Glute and pec PT v1 in 28:53, then HDT IR 11/28/22 (core and arms) in 37:04.
Wednesday, Mar 11:
Not training, but my mom and I brought my dad to see Thomas Dambo's "Big Pete" troll for his first time.
Thursday, Mar 12:
Yoga for Neck Hump | Upper Spine Posture & Flow - Day 13 - Ease with Adriene
BRAGG HEAVY
This would be the first year of GORUCK having a Bragg HTBL. I wasn't trained up for the whole thing, so I only signed up for the Heavy. I like to think of myself as always being Heavy-ready, although maybe it's questionable as to whether I was even trained up for the Heavy. I work out a good bit, but an event that requires carrying a lot of heavy things and rucking many miles requires some specific training that I haven't been focused on recently.
We did a gear inspection. Failures to follow the packing list were noted. For gear, I decided to go with the fanny pack that had surprisingly been so helpful to me during the SERE HH last year. I loved the easy access to food, a way to offest weight on my back, and the place to stash my gloves.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
We did the ruck dump and repack, which is pretty common at Bragg, but this time, there ended up only being one chance to get it right. Those who didn't had to repack then stick all their gear into a contractor bag for the next movement. Those who had been missing an item had to grab a 40#SB. Some unfortunate people had both punishments in play. I couldn't bear to see someone struggle with both... the contractor bag is bad enough, so I offered to take a guy's 40#. At the end of the day, it's still a team event.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
The first movement ended up being to the park with the field that they've used in the past for "Cadre baseball" for the welcome party. You didn't know how long the movement was going to be or where we were going at the time, though. The Cadre was the one setting the pace. It didn't seem that bad, but it was meant to be challenging enough that anyone who wasn't ready for the event at all, would find out after a while.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
That was actually going to be the theme of this HTBL (on top of the actual theme of "Origins" of Special Forces). Based on past participants' feedback, they wanted to make sure that every finisher of the weekend truly earned it. It wouldn't be a matter of grey-manning and simply staying awake for 48 or so hours.
One thing you can count on for a movement of unknown distance, though, is that it can't go on forever. With the ruck dump, I didn't have my water bladder connected, for example. They couldn't let us (or people with rucks inside contractor bags) go without water for too, too long.
We got to the park, where the welcome party started. Already, we had already had some decent stress from the ruck dump and the fast-ish movement.
There are many Cadres at big events with many participants like Bragg, but when it's something like an HTBL that's also long in duration, they have to have enough Cadres to take shifts for rest. To make sure that we got a chance to know each Cadre, and to make sure that we got some more small group attention as well, the welcome party consists of rotating among Cadres, one station at a time, for activities at each station.
(Photo Credit: Nick Schrein)
My group's first station was with Cadre Chuy. We brought logs, that we took off a truck, onto the field, for log PT (plus some log carry races).
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
My group's second station was with Cadre Barbarossa. We did SB tosses out, then low crawl drags back, on repeat, working in groups of three. I used a 40# solo, while the two guys I was with teamed up for their heavier SB.
(Photo Credits: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Our next station was with Cadre Dan, who had us do ruck OH lunges and ruck bear crawls back and forth.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Cadre Hand had us circle up and do various ruck-based exercises, where we took turns counting reps and leading.
(Photo Credits: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Cadre Bo had us to different ground-based movements, like rolling, crawling, sprinting, getting up and down, etc. At some point, my ruck started leaking a bunch of water... I wondered what had burst. I'd have to figure that out later.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Now that the welcome party was done, it was time for a super interesting evolution...
We had a 1.1 mi loop around the park that we were told we'd be doing. The time hack was 17.5 min. We were released. They said it was 1 mi, but I measured 1.1 mi, consistently.
(Photo Credits: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
One person didn't make the time hack. The rest of us were staged up again and released, but this time, the time hack was 16 min.
Same thing... once you're back, wait for time to elapse. Then, then set everyone up again. The next time hack was 15 min, for those who were still in it. You can't go at a 15 min pace, though, because it's really 1.1 mi, and you need some buffer, because 1s over is over. You have to pace yourself really well, which is tricky when you don't know what's coming next.
(Photo Credit: Nick Schrein)
Those who had failed somewhere along the way had to start carrying logs as teams of 3. I'd rather ruck fast than carry those logs!
Next, we were given a 14 min time hack. We were all probably wondering how low this would go. I probably had another 1 or maybe 2 more successful laps in me, if they brought it to 13 min then 12 min, but it would be tough.
Those who were still in it were quite impressive. Some were beating the standard by a lot, including some female ruckers that I wasn't familiar with. One was from Colone in Germany. A couple others (Allison Justice & Taylor Williamson) would later go on to win Team Assessment.
(Photo Credit: Nick Schrein)
In the few minutes between when I'd finish a lap and when we were released for the next one, I'd sit along with everyone else and get a little bit of food in me to keep up my energy.
(Photo Credit: Nick Schrein)
After the 14 min/mi iteration, we were told that we could do priorities of work. It paid to be a winner, because anyone who hadn't passed all the loops got PTed by Cadre Chuy. We were so glad to be on this side of the fence.
After that, we got to hear Richard Rice speak, since the theme of the event was "Origins" of SF.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Now, it was time for our first Hero WOD. It made sense to honor various Green Beret MoH winners along the way during this event. This one was for Capt. Roger Donlon. The workout was led by a new employee at GORUCK Scars, who had been taking on a bunch of challenging events. Big props to him, for living the ethos and being willing to put himself in uncomfortable situations to grow. It's not easy being put on the spot and being asked to lead 73 people (minus those who had dropped thus far) while being critiqued by a group of Cadres.
(Photo Credits: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Next, since Joe and I had done the most-ish Bragg Heavies in the group (I think I might've over-counted by one... it's not easy to say an accurate number on the spot, when you've done so many), I was the TL, and I picked Joe as my ATL. Couldn't have asked for a better ATL! We led a movement back to the Special Forces Association compound. This time, we had to bring back the sandbags, plus bring back the logs.
(Photo Credit: Nick Schrein)
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
Logs are challenging because you need about 3 equal-shoulder-height people to team up to go on it or to even swap in on it. Fortunately, the people who show up at Bragg are hard chargers who are there to put in the work, so they all had good attitudes, were stepping up, and willing to suffer for the team.
Once back at the SFA, after we formed up, we found out that our rows would correspond with ODAs that we'd be working with for the rest of the event. Hopefully, you landed on a good one! The rightmost person was the squad leader. Each group had to grab a certain set of coupons. This also helps to enforce no grey-manning. When you're on a small team and you have a bunch of coupons to carry, nobody's going to get out easy.
Unbeknownst to me at first, I was on a team of absolute studs. One guy, Weston, he volunteered to solo-carry one of the 3-man logs on our first loop, since we had so many other things to carry. I also had Joe Baker on the squad. I don't remember, but I might've had Eric Perry, too?
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
We did a deck of cards workout at some point... we were in three groups at the time, two squads per group. One squad leader at a time would pick a card and lead the exercise. One of the cards required doing a low crawl through little mud puddles that happened to be in the field. There was also a smaller lap around the compound that we did a couple of times.
(Photo Credits: Nick Schrien)
We had memory games, where you had to, as a team, memorize a pattern of colors and positions, coupon ruck, then re-create it while still holding the coupons.
During the night, I did roll an ankle, so I went couponless for part of a mile, before I started carrying the 40#SB again. I had to be careful with it for the rest of the event.
We did a couple other Hero WODs to honor SFC Fred Zabitosky and SSG Roy Benavidez. Re-reading their stories, it's wild what they did. Despite seemingly impossible conditions, they never gave up and kept up the fight and put themselves in harms' way repeatedly, to help their teammates and the mission. I was impressed by the traces of this that I saw in my squadmates, who never blinked an eye when the Cadres would give us some big list of coupons to carry that would seem impossible at first.
I remember thinking at some point during the night, how glad I was that I was only signed up for the Heavy.
On one iteration, the team had to drag a tire, to mimic winter soldiers dragging gear in a sled. It's interesting in retrospect to see how different squads approached the challenge and problem-solved.
(Photo Credits: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
One of the workouts required long bouts of walking ruck lunges and seemingly endless low crawls with ruck. Surprisingly, the low crawls were not very friendly to my rolled ankle, since dragging it put consistent force on it at an angle that wasn't ideal. Besides that, though, the ankle fortunately held up.
(Photo credit: Nick Schrein)
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
It did get chilly at night. There wasn't freezing rain or getting put in water like at Bragg events of the past, but when you're damp with sweat and static for a while during priorities of work in chilly enough temps, you do get cold. The fastest squad did get to sit by a fire since it paid to be a winner. Without fire, though, you still keep up spirits and are glad to have any rest at all.
(Photo credit: Nick Schrein)
In the morning, we got to do a service project of helping the SFA. The first set of volunteers helped to pile up tree remains (logs, sticks, etc) that they had dug up to clear land. Others raked leaves, fixed windows, or cooked meat on the grill for a fundraiser.
Nick got some epic photos as the sun rose.
(Photo credits: Nick Schrein)
We mentally prepared ourselves for the final shark attack.
(Photo Credit: Eric Perry aka Steel City Shadow)
(Photo credits: Nick Schrein)
And then we endexed!
(Photo Credits: Nick Schrein)
73 started, and 49 finished the Heavy. 29 incredible GRTs would go on to complete the HTBL. They definitely earned it!
The Heavy was a good gut check, to see if I can still do hard things, in the midst of doing "funner", less physically demanding events. I wasn't in full Heavy shape, but I did my best with what I had.
Bragg is something special. This video sums it up well.
