Pre-9/11 HTB (Midwest, Who Dares Wins II, Stairs, Boone, Biking)

Monday, Aug 16:

"Chipper" with 20# in 5:15, followed by Week 2 Rucklympics in 23:28.  Added 75 4-ct flutter kicks in 2 min to fill out the time a little.  Need to support the PATHFINDER group!

Afterwards, flew back to Sioux City.  

(Did this to remember where I parked, because walking laps around a parking lot after a long trip is not fun!)

(In the line for the security gate, I noticed that there was a piece of the Twin Towers at the CLT airport, which was cool to see as I was mentally preparing for the HTB.)

(Hero Clip FTW!  I don't like putting my stuff on bathroom floors.)

Tuesday, Aug 17:

After work, my "workout" was doing 1 hour of max pushups, followed by 1 hour of max squats, for Rucklympics.

This is how I kept track of my totals for pushups, since I needed breaks between efforts:

And this is how I kept track of squats, since I didn't need breaks there, and just kept track of 100 rep marks by making knots in my shorts' drawstrings.

This was my view for the squats.  Not bad at all!

I ended up with 350 pushups and 886 squats.

I enjoyed some good food and drink afterwards:

Thursday, Aug 19:

After work, I went on a slick hike at Stone State Park in Iowa.  I covered 906 feet of elevation gain and explored whatever different trails I could find, taking me through a variety of ecosystems.  It was active recovery from the squats, and I appreciated the opportunity to see more of the area while I was in town.

I hadn't brought a fanny pack with me on this trip, but I was able to attach a pouch to my belt loops with carabiners.  Hey, it worked!

Saturday, Aug 21:

This was the second annual "Who Dares, Wins" Basic Simulator put on by "Terry GRT" from Fort Mill Ruck Club, in honor of his dad, who was in special operations in the Greek army.

It was similar in format to the "Tough Love" basic sim that I had done with Terry previously, with rucking, coupons, stops for PT (45 minutes cumulatively).  

We stopped at a war memorial to lay flowers and pay respects.  We did some exercises at a baseball field.  We did some more exercises in a parking lot by a park.

At the end, we hung out for a bit and enjoyed some beer, including glittery "Unicorn Farts", which someone was kind enough to bring and share.

Sunday, Aug 22:

I did the Rucklympics Week 3 workout with 30# in 15:12 (not going for speed), followed by a 2 mile strict ruck in 22:08 to redo the earlier un-strict ruck.  After that, I added in the Beginner BW Bomber workout with a ruck added, for another 26:44 of PT.

Monday, Aug 23:

I did the "HIIT: Oh S**t" BW workout in 25 min, which included lots of waiting around because it was a TABATA (which is not my favorite because of all the waiting).  After that, I did the SRT "Macho Man", which did jack up my HR a lot in 20 minutes, using a 30#R and 45#SB.  After that, I did a 3 mile ruck with 30# in Ballistics, but I need to wear taller socks next time.  I'm doing all of these PATHFINDER brand workouts to earn Rucklympics points.

Tuesday, Aug 24:

I went for 4 strict rucking miles with 20# as part of the Rucklympics races, using the Speed Rucker and wearing the Altra Torin Plush.  I covered it in 43:19, after hitting the range with SB.

Wednesday, Aug 25:

Someone posted about wanting to meet up to ruck parking decks in preparation for the 9/11 anniversary events, so I created an event for the ruck club.  It was F3 guys who showed up.  We moved with a purpose and covered about 5.5 miles in 1:38:30.  I wore 30# in the speed rucker, with MACV1s.  We went from deck to deck and hit different stairs in each one.  It is a pretty unique workout, and the views you see along the way are interesting.

I'm glad that they knew where we were going, and I'm glad that our cars weren't towed.

Friday, Aug 27:

Visited my sister in Boone, NC.  She really enjoys playing board games as a way to relax.  That, Netflix, and napping on the couch.

Saturday, Aug 28:

We did a 4.5 mile slick hike at Linville Gorge, with 900 feet of gain.  It was surprisingly hard.  I'm glad that I hike slick when the technicality of the terrain is unknown.  I can't imagine doing that one weighted.  Jumping down big steep steps with a bunch of weight can't be a good idea.

The views were pretty unique.  There's a waterfall that flows into a big, perfectly rectangular pool area.  You can see the falls from many different angles.

We met my sister's friend and her dog there.

Sunday, Aug 29:

We hiked 3 miles slick at Crabtree Falls, which took a while to find.  There's a seemingly random spot on Google Maps that says it's the falls, but it's not.  We came across a "gold mine" along the way, and we enjoyed the view but didn't go in.  We covered 500 feet of ascent at the falls.

Monday, Aug 30:

I did Rucklympics Week 4, which is designed as a 20 min EMOM, but I made it an AMRAP, because EMOMs and TABATAs aren't my favorite.  I want to feel like I'm working out.  I followed this up with the HDT March Madness "Finals - The Dance" 25 min AMRAP using a 45# SB.

Tuesday, Aug 31:

I met up with SB to try out my new MTB.  I didn't have a real bike helmet yet, so I used a roller hockey helmet that my uncle had given me when I was little.  I rode on the roads when I got there early, and then rode some more with SB.  She encouraged me to go down what looked like a steep grassy bank, although it wasn't really that steep.

I'm glad that the bike can fit into my trunk, so that I don't have to mess with hitches.

Afterwards, following a 1-mile ruck in 17:15, we led a ruck packing seminar in preparation for the HTB, and put it on FB, too.  The most common mistake is probably over-packing.  

Wednesday, September 1:

I joined the Fort Mill Ruck Club for 3 miles around Baxter.  We took turns with a 40# and 60# SB, and I volunteered to be one of the coupons for guys who had to ruck quarter miles while doing a buddy carry for HDT.  We had beer near the end.

Friday, September 3:

Blackstone had a members night with shooting, axe throwing, and a beer tasting.  

(I did pretty well with the G43X that day... I don't normally do that well)

Afterwards, Self Love Yoga with Adriene for 50 minutes.

Saturday, September 4:

Rucklympics Week 5 with 1 round in 20 minutes (decided not to do 3 rounds), since that was enough for me with the HTB coming up.  I followed it up with the "Ruck+ Add it Up" PATHFINDER workout.

After that, I did "Total Body Yoga - Deep Stretch" with Adriene, which was a good one.

Sunday, September 5:

I did 3.5 miles of biking around the neighborhood to see how steep the inclines were.  It wasn't too bad.

Monday, September 6:

When tapering for an event, it's mentally helpful to find ways to occupy yourself so that you don't feel like you should be working out.

For me, that meant range time,

Adventure Racing gear gathering

and construction 

(trekking tow rope)

and HTB Gear Prep

(rather than trying to replace the zipper pull, I just added a second, longer one, made of paracord.. it's actually quite nice to grab because it's so long)

Adventure Racing & 9/11 Prep, GORUCK Force Multiplier - CLT 2021

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, Aug 8:

I met up with SB at Latta Nature Preserve for orienteering practice, so that we could build up skills before the 72 hour Sea to Sea Adventure Race that we signed up for with AT.  We wore 30# rucks, since we ruck, and because we will be carrying gear during the adventure race.  Weight, along with terrain, fatigue, night vs day, and a variety of other factors, influences your pace count, so it's important to practice under a variety of conditions to know what kinds of adjustments you need to make.

Latta, like some other parks in the area, has a permanent orienteering course, so we picked one section of it to try... the easiest one, to get our feet wet.  Since you can't un-remember something, we also wanted to be strategic in our decisions of when to use the course, to not burn up this nice resource wastefully.  

Some things we learned:

- Confirmed our pace counts. (CP2)

- Became more familiar with terminology and corresponding symbols for different landmarks (like gullies).  (CP3)

- Maps were made on a certain date.  Since then, new roads may have been added, or roads that used to be there may have become overgrown and decommissioned.  (CP5)

- Although the shortest distance between two points is the immediate direction towards the destination, it may be faster to use a groomed trail, even if it adds distance, because you don't have to worry about climbing over a bunch of downed trees and walking through soft and uneven terrain to get there.  (CP5)

- Sometimes, fences (or other landmarks) that used to be there when the map was made, is no longer there.  (CP5)

- Made use of backstops (like a road/trail, or a powerline) and attack points (CP7)

- Realized that some points you may only see when coming from or looking from a certain direction (like in a gully) (CP7)

- It can be helpful to spread out a bit to get more coverage in searching for waypoints, but still stay close enough to each other to not get lost or break any rules about buddy proximity.  (CP9)

- You can use "shooting off" to make sure you hit a certain handrail and take that handrail to the point that you want, vs trying to shoot straight on and miss the end of the handrail altogether and hope that your bearing is 100% correct.  We tried this with a fence, and it was a good idea, but the fence no longer existed.  (CP9)

- It is hard with a permanent course built long ago to know if you can't find the point because it's somehow disappeared or deteriorated, or if you can't find it because you just didn't find it.  Especially here, but even in normal adventure races with optional points, you should decide on how long you'll spend looking for an elusive point before cutting your losses and moving on.  There was one point that we never did find.  We attacked from multiple points, looked 360*, looked on the ground for a downed permanent control point, and tried to use terrain (hills) and water features and the power line clearing as references, but to no avail.  (CP10)

- It's nice when normal people walking on trails helps you ID where the trails are, when you're off-trail.  (CP12)

We covered 4 miles in about 2:23:19.

Monday, Aug 9:

Continuing with my Adventure Racing prep, I went kayaking for 6 miles in 2:14:41, experimenting with different sitting positions.  Sitting back is the lazy way and may be more comfortable for the back because it doesn't have to work, but sitting up allowed me to use my core to generate more stroking power.

Tuesday, Aug 10:

For PATHFINDER Rucklympics, one of the competitions was max situps in 1 hour.  I needed no breaks.  I completed 1,116 reps and made my neck very uncomfortable in the process.  Little did I know that it wouldn't end up counting for anything because the organizers quit on the competition at the end of it, which is really disappointing.

Afterwards, I did a 2 mile ruck for speed in 19:38 with 20# in the v3 20L using Ballistics.  This also counted for nothing, because it wasn't specified until afterwards that it had to be a strict ruck.  It sucks tearing up one's body for no reason.

Wednesday, Aug 11:

For a ruck club train-up for 9/11 events, we did a 1 mile warmup with a 40# weight vest, then some people had to bail because of lightning concerns, a 1/2 mile coupon carry with a 30#SB to the pavillion where we'd do our workout, and then a 1 mile ruck back using a different route because the flash flooding caused the original route to become an entire body of water where you could no longer see where you were stepping (curbs, ditches, etc), even though it wasn't necessarily deep.

It was pretty epic, and it's awesome when someone new comes along and embraces the hard core stuff that we do, too.

While we were waiting for some of the lighting to clear, we took the opportunity to do a little class on coupon swapping, too, since it was going to be Jen's first event.

When I had first arrived at the park, I wondered why they had closed off the gates to the parking lot.  I now realize that they're probably used to this, and knew that they had to keep cars out because they would've been surely been swept away if they had been in the lot during the flash flooding.

The workout was a 30 min AMRAP of 

- 5 SB 4-ct Ground to Shoulder

- 5 Burpee Over Sandbag

- 5 Sandbag OH Press

- 5 Plank 2-sided SB Pull-Throughs

- 5 SB Clean & Toss

- Then a lap up and down the stairs (or substitute 25 step-ups)

I liked this because the coupon ruck commemorated Flight 93, the 5's represent the pentagon, and the stairs commemorated the Twin Towers.  Maybe a 20 minute time limit would've been good for the 20th anniversary coming up, but I wanted a longer workout.

Aug 12-13:

I researched some more bike options at local shops, went to the range, tried a brewery near the range, and started getting book-smart about AR.

FORCE MULTIPLIER DAY 1

Force Multiplier is a 2-day event used to train people like personal trainers, ruck club leaders, and anyone else who wants to become technically proficient in doing sandbag and ruck training.  It follows the "train the trainer" concept (aka force multiplier), where experts train us, so that we can go on to teach fellow GRTs how to do the exercises in an effective and safe way.  I'm all about form, because you maximize your gains when you do the full range of motion, and you minimize the risk of injury.

The course was led by Jaala Shaw, a widely respected member of the GRT community.  She has been a Selection candidate multiple times, is a Crossfit Kids Program leader, GORUCK Tribe Kids leader, and an overall renaissance woman.  I had done the first part of the Bragg HH with her, but only had limited interactions then during coupons carries.  You sometimes wonder what a person who has reached such high levels of fitness may be like, if they'll be arrogant or have some hard-core persona, but I was delighted by how approachable and down-to-earth she was.  

Because this event was all about empowering leaders in various communities, Jaala and her helper coaches Grant and Chantalle also focused a lot on *how* we could effectively teach others, which was really interesting for me to learn about as someone who doesn't do this for a living.  

We had a great group of GRTs come out... trainers, ruck club leaders, and GORUCK enthusiasts, many of whom were my friends.

We learned the history of GORUCK, shared best practices for gear and clothing, learned basic movements, and took turns teaching basic movements to others in the group.  One thing I liked about the best practices discussion on gear and clothes was that Jaala gathered ideas from the whole group, since we've all had a lot of experience rucking in different conditions and had tips to offer.  

While going through the basic movements, we were shown how to teach it, what kinds of cues to focus on, variations of those basic movements, and modification options.  We were given hypothetical scenarios where a ruck club member had a certain limitation, and we were asked to suggest appropriate modification options, which could come in the form of adjusting load or volume, limiting RoM, or substituting for a different exercise that would still achieve the same stimulus.

Basic Movements:

- Squats

- Hinge 

- Carry

- Press

- Pull

During the lunch break, some of the guys had fun with the stuff that the crossfit box had lying around.

We learned about recovery and nutrition, with foam rolling, wrapping, and lacrosse ball action.

At the end of day 1, we finished with the "Force Multiplier" workout, where we got to put those basic movements in action.

There was an open-book multiple choice test that we got to complete overnight, too, to test our learning.

FORCE MULTIPLIER DAY 2 

We met up at Lake Normal State Park for a Timed 12 miler on the trails.  Because of the terrain, the usual time cap was bumped up.  The distance of the two loops was also a little short, which helped offset the conditions, although I needed a Timed 12 for PATHFINDER anyways, so I did loops around the parking lot at the end.

On the first loop, I missed the right turn and kept going straight at one point, so we ended up at a campsite and had to figure out where we were and backtrack, which killed some time.  I didn't make the same mistake the second time around, though.

I accidentally broke a friend, which I felt bad about.  

Our next test was Sandbag DT, which I had done before, but also practiced leading up to this class, to make sure I was confident and ready.

Our next module was about programming, which is a big and interesting topic.  Jaala provides 1-on-1 coaching to a wide variety of athletes, so she was able to share sample weeks of different levels of athletes' programming.  

We then broke into two groups to create workouts.  Ideally, it's no more than 4 exercises, because it's hard for people to remember more than that.  We looked for a balance of types of exercises.  We were sure to include a warmup at the beginning, and everyone had an opportunity to teach part of it.  While we were leading the workout, we sometimes had people who pretend-needed modifications.  We led a cooldown.  At the end, we got feedback from the coaches, too, which was helpful.

It was fun and different, getting to see this more "professional" side of sandbag and ruck training.  I've been involved in advising through PATHFINDER and leading in ways through ruck clubs before, but this put more science and psychology behind it.  I enjoyed it, got a lot out of it, and would definitely do it again!  Especially on the coaching side of things, there are always ways to improve, and new things to learn from the pros.