Savage Race CLT 2022

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, May 22:

In the afternoon, a 2-stop bar crawl in Winston Salem.  There was one place with self-service pay-by-the-ounce taps plus a food court.  Despite having many brands represented, the selection wasn't huge, particularly for the fruity/sour/funky styles that I prefer.

And then a traditional small brewery where we shared a flight.

In the evening, HDT 31.3.1 (Legs) in 40 min with my sister in her apartment complex's gym, while she did her workout program, which she was inspired to do because she got an Apple watch to go with it.

Monday, May 23:

My Christmas cactus is sprouting baby leaves!

Tuesday, May 24:

HDT 31.4.1 (Arms) in 28 min for PT plus a 6:47 1 mile run, plus another 6 min of PT, for 41 total minutes of work.

Wednesday, May 25:

HDT 31.4.2 (Core) for 40 total, including a 7:01 run.  Followed by a 30# strict ruck with the speed rucker for 2 miles in 24:40.  My left knee was still a little unstable from yesterday, where I first noticed an issue while doing burpee pullups, which I otherwise really enjoyed.  It made me feel so strong.

Thursday, May 26:

I joined Cabarrus Ruck Club for an Asian / Pacific Islander Heritage Brew Ruck, covering 3 miles with a 30# speed rucker wearing MACV1s in 1:05:30.  There was a little PT along the way, plus history lessons.

Friday, May 27:

HDT 31.4.3 (Legs) for 42 min total, including a 7:17 1 mile run.

Saturday, May 28:

Did the slow flow yoga at 9:30am, which was good, because my right back was tight this morning, and my body has been needing this for the past few days.  It was a good un-jacking of the body.

Did some studying on precision rifle.

In the evening, I did HDT 31.4.CP (Baba Yaga), a 30 min 40#SB AMRAP, followed by 7.5 miles of biking in the neighborhood for 39 minutes, more for familiarity than intensity.

Sunday May 29:

Went to our favorite range for some pistol, AR, and PR practice.

Pistol: 

• We warmed up on steel at 10yd.
• We dried fire the May GORUCK shooter drill a few times.
• We did the drill with live fire, but without the PT.  Even without PT, we were slow.
• We added PT and hoped for the best.  We gave it a couple of tries, but as expected, PT makes accuracy even harder, and we were still too slow.

Carbine:

• We worked the VTAC board with 1 shot per position until you make it, from 50 yards.
• I decided to use my face to brace the butt stock on the high diagonal that I'm always too short for... not my best decision.

• We also did some standing, kneeling, seated, and prone, without the board.

PR:

• We zeroed and chronoed our 6mm RPRs

22LR RPR:

• 10 cpr is much cheaper than $1.50+ cpr, so we created some mini stages to run with the 22LR RPR.  Even with these little games, we learned from mistakes and figured out a number of ways to be more efficient in our movements.  When we ran the same stages a second time, we were always faster.

Monday, May 30:

Cabarrus Ruck Club hosted a Timed 12 miler, so I joined in.  We did it as a group (that did split in two), and we finished in 3:18:06.  I used 30# in the speed rucker.  I developed a hot spot at mile 4 on the back of my ankle and the right outer pinky toe, which was odd.  I've worn this combination of Salomon X-Missions and Darn Toughs before.  

Tuesday, May 31:

HDT 31.5.1 (Core) in 58 min.

Wednesday, Jun 1:

HDT 31.5.2 (Legs) with 35 min of PT and a 0.5 mi 30#R/60#SB coupon ruck, followed by a 2 mile run in 14:45.

Thursday, Jun 2:

Joined Cabarrus Ruck Club for a hill ruck, known as the Devil's Pitchfork based on the shape of the route.  Afterwards, we did 1 hour of swimming (my watch says that I swam 750m), where SB coached us on form.  That was another fun and unique club event, like the baseball game from last month.

SAVAGE RACE CLT

After doing the Savage urban course (short course) at Sandlot, I was in the mood for and excited to do a full Savage race.  Fortunately, the date of the event worked out for me this year.  I didn't sign up for the elite heat or anything, especially knowing how hard the rig can be.  With that said, I think nobody in age group passed the rig, so placement there just went by time this time around, which I would have a shot at.  Oh well.  My main goal was to see how well I could do on the obstacles, and to have fun, anyways.

My experience at Sandlot helped me know how to tackle a couple of the obstacles that I otherwise would've been new to (ex: Scornhole, Anchors Aweigh), since it had been a 5 years since my last (and only other) Savage Race in 2017.  I like it, it's just that there's only 1 in the area each year, and I'm unlucky with the dates most of the time.

Afterwards, I volunteered, giving out medals, and then taking down the festival area.  Volunteering at OCRs is awesome, since it's bonus physical activity, you get to support others with their race experience, and you get rewarded for it with a free race.

After that, I did HDT 31.5.CP, a 15 min BW AMRAP, followed by a 4.5 mile recovery ruck with lots of Pokemon, wearing a 30# speed rucker and Ballistic trainers, in 1:37:19.  Lots of activity!

While pictures look better shirtless, I pay for it with grass allergies, though!  So I think I'd rather just wear clothes.