TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, May 24:
Rucked 5 mi in 1:54:21 at Rocky Branch Park 2x, playing Ingress as a bit of a fartlek, wearing MACV2s with 30# in the rucker v3 shorty, after getting my car battery changed.
Monday, May 25:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 24:58, then "Push-up" in 1:14:14 going to failure a few times in the last set, then 3x10 60#SB squat clean finisher to try to build back strength. The first 5 reps of each set normally weren't that bad, but the last 5 got increasingly hard and slow.
I rucked 2.5 mi in 51:09 afterwards with a 30#RPC in the neighborhood to get a package for my mom, wearing MACV1s with light rain on the way back.
Tuesday, May 26:
18A "Lower Body Prep" in 18:51, "Lower Push BW" in 42:38. My upper arms and pecs were sore today from the push-ups yesterday. It was a tough day at work, but I got some energy towards the end of the day to do the workout, plus
....
Dry fire with the Mantis Titan X
I zeroed the laser, after figuring out which holster I wanted to use with it and setting up more Appalachian Syndicate targets around the dry fire room.
I did 4x15 of multiple target transitions with pairs and staggered heights. Consistent and firm palm pressures are important. I tend to click fast on the last pair but not on the first pair, for some reason.
The TitanX does feel much lighter than my CZP10C with 147gr Snap Point weighted dummy rounds, even though the TitanX has a weighted mag.
I practiced someone-handed shooting, which is sooooo much nicer with the TitanX, vs having to rack after each shot. The laser also helped me realize that I'd yank the gun left-handed, which explains the big spread of my shots in live fire. I need to put more palm on the grip, vs cupping it with contact only in the front and back of the grip.
Wednesday, May 27:
Rucked 4 mi in 1:42:06 at Renaissance Park, wearing running shoes. It had been raining recently, so the trails were slick! I wore a rucker v3 shorty with 30# and played Ingress.
At night...
More dry fire, back to the CZP10C
- 9 mags of draw and shoot on the small Appalachian Syndicate targets
- 3 mags of draw and shoot on a reduced IPSC cardboard target with no visible lines
> I'm trying to be more target-focused vs dot-focused now.
> Punching out with the gun on the draw saves me about 0.1s most of the time, and I'm still pretty controlled when I do get to the extended position.
> I went from 2.X's at the beginning, to many 1.6's and a few 1.5's.
> My nervous system was fatigued, so I wasn't planning on being able to push the pace today, but I naturally did as I warmed up.
> I kept going for 65 min until my right ring finger was blistering/callousing.
Thursday, May 28:
Glute and Pec PT v1 in 33:33, then 18A "Hollow" 16 min BW AMRAP.
Then Dry fire:
30 min of walking and shooting in all directions and multiple targets (AS as well as cardboard), with the TitanX.
I had good discipline about making good shots.
I do. have to stay front-sight focused with irons (despite what Ben Stoeger says)... at least it leads to better hits for me.
Friday, May 29:
More training with Em.
SB wanted to work on draw and shoot, so we started with that. SB learned about indexing on her holster for more consistency.
I wanted to practice the Bill Drill, since I struggle with maintaining a good enough grip to have 6 good shots in a row for the AET monthly drills. Em had us build up in a methodical manner, with 3's, then 4's, then 5's, then 6's. I had some high fliers from not waiting long enough for the gun to return when I pushed the pace. I have to keep strong pinching pressure on the back of the grip. She also had me push the pace so fast that I'd start to miss the A-zone, so that we could reel it back in afterwards.... also a good technique.
We did some El Pres to practice multiple targets. I need to focus less on maintaining cadence for all 6 shots in a string, and instead wait for the sights, since it's going to be natural for it to take more time to go from one target to another. If targets are really far apart, a wider stance helps the torso have more room for turning.
We finished with some walk and shoot. Bent knees helps to reduce bounce. Even somewhat short runs can benefit from letting go with the left hand. I still need to work on having my legs land wide. My walk-and-shoot times were 1-2s faster than my shoot, run, shoot times.
Prenatal Yoga & 20-min Yoga for Hips with Adriene
then
MOONS OUT GOONS OUT - TWILIGHT EDITION
Carolina Shooters Group wanted to try something different with their 2-gun night match, especially during the summer, when doing a 100% night match would require shooting late into the early morning hours. They decided to do a match that would intentionally start during the day, so that we could start shooting earlier, then do more stages at night. White Light and NV would still be separate divisions, and each division would shoot its own set of 3 at night and 3 during the day, so it would still all be equal within a division.
I decided to give it a try, and it ended up being awesome... I liked that we got some variety, with the night and day shooting, and while I don't mind staying up late, I wasn't sad about getting to leave at a reasonable time.
At this match, there would be no PAR times... just your actual time plus penalties, where rifle misses add 10s, pistol misses add 2.5s, FTDR = 60s, NS = 5s.
Stage 5: <Rifle Only>
- Run from the start line to either the left box or the right box
- From the left box, hit 3 per bottom (left-facing) target on 6 targets, with 1 to the head area, 2 to the chest area (comstock)
- From the right box, hit 3 per top (right-facing) target on 6 targets, with 1 to the head area, 2 to the chest area (comstock)
Learnings/Outcomes: 2/11 division in 68.36s
- I saw Steve do a smart pre-emptive mag change on the run, since 36 would be needed to clean the stage, anyway
- I did shoot extra, since I wasn't sure on some if I hit, but it was worth it... I shot 43 rounds of 50gr Federal JHP = 7 extra
- I was the only one on my squad (there were 2 NV squads and 2 WL squads) to have no M's.
- I charged the rifle on the run, since we started with mag in bolt forward
Stage 6:
- Start with rifle mag in bolt forward empty chamber, staged on the tank trap
- Start at the pink flag with an empty pistol
- Shoot 5 pistol targets L->R 1 hit ea, 2x through
- Move to the tank trap, drop mag, and shoot the pistol HVT with 1 attempt
- Grab the rifle and go up the stairs
- Shoot 6 rifle steel 1 hit ea, L->R using the top rail @ 50-125yd
- Repeat the rifle course of fire from the bottom rail
Learnings/Outcomes: 11/11 division in 135.90s
- I used 33 rounds of pistol with 2 skips
> I had to hold more center and not at the top of the chevron to make my hits... maybe the targets were more than 25yd away
> It was hard, and I was missing and fighting for some reason, which surprised me, since I feel like I've shot more difficult pistol before.
> I skipped the first target on each go-around, yet I'd end up hitting a smaller target later on with less trouble each time
> The "slow squeeze back" cue wasn't helping like it normally does... that normally means I have to go even slower... either that, or it was just my hold that was off... maybe it was 50yd, if there was a berm there
> It was tough to have this happen, after coming off the high of doing well on the previous stage
> I thought about increasing my left palm pressure partway through the shooting... I should've focused on it earlier, not that it necessarily would've helped
> I fought the targets for way more than 2.5s each, but I did it in the spirit of the game, and to hopefully help me learn and improve
- Good thing I didn't go dry on my second pistol mag, since doing another reload before the HVT would've wasted even more time... I had exactly 1 round left for it
- I got the HVT, at least, which felt like a little redemption
- I shot 15 rounds of rifle (so 3 misses)
- I shot with a red dot rifle, which made transitions between targets and spatial awareness easy, vs looking through a tube with magnification
- I braced my right elbow on the corner of the top rail but didn't do that on the lower rail for some reason, maybe since I had forgotten to move and the RO reminded me after I finished the top rail portion.
- Later on when WL shot this stage, I saw someone bracing for pistol.... that would've helped... I should've asked if it was allowed.
Stage 4: <Pistol Only>
- Start at the red stick, empty
- Move to the left barricade and shoot 6 cardboard, 2 hits ea, going L->R on top and R->L on the bottom
- Shoot the steel in the right corner of the bay, 1x
- Move to the center barricade and shoot 2 cardboard, 2 hits ea, then shoot the steel in the center of the bay, 1x, from any port in the barricade
- Move to the right barricade and shoot 6 cardboard, 2 hits ea, going L->R on top and R->L on the bottom
- Shoot the steel in the left corner of the bay, 1x
Learnings/Outcomes: 8/11 division in 63.54s
- Shot 2 mags and 4 rounds
- Went empty while going after the first steel, so I skipped it
- Paper was easy and close, so I probably could've gone faster
- I wondered if I should've reloaded again after shooting at the middle barricade and ended up having to do a mag change for the last steel, but at least it was quick
- I tried to brace on the left and right barricades, but it didn't help when I was going after steel from the left barricade... it was wobbly
- No makeup shots were needed on paper... I was probably watching my holes like I'm not supposed to
- I forgot to do "target focus" today
<Switch to NV after a ~1-hr wait>
Stage 2:
- Start with rifle mag in, bolt forward, empty chamber on the table, plus an empty pistol
- Shoot 4 card suits with pistol, 1 hit ea, L->R, 2x through
- Take the rifle and shoot 10 cardboard with 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes: 10/11 division in 78.19s
- Used 16P
- No makeups needed for my 20 rifle shots
- Got redemption on pistol, since I feel like it was a similar distance but smaller target
- I checked beforehand which target was on top for the stacked pairs for rifle (lower, in all cases), since that would affect my point of aim
- I shot passive on rifle. I had trouble finding the dot in my blind spot on the first target, but it was OK after that
- I used a WML for pistol, since otherwise, they looked like spotted messes that blended in with the gravel ground background
Stage 3:
- Start rifle mag in, bolt forward, empty chamber, standing at the left box, in low ready
- Shoot 3 rifle steel 1 hit ea, L->R, 2x through
- Go on safe and run to the right box and shoot 3 other steel L->R, 1 hit ea, 2x through
- Drop mag, clear, run to the house entrance, dump the rifle in the barrel
- From window 1 with muzzle through the window, shoot 3 cardboard, 2 hits ea
- From the back window, shoot 5 steel poppers 1 hit ea, 2x through
- Drop mag and shoot the HVT cardboard head with 1 attempt
Learnings/Outcomes: 10/11 division in 103.85s
- Shot 18R (vs 12 min)
- Shot 30P (vs 19 min)
- I fought on the small rifle target at first with my IR laser on max... I tried going passive, but that didn't help. Something changed, though, and I hit it afterwards.
- I went passive on pistol, but they were all close.
- I rested my arms on the window sill for pistol steel
- I go the HVT just fine.
Stage 1:
- Start rifle mag in bolt forward empty chamber, both hands on the table.
- Shoot 5 rifle steel 1 hit ea, L->R, 2x through @100yd
- Turn right, drop mag, shoot cardboard with 1 try
- Lay down the rifle and run to the first pistol box on t he left
- Shoot 1 cardboard downrange, then turn right and shoot 3 cardboard on the right berm, 2 hits ea
- Run to the right box further downrange and shoot 3 cardboard on the left berm, 2 hits ea, then turn fully downrange and shoot the middle steel until you hit it
Learnings/Outcomes: 7/11 division in 128.75s
- I shot 10+17 pistol, going empty on my final hit on steel after fighting it, and with a pre-emptive mag change during my run from spot 1->2
- One of my pistol WML's batteries had fried (rechargeable but won't recharge anymore) before the stage when I was checking, but I was the last shooter, and we decided that the others could help to light me up at the end, vs having me go back to my car to grab spare batteries, since we all wanted to get home at a reasonable hour
- Rifle made lots of smoke, so I shifted left and right on the table after each shot
- I used IR for rifle and braced off of the table on my mag
- I shot 15R (vs 10 to clean)
Overall: 8/11 division
- Not sure why I struggled on stage 6's pistol... the hold?
- Red dot worked well at these distances... didn't miss the LPVO
- Fought pistol in the spirit of the game and to get practice
- This squad liked to use white light for pasting, which made NODS management more painful
- Good strategies from Steve for pre-emptive mag change and bracing
SOUTH FORK SAMPLER
It was good to go home at a more reasonable hour this time, since I had another race the next morning. It wasn't an A-race, it wasn't anything crazy long, and was just going to be for fun, so the minimal sleep the night before was OK.
Gear drop-off started at 7:30am, check-in started at 8am, the brief was at 8:45am, and the race started at 9am. Since I was taking this on in a low-key way, I kept things simple and easy and decided to bring a kid-sized kayak, vs trying to fit the full-sized sea kayak in the van. The full-sized one fits, but making it fit is a lot easier with two people.
I'd be doing it solo this time, after doing it with BR the previous year and with SB in past years (2022, 2023, 2024). A different type of experience. I had signed up pretty late this year, since it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do this weekend, with all the different options out there.
This year, the main event would be a 5-hr race again, as opposed to the 8-hr events of old. It was nice that it was on a Sunday, since that left Saturday open for other activities, and maybe the roads were less busy, making it more safe to bike around on the streets.
I staged my gear on a spot in the grass and put my kayak closer to the dock.
Hopefully, you arrived at the pre-race briefing ready to go, since we rolled right into the start.
This year, instead of bottle cap tosses between laps around the park, we began with a tug-of-war between randomly split teams. Beforehand, Adam the RD had asked the front person on each team (it happened to be me for my team) to pick a number between 5 and 10. The other guy picked 5. "7" seemed like a good medium number, so I went with that. We won with the 1-2-3-pull technique (and we were possibly a bit bigger, since there was a family race with kids that day, so kids were in the mix), so we went with "7", which meant that everyone had to run 7 laps around the park before the start.
The run at the start did force us to get some on-foot miles in, which was good, since the rest of the race would be bike- and paddle-heaving. There wasn't much of a point in getting points on foot if you had a bike. We'd be in a small town, so it wasn't like we had bushwhacking to do purely on foot.
The "donut dangle" was back this year. It was a fun and tasty twist last year. Some time between 11am-noon, you had the opportunity to get in your kayak and go under the main bridge to grab a donut from a hanging basket. If you did, you'd get one bonus point. That affects race strategy, since you want to time things so that you can take advantage of the bonus point.
I decided to bike first, since that's a bit more predictable than paddling, where currents and the boat can affect your speed. I don't kayak often, either, so I'm not as familiar with speeds, although I seem to remember it being on par with running speed.
This year, the race would stay within the town of Cramerton. I appreciated that, since the ride out to McAdenville has some road sections where traffic sketches me out a bit. Whenever you have to go further out, planning return times is more difficult, too, especially when you have to deal with long stop lights.
I went north first, to grab quick early road points. I'd go east after that, which might take longer since it would involve the Rocky Branch Park section where biking might be a bit slower. Depending on how time looked, I'd either go up the big mountain road towards the church next, or save it until after doing some paddling for donut time.
My first point was in a location I hadn't been to before. At first, I went past the little trail that would take me to a different neighborhood, but I noticed that I had gone too far and backtracked to find the trail and grab the point.
I zig-zagged through those neighborhood streets and Central Park to make my way towards Railroad. Those streets are not perfectly grid-shaped, so I always end up taking a slightly roundabout route through there.
I think the plotted point for Railroad was at a slightly different location than where the point actually was, but the picture of the point, combined with a little bit of common sense / thinking like a MD and searching yielded the point.
I crossed over through Goat Island, onto the island-side greenway to get Riverlink.
What I formerly called "the secret path" is no longer a secret, since they built up the entrance and made a sign, but that led to paths behind the neighborhood and the point called "Path". There were racers not far behind me, and also racers coming in the opposite direction. Much more racer traffic than usual for some reason.
"Lakewood" was a new point, a subdivision sign. I didn't get a selfie there, though, since there were many racers out and about, and I felt pressure to not lose time then.
I went on to Rocky Branch Park and got "Platform".
There was a MTB trail point that we couldn't get due to recent rains, so we were told to get a selfie at the far end of the park, instead.
There's some way to get from there back to the start using roads that are off-map, but I haven't bothered to figure it out, so I just took the all-weather MTB trail to go back towards the start. I needed to grab "Riverside" anyways. Most of the teams who had squeezed in an initial on-foot point probably went for this one. You do have to do a bit of scrambling to get there, depending on how you attack it.
I still had time before the donuts would begin, so I went up the mountain, past the church that's normally a point, and out to the city limit. That was a nice touch, since the theme of this year's race is staying in Cramerton.
The uphill didn't seem that bad to me, and you always go fast downhill.
It was good to not head to the water right at 11am, since only one or two teams can use the dock at a given time. Only one donut basket was waving around, too. I was able to transition and get into the water with my baby kayak pretty easily and got my donut.
The baby kayak did a decent job of transporting me. I was somewhat low in the water since I'm towards the top of the weight limit for that water craft, but it was still fine. I decided to go south first, to River Rocks. Many of us were still looking for cones, but the point was actually on a floatie (like in past years for some water points). The first point was a blue duck floatie.
I wasn't able to take selfies anymore, since the water and my paddling motions managed to trick the phone into thinking I was trying to [incorrectly] type in my password, and I got locked out of my phone for increasing periods of time.
I went north next and got "Backside" with a pink flamingo. I had considered portaging since my kayak was light, to get to the other side of the island and re-enter the water there, in case the channel I was going up would get super narrow or shallow, but others had come from that direction, so it must've been passable. I stayed in my boat. There was one section that was shallow, but it was pretty short, and I could force my way through the sand ok.
The far point wasn't too terrible of a paddle to get to. It was an orange-colored creature floatie.
Now that I had gotten all of the official points, I was allowed to go for the bonus points. There were two land ones and two water ones, but you had to alternate between the two disciplines. I started with land, since that's a bit easier. We had to ride back out to the far side of Rocky Branch for another selfie. I explained to the RD what had happened with my phone. I'd be locked out for at least another 13 minutes. We decided that between my Garmin tracking and honor system, I'd keep going anyways. Thankfully, I was able to get back into my phone by the time I got to the carin and get my selfie. I was very happy. Yeah, there's the race part, but if I had to restart my phone from scratch, I'd lose so much data and memories for stuff not stored in the cloud (which you have to pay extra for). It happened to me once before.
I got back, showed me visit 2 selfie and went back and showed my visit 1 selfie. Then, I learned that the first water point was the double-arched bridge. I saw a decent number of female racers during the day, and a few were coming from that direction as I was heading that way, so I figured that they were ahead of me.
When I got back, I was eager to hear what the next land point was... likely the church or something. Close... it was the school beyond the church on top of the mountain. If you get back to the finish line after the 5 hour time limit, you are DQed, so the cost of being late is super high. I figured that there were women ahead of me, but I didn't want to be late, so with about 20 minutes left (and not having measured how long it takes me to get up there and back down, which I should do at some point), I called it. Even if I don't win, I had fun.
Another fun and successful race. Afterwards, recovering from the hard effort and taking care of gear.
The scores got messed up for this event, so I don't have rankings... just hit factor and hits.
Stage 2: Hi-Jinx Classifier 19-01 <Comstock>
- Start anywhere inside the shooting area, hot and holstered, wrists below belt
- Shoot 3 IPSC (1 partial with NS, 2 full on left side of wall) from the left side of the wall, 2 hits ea
- Shoot 3 IPSC (1 partial with NS, 2 full on right side of wall) from the right side of the wall, 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes:
- 12A in 18.03s = 3.3278% HF
- I shot 14 instead of 12 due to make-ups
- It would've been better if I hadn't needed to take the make-up shots
- I felt fine with my movements and everything else
- There was a delay between my last shot in one position vs moving to the next position, probably because I was looking for where the bullet holes were landing
- I forgot my 2 cues for today: target focus and left palm smash
- I was initially planning to go R->L, but someone else mentioned wanting to do L->R to make it easier to move while pointing downrange, and that made sense, so I switched plans
- I went L->R when engaging targets in both arrays, too, since that seems easier to do, despite the need to throttle down the speed for target #6, but someone skilled could walk and shoot and engage targets as they became visible, which would mean R->L for the two arrays, I presume
- This was a classifier, so I wanted to be conservative and make the hits this time, vs what happened last time with Virginia count and misses
- My goal had been to go slow and get all A's
- I had a consistent cadence on the first array despite having a smaller target initially... in theory, I should be able to go faster on the bigger targets
Stage 1: <Virginia>
- Start with feet on the XX's
- Shoot 5 from the far left of the lane, then move to get 1 in the corner of the room
- Shoot 1on the far side of the room from the right corner, then go around the right wall to get 3 more targets, 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes:
- 17A, 3C in 26.75s = 3.5140% HF
- I forgot to do a mag change before the last position in the far right corner, despite practicing that numerous times dry before the stage... that might've caused me to subsequently yank 2 C's after feeling frazzled
- I was cognizant of the face that this was a VA count stage, with no chance for makeups
- For the last array, I ended up doing middle-right-left instead of going L->R like I had practiced, since I shot what seemed most accessible and expedient first. I had to kind of lean to get to the leftmost target
- I remembered my left palm smash cue partway through the first array, when I noticed that I was not doing it and my grip was slipping
- Quite a few people went R->L on this stage... there are pros and cons
- The start had us with wide legs, but it was fine, even though I'm short.
Stage 3: <Comstock>
- Start standing anywhere outside the shooting area, hands above shoulders, hot
- Shoot 5 from the left side of the lane with added NS's and 1 around the room's corner
- Go to the far right of the lane and shoot 1 last target in the room and 3 from the right side of the wall with extra no-shoots, 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes:
- 17A, 3C in 30.98s = 3.0342% HF
- I didn't insert my mag hard enough during the mag change, so I had to redo it, but at least I noticed it before trying to shoot, so it didn't drop out mid-stage... and at least I remembered to do the mag change at all this time
- I did remember the left palm smash cue, at least from the last spot
- I was still debating on my stage plan until it was my turn, trying to decide whether to go for smaller head shots away from the NS, or going for a slightly bigger A-zone near a NS. I ended up doing what I felt more comfortable with when I got to the target. When I had checked the head size while pasting for other people, I noticed that they were smaller than I remembered, which is why I reconsidered my original plan of going for head shots
- I liked my start position with both feet staggered against the left fault line
- I stuck with L->R on the lane again, since I was familiar with doing it from the last sister stage.
- I was told that I had two targets where only 1 pasty was required, since the two holes were so close to each other, which was nice
Stage 4: <Comstock>
- Start with feet on the XX's, facing downrange, hands above shoulders, holstered and cold
- Run back to the barrel and grab mag(s)
- Shoot 2 (with no-shoots) from the back lane)
- Move to the front box in front of the entryway and shoot 6 targets with NS's, 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes:
- 13A, 3C, 1 NS in 32.007s = 1.9956% HF
- I chose not to take 2 mags from the barrel, since I wouldn't need a second mag unless I needed multiple make-up shots, which had a very very small chance of happening. If I did grab the extra mag, I'd definitely need to eat up time with putaway, and reloading would take time later on... I'd just try to make the one mag's rounds count
- From the first lane, you could stay towards the middle and get the two targets from there, without having to go to the far side, and you could get the other two targets later from the front lane
- I went for the far right targets first from the second lane first, so that I wouldn't forget to take care of them.
- I noticed my NS and did a makeup shot, which did mean that I had no more chances for makeups later on, since I had only 1 mag
- I was sloppy and frazzled by the no-shoot, messing with me mentally and causing me to rush the rest of the shots too much, I think. You can't let it affect your plan for the rest.
- I forgot my "left palm smash" cue
- I was cognizant of the sideways target causing the A-zone to be in a special location, which was good
- I didn't have a chance to top off the 17 rounder to 18 rounds, since we had to load on the clock, so I only had the 1 makeup opportunity
Overall:
- I do need to work on my mag changes, especially in top-off scenarios where it's harder to insert the mag and have it properly seat when there's already a round in the way
- There were tricky NS positinos this time, so you had to choose between bigger A-zones with NS risks vs smaller but harder shots with no NS's
- Despite writing my cues on my hand before the match and rehearsing important steps, I'd still forget them
- I need to not watch for where my holes land, since that makes me slower. It's a hard habit to break, but I guess that's what dry fire and practice is for.
This was a 3-event weekend, but not too bad...
