loud music, the going in endless circles, and the getting smoked that felt oddly familiar. You feel a little crazy, knowing that you've willingly chosen to do this.
Team heats were coming into the mix. They weren't doing the kind of distance we were doing, so they were going blazing fast. It was cool to see them run. They're on teams, too, so they're all competitive and are into it, which is also fun to see. By the time the last of us ultra runners were finishing, the team heats were mostly wrapped up, though.
Round 3...
Round 4...
There was one woman in the crowd who "adopted" me and would cheer for me every time I came around. That was so nice of her, and it was always energizing to come by. She was there for someone else, and some time in my 5th round, she had gone away to meet whoever she was there to support, because they must've finished already, but I really appreciated what she did. There was also a staff member at step-ups who would cheer for me every time, and the farmer's carry volunteer was also fantastic.
I might've done bathroom stops about 2x during the event. My break strategy worked out pretty well... I'd always either eat one snack and/or take a swig of an energy drink at each stop. I'd also have to cough stuff up on occasion, but there were trash cans around.
I did pretty well with pacing, I feel. I didn't feel confident enough to start picking up the pace until I only had like 2 laps left... up until then, I felt like there was a chance that kicking too early would cause a catastrophic bonk. I gave it everything I had, though. I wasn't quite tall enough / couldn't jump high enough to hit the final bell, haha, but that was OK.
Afterwards, I stuck around for awards, only to find out that there was nothing for AG, but I did get to visit the vendors and take in the atmosphere while recovering a bit, which was nice.
The fastest competitors were quite fast, so I'm nowhere near top 3. I'd have to get back into prime running shape to have a chance, and I'm not there these days. I did have a lot of fun challenging myself at this event, though. The amount of concrete is something that you feel afterwards, I think, but just be smart and let your legs recover properly. I will be back! My official time was 5:00:59.6, so it would be nice to at least break 5 hours... quite doable, if I just run slightly faster or cut down on the length of breaks by a little.
I was so tired and ready to go home afterwards that I didn't even consider going to visit the Raleigh trolls again.
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