TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, Jul 7:
18A "Upper Body Prep" in 25:25, then HDT 18.1.1 (arms) in 41:26
Plus a trip to Costco. Way too much traffic, so I generally try to avoid coming here, unless I really need something.
Tuesday, Jul 9:
8 miles on a 2* incline treadmill in lime green Kinaravas with a 148bpm nose breathed run. I went until my legs started feeling diminishing returns at 1:43:08. I had to stretch beforehand to reduce inflammation enough to feel up to it.
Tired...
Thursday, Jul 11:
Fun with co-workers
And more move-in activities...
Friday, Jul 12:
Day 7 - Nourish - MOVE & Love Wins Yoga with Adriene. My body has needed this.
THE PROVING GROUNDS @ VODTAC
This was TPG's first time holding an event at VODTAC. My only other experience with VODTAC has been for the Gun Run Night Matches, so I've only really ever experienced the range in the dark. It felt odd to drive up to it when it was early in the morning, before the ROs even got there.
They had a beehive, which I had never seen before.
During weigh-ins when I was taking of my plate carrier, I bonked my head and heard a very cartoon-esque metallic "bonk" as it hit.
I stayed in the shade to stay cool during the brief.
This match would only have 4 stages, (each with a 420s PAR time) since shooting areas were a bit more limited at this range. At least at night when I do the gun runs, this range feels huge, since we're running ~4K. As I'd learn today, though, we just circled around a lot, and the shooting bays are actually all pretty close to each other. There were more people than usual in the squads, too, so we'd have a lot of downtime between shooting stages. At least the stages weren't too far apart from each other, so we could walk from place to place, or go back to our cars if we needed water or anything.
Stage 3:
1. Go through the forest trail, stopping at red sticks on the ground at 4 positions to shoot at 2, 2, 2, and 3 pistol steel, hitting them 2x each, but alternating (no double-taps)
2. Once you get to a black pipe on the ground, load rifle and shoot at 3 white steel. You can brace on the pipe.
3. Run behind a red stick and shoot at 3 orange targets
4. Run to a red shooting box near a tree, and shoot at 5 white steel (one is actually grey and hard to see), 2x each, but no double-taps.
5. Run all the way back to the start and shoot the stop steel.
Outcome/Learnings: 20/44 O, 1/4W
- I maybe had one pistol miss, and about 6 rifle misses, but I did clear the course.
- The black pipe was wobbly, but I still used it
- I tried pushing the pace at times, but it also caused me to miss sometimes, so maybe trying to push the pace ends up being a wash... I think I'd rather get all my hits.
- From the red rifle stick, the ground was sloped uphill a little bit, so rather than go prone, I was half-seated / half-prone on the ground, but seated in a criss-cross way such that I could pop back up right after shooting... the RO was amazed by how fast I was at shooting from that position.
- I tried using the tree as a vertical brace from the last position, but it was kind of wobbly... I should've tried a lower position instead of that braced standing position.
- I was pretty efficient with moving around mags and my sling while on the run
- Good visual patience on the last pistol target... it always feels good to nail that last hit, especially when others are watching.
Stage 4:
1. Drag the tire (women to the 1st pistol spot, men to the 2nd pistol post)
2. Shoot 1 hit each L->R on 3 pistol targets, twice
3. Go to the top of the hill and shoot 3 more pistol targets L->R, 1 hit each, 2x through, and clear
4. Shoot 14 rifle steel with 1 hit each @ 90, 125, 180, 225, and 300yd, from tank trap. Clear
5. Run and drag the tire back to the start
6. Run back uprange to shoot the stop steel
Outcome/Learnings: 26/44 O, 2/4 W
- At the first pistol spot, I missed my first shot at the middle target, both times through
- I used the tank trap for the second pistol spot, which was helpful, since those targets were smaller, and I didn't miss.
- I missed on the far rifle targets sometimes. Holding low on the target worked at 300yd, too, which surprised me.
- I held my breath on the tank trap to avoid breath wobble. Not ideal, but it worked out ok.
- The tire wasn't terrible, as I dragged it over my right shoulder with my rifle slung over my left shoulder. The tire did bump my heels a couple times at the start of each pulling movement, since I grabbed the strap too close to the tire
- I missed my first shot on the stop steel
- It took me 28 rifle rounds to shoot the 14 targets
Stage 1:
1. Rifle starts grounded.
2. Climb the rope (or take a 60s penalty after at least an attempt)
3. At bay 1, shoot 4 targets L0>R, 1 hit each, from each of 8 pylons for 32 total hits, with any pylon sequence, although at the two blue pylons, you can only use 1 hand. 60s penalty if you use 2 hands or aren't on the pylon when you shoot.
4. Go to bay 2, where you load the rifle at the tire, shoot 5 white targets N->F with 1 hit each, 2x through, but only from the top left and then the top right of the tire. Clear rifle.
5. Run to bay 3, load the rifle again, and make 2 hits anywhere on the brown cardboard.
Outcome/Learnings: 26/44 O, 1/4 W
- The rope climb was ok, with the pistol and my 12# plate carrier
- Pistol was fine, even with my one-handed shooting with the cant technique
- Rifle was rushed a bit too much, but not terrible. Don't rush!
- I had to remove my glasses to see some of the rifle targets from the tire
- I got on the base tire to get enough height to see the target better, since that was the only way to hit some of them
- I shot a couple extra rifle rounds on cardboard just in case... went too fast to be confident that I hit
- I did do sight over bore when it mattered on the cardboard "head shot"
Stage 2:
1. Start with 2 hands on the barricade
2. Gather 5 target + hanger combinations and bring them over to the bay, where you hang them up in the semi-circle, with as many trips as needed
3. Choose any position from the barricade to shoot those 5 targets with pistol.
4. Change positions on the barricade, repeat, then clear.
5. Shoot 6 rifle steel with 1 hit each
6. Change positions on the barricade, repeat, then clear.
7. Take the pistol steel and hangers back to the starting squares
8. Go back to the barricade to shoot the stop plate.
Outcome/Learnings: 28/44 O, 2/4 W- I tossed the steel from the squares to the center of the field, so that I didn't have to keep bending down and deadlifting an increasingly heavy stack of steel. I wasn't able to throw very far, so some amount of collecting was still required.
- The hangers went into my dump pouch, which I was glad to have.
- I dropped the pile in the center of the bay and took 2 pieces of steel to the left. Then, I did the next 2, and then did the last one.
- I forgot to hold for the 25yd spot on my pistol reticle and had some misses because of that
- I ran out of time halfway through collecting the targets. That was hard.
- I wore gloves, since some people said that the steel was hot after being in the sun all day
- There was a 60s penalty per unreturned item, but they capped that so that it wasn't a 10 minute penalty... that was a brutally punishing penalty structure. The 1st place woman was able to return the steel in time, which was a big boost for her.
Overall: 27/44 O, 2/4 W
- Since rushing vs taking my time is a wash, I'd rather take my time.
- I was decent with one-handed, canted, offset stance shooting
- I'm not a fan of stage designs where one thing makes a massive difference.
- I still did ok, even compared to 1st, though.
- I still struggle with rifle at distance, not knowing my holds. Ballistic calculator estimates are off for whatever reason, maybe bad inputs.
- The stages this time felt like longer gun run stages... not necessarily more complex or fun in most cases... just longer. I like the complex, unique activity stages, more than just extended time with more rounds style with the same old same old.
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