Tuesday, Nov 26:
GORUCK's monthly ruck club callout for November was "Zero Dark Thirty". At least 5 people needed to cover 5 miles in the dark. I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling 2 days after the Ultrabeast / Beast weekend, but I seemed mobile enough, so I went with Cabarrus Ruck Club for a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so things were more chill than normal at work. There were also Xmas decorations that had started coming up.
5.0 in 83 min, 16:39 average.
Thursday, Nov 28:
Another local club was also having their Zero Dark Thirty event. It was on Thanksgiving morning at 6am, and I had no work or anything else to do, and according to the RSVPs, they needed a fifth, and I like spending time with other GRTs, so I joined in. These callouts are really wonderful for bringing people together for some fun. I hope GORUCK keeps it up. We covered mostly neighborhoods, with a little bit of commercial areas.
We finished near sunrise, which was awesome, since we got to enjoy those views. We covered 6 miles in 99 min, 16:30 average. Someone brought their mom along, which was also awesome.
After the ruck, I took advantage of the nice park where we started to get in a sandbag workout. Their grass is nice, so it's a good place for sandbag work. I did a 20 min HDT AMRAP with a 20# ruck and 30# sandbag, followed by 5 min of SB situps, 10 min of a SB toss, and 5 min of slik pushups to finish.
For Thanksgiving, I cooked a real meal, which I rarely do. When I do "cook", it's mostly turkey bacon and eggs for dinner these days. It might've been my first time cooking steak, and it turned out OK.
For Black Friday, I hit up the same places I went to last year... Dick's for FAD gear, Target, Walmart, Best Buy. My family wasn't around this year, but if they were here, this is what we'd do together anyways.
Saturday, Nov 30:
I did another HDT workout to stay primed for heavy stuff at the Bragg Heavy scheduled in February. I did an upper body workout with 20-40# of sandbag, including a mile coupon ruck in 21:39.
I met up with a friend for dinner. Mexican food, hanging out, and talking about rucking for 3 hours was awesome.
Sunday, Dec 1:
I had to run an errand, but I stopped at Latta Plantation Nature Preserve on the way back to at least make the trip worthwhile with a little rucking. My body didn't feel up for a run or a workout, but slow rucking was OK. 3.0 in 1:04:09, 21:23 average. My Garmin ran out of battery with about 1 mile left, which at least gives me experience in knowing what to expect when that happens in the future. I got a 10% battery warning, but nothing after that. It just shuts off, and saves what it does know of your workout. I extrapolated the total time based on the pace of what I did log.
GORUCK PEARL HARBOR TOUGH SAVANNAH
Unfortunately, with the new no-transfer policy from GORUCK announced mid-year, I didn't get a chance to transfer the Tough that I had planned on transferring so that I could do the Santa Light instead, so I gave my transferrable Santa registration to someone else and stuck with the Tough.
Savannah is a nice city. I went their twice for ultimate frisbee tournaments in college during spring break. Since then, I've done a 5K + 10K bridge run there in 2014 with some friends, and the Battle of the Bulge integrated Tough in January earlier this year. On the 4 hr drive down, I listened to some podcasts about Pearl Harbor history.
This was a traditional Tough that started at 9pm, so I wouldn't get to see as much of the city as I did in the integrated Tough, which had happened in the daytime. Cadre Dan was leading this one. He had run perhaps the best Light that I've done a few months ago for the Fallujah Light in Raleigh, NC, so I was looking forward to seeing him again. He was joined by a new Cadre, too... Cadre Jonesey.
We met about 5 miles from the riverfront. Tatemville Community Center is a large park in a non-upscale neighborhood, but it made for a good start point. One of the participants in our group of 14 has done many events with Cadre Dan, so the Cadre dug deep into his bag of tricks (and he's run hundreds of events, so he has many tricks up his sleeve) to give us a new and unique experience. He got out a long climbing rope (really long... like 35m) and had us tether our rucks to it with carabiners and shorter strands of webbing (~5 feet long). It reminded me of the "Chain Gang" ruck club callout that GORUCK hosted in the early days, before our areas ruck clubs emerged. That made for an interesting challenge, because we'd be forced to stay together and work together well, or else things could get testy fast. It made coupon swaps more challenging (but not bad or much worse than normal if you use the buddy pair system, in my estimation). An extra twist - if we didn't follow rules or messed up along the way, the Cadre would take away our slack by knotting together sections of the rope, which would only make it even more challenging. Hopefully, we wouldn't get into a situation where we'd be nearly on top of each other and barely able to move carrying the coupons.
For coupons, we had a draggable litter that was rolled up, a scooter in case Dan needed it, a 25-ish # plate, our life preserver replica team weight, and some empty kit bags and sand bags to start. We set off on a lap around the water. I was sure that we'd be getting into the water. It was too convenient. It was a chilly night. I had been debating on whether I wanted 2 layers or 3 layers, and I'm glad I went with 3 layers like I did in the Hard Hitter HTL and the Veterans Day Tough... 3 layers is a good choice for temps in the 40s and 50s. I need to remember that and stop doubting that. I used the Smartwool 250 base layer top and bottom again.
In addition to the coupons, Cadre Dan did his usual of requiring us to each carry an extra 10# sandbag in our rucks, too. One of the the reasons I had considered only carrying 2 layers and leaving the fleece jacket was that I wanted to make room for the "sand baby". His rationale for making this a feature of his events is that he wants to teach us to train harder than the event requires. It's a good lesson to learn. From a weight perspective, I normally train at below standard, since I use a 20# plate with no extra gear or water in the ruck. I started at least doing a couple of workouts with the full load-out for the Mog Mile HTL, since that gear would add extra weight, and I needed to be able to at least handle event weight. For Star Course and Lights, I'm fine, since I train with 20# all the time, but for challenge events, I want to consider maybe moving up to the 30# plate. We'll see.
Fortunately, the water portion was only waist high. We traversed a corner of the pond with the rope anchoring us with trees on either side, to mimic how we'd cross a raging river as a team. We did it once out and once back. I wore MAC-V1's for this event. They are excellent for drainage and keeping water out. I'd later confirm (yet again) that they're not good for me with significant mileage, though. After the water, we proceeded through the park. Our initial exit point was blocked, and a cop happened to be there, so we found an alternate way out.
We rucked through some sketchy parts of the city, but we were probably far sketchier... all 14 of us were tied together with ropes with the cadres in front of and behind us on either end, and we were carrying strange objects, including the life preserver, which was most easily carried around one's neck. I suspect that we looked like some college group going through some hazing ritual, so maybe it wasn't quite as weird. The cop at the gate didn't seem concerned at all, oddly.
Even with the rope, things were fine. In fact, there was too much slack, so we kept like 2/3 of it rolled up and carried by the flag bearer or whoever was behind the flag bearer. After about 5 miles of rucking, we got to Daffin Park, which I had been to at the Battle of the Bulge event. They have a giant field with nice grass. Things started nice, with a break and some Pearl Harbor history. Then, we broke into two teams for some relay races. It wasn't too far, maybe 3/4 of a basketball court. We had to do 20 pushups, then farmer's carry our rucks out and back. Our team lost, so we had to buddy carry the other team to the other side. The other team's smallest person was 175#. I wasn't sure if I could do it, because I haven't tried buddy carrying someone that big before, but it went much better than expected. We went ruckless. Apart from a little stagger at the beginning, I could get to the other side without stopping. It was a nice surprise.
The second race involved bear crawls there and crab walks back. We lost again, but the punishment was just running down and back. The third race was tying all of the rucks together with carabiners, then getting that pain train down and back. We lost again, but I don't remember what we had to do.
After the fun and games, things started going downhill. Everyone had to take off their shoes, which we looped around the rucks on the giant pain train, and we carried that thing for a short distance in our arms, chest high (waist high was all I could do). At least the grass was soft. Some people had just changed their socks and feet tape, though, and now, their feet were wet again, since the grass was wet from dew and recent rains. We got to stop, but only so that we could go out (still shoe-less) and find sand to fill 4x40# sandbags. There was a volleyball court on the far side of the park, so we went there. It wasn't terribly rough ground, and it was a little better than I would've expected on the parts of pavement and dirt with sticks, but it's still not the most pleasant feeling. We came back and had a short time hack to put our shoes back on. Lesson learned for next time - I should've focused on getting the shoes on and tied first, rather than getting each foot and sock back into place fully before moving onto the next foot. I thought I'd make it. Fortunately, we got a little extra time after that to finish up.
We had shoes again, but the suck was going to only get worse. We had to carry the pain train log-style, while also carrying the coupons. That meant doubling up, because there were as many rucks as people. I shared a 40# sandbag with the guy in front of me, with us each carrying one side. It was tricky when we had to adjust the ruck, since we'd have to single-handedly carry the whole thing for a short time.
The Cadre saw that we were moving terribly slowly, so I think there was an adjustment in plans, and he had us go to the volleyball courts, which at best meant filling more sandbags (at worst, which I didn't consider at the time, we might have to get sandy, too). It helped to mentally know that we didn't have to go forever like this, though. It was hard.
We got there and filled up enough sandbags to end up with a 120#, an 80#, a 60#, and a 40#, plus the other coupons (litter, scooter, plate, team weight, flag). We didn't have to stay tethered together anymore, and we got to unclip our rucks from the other rucks, but the sandbags did have to stay roped together. We practiced carrying the pain train of sandbags together with shoulder carries and farmer carries, in 2 teams. The practice runs were short enough to be manageable, but who knew how far we'd have to take it.
We set off again, towards the river. We had a time hack, but for the 120# sandbag, we'd stop each time to switch people out. I didn't try it since the height differential wouldn't have worked, so I can't really speak to it, but the "swap through the middle" approach wasn't used despite the suggestions, for swapping on the move. Still, we kept going, and helped each other and swapped out with each other. We didn't make the time hack, and we were exhausted, so we stopped at a parking lot for a bit. As a punishment, we had to re-tether ourselves for the final stretch to the water front. It wasn't too far, so we managed.
At the waterfront, we had a little more history lesson, and then we went with Cadre Jonesey for a little walk around the waterfront, hitting as many steps up and down as we could find, with about 3 of the sandbags. I hadn't carried sandbags up stairs prior to this event. It is hard... I guess it was 60#, plus the 30# plus gear in my ruck. Someone else took over on the sandbag after I went a flight. Everyone who didn't have a sandbag carried the ruck sandbag style on the tops of our shoulders, which wasn't comfortable, but it's better than the sandbag. I kind of used the shoulder strap as a headband to help keep the ruck in place. We finished with this little exercise and then went back to the Waving Girl statue park for a break.
After the break, we rucked along the waterfront for a while. I was carrying the flag, glad to have a break from the heavier coupons. It was pretty, since there were Christmas decorations around. I was looking forward to heading back, though the start point was still 5 miles away.
Before we turned back inland, we stopped, and reviewed Pearl Harbor history. Then, we had another task... with all of our coupons, make 2,403 steps up or down on the stairs in the riverfront area, to honor the Americans killed in the attack. More stairs! Props to the guys who were hoisting the 120#er or the 80#er up and down those stairs. It's bad enough on flat ground. It was originally per person, but about 1/4 into it, we were told that we could make it a collective 2,403, which meant that we were done with that. Next, we had a pop quiz... if the randomly selected person got the answer right, we moved on. If they got it wrong, crab walk down the top of the stairs, and bear crawl back up. The first question ended up going to me... "What was the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor"? I got the day and month, but I couldn't remember the year... of the date that would live in infamy... how embarrassing. Fortunately, crab walks down and bear crawls up are way more merciful than having to do it the other way around, so I didn't feel quite as guilty for putting the class through that. The rest of the quiz questions ended up being gimme's... maybe because we were running out of time, but nobody was complaining. Granted, the date which will live in infamy should've been a gimme for us, too, if I had paid more attention.
It was time to get moving back to the SP, via Forsyth Park. We rucked. It was hard, even without carrying the heavy stuff. I don't know if it was the foot doing its thing, or the way my feet generally respond to the MAC-V1s after like 9 miles, or the extra 10# SB in my ruck, or the collective stress on my body from the past 6 months and especially the last 2 months. We got to Forsyth Park for who knew what activity. It was daylight already, and we were already past our initial projections of being able to finish at 7:30am.
It turns out that we were going to get a chance to see the draggable litter in action. I got picked to be the casualty. I wonder if it was Cadre Dan being nice to the class, or if he was being nice to me, because I might've been limping on the way to the park. Regardless, I got a nice break and a nice back massage on that thing while the class pulled me and brought along the coupons, for a couple laps around the park.
We still had about 3 miles to go. We got a little break because of a train crossing at one point. It was a struggle. I'd carry the team weight-sized coupons about a third of the time, and just ruck or take the flag the rest of the time. But, we eventually finished.
14 miles in 12 hours nearly on the dot. It wasn't pretty... maybe my lowest performance at an event so far... but I finished.
How to not do so poorly next time...
- No MAC-V1's for Toughs anymore
- Train with 30# more? But I don't feel like I can do it consistently, safely... I started having issues when I did that in February for the mile-a-day challenge, even though it was just a mile a day.
I drove back to CLT on the same day, with a couple of stops along the way for food and a nap. It turns out that the Santa Ruck lasted 7 hours and 11 miles! So I could've showered and gone out to watch them with plenty of time to spare, but rucking more would've been a no-go.
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