Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
Wait just a rucking minute, let’s take a trip back to what led to such an amazing start to my day.
I discovered rucking and F3 at roughly the same time. I operated under the misconception that I had to have ‘cough’ particular equipment to be part of the rucking community, and I was pretty sure that I couldn’t afford the gear to get started.
Then one year my wife bought me an American made GR1 from GORUCK, it probably cost us about $300 but I’ll never know. I put it in a closet, and almost forgot about it, because I didn’t feel like I had a full kit and I was honestly scared to get this very expensive rucking bag dirty.
Then one day Transporter created a rucking channel on GroupMe. Soon I discovered that I could borrow a weight plate from Dana and I started rucking with Jingles, Posse, and Turnbuckle.
Not long after that I made my first ruck weight, a construction block covered in black duct tape. I’ve made several other affordable ruck weights but my first one has always been my favorite.
I discovered that F3Metro was hosting a GrowRuck Training Event (GTE24) and finally bought a cheap ruck plate from Amazon. I started training with Snoop from Metro and met other Pax who were interested in this rucking thing. I was being challenged and changed by this new found rucking community. Snowflake and Ice9 taught me a little something about shared burdens.
I eventually met Schedule C and he introduced me to Pathfinder Ruck Training, something started by an F3 brother named Dora. I’ve since bought two more GORUCK rucks and multiple ruck plates. Not to mention my GORUCK sandbags, and even a pair of GORUCK shoes (that sadly didn’t fit my wide feet) – yeah, I drank the Kool aid.
I’ve been waiting for someone to start a rucking workout for our region for some time now. One day I realized if I want it to happen I was going to have to do something about it. I asked Snoop if we could have one of the logs from GTE24, and I jumped at the opportunity to grab a telephone pole from one of Kid Rock’s job sites. I thought that this would be enough to get the rucking ball rolling, but nope. Time to dig deeper and invest more of myself.
I’ve learned a little bit about the rucking communities in our neighboring regions, what they do and how and I’ve gained a lot of brothers along the way, e.g. Geraldo, Hoover, Cheese Curd, Wild Turkey, Goodell, Mailman, Tinsel, Olaf, Merrill, Booty, Gretel, CSPAN, GMO, Grizzly, GOP, Linus, Maxime, WhatDid, Titan, ColdCuts, et al.
Last year I committed to starting a Rucking AO but so much stuff just got in the rucking way. New year, new beginnings. I didn’t know exactly how it would look or work but I thought that I’d take a swing at it and see what happens. Which leads us to this morning…
I was rucking nervous this morning. I arrived at Five Stones just early enough to unload all the rucking gear I brought. When I arrived I was so excited that someone was already there. And I wasn’t even sure who it was…
As I’m unloading the gear I brought the mystery Pax rolls up and climbs out of their vehicle, it’s Black Hat! He’s been a stalwart of perseverance since I met him. Next to roll up is none other than the jovial Dunkin! He always seems to be smiling and full of joy even when it seems like a terrible beatdown. Both of them brought nothing, which is awesome because that means that I didn’t gear up for nothing. I give Black Hat the Jansport with the 20# block and the 40# sandbag goes to Dunkin. I give the DiCCS and we roll for a half mile rucking warmup. As we’re rucking Jingles zooms in and then Sun Drop showed up too. I’m blown away by all those that showed up this morning! We finish up the half mile back where we started and meet up with rucking veterans, my man Jingles and Sun Drop, who has a patch I really love and makes rucking look like a stroll in the park. Ruck off, time to start the ruck WOD.
THE THANG: Form over speed is our goal, despite what Jingles shirt says.
Round 1
14 ruck/sandbag swings
14 squats with ruck/sandbag
14 forward lunges with ruck/sandbag
14 American Hammers
End with
10 burpees
Round 2
13 thrusters
13 curls
13 bent over rows
13 shoulder to shoulders
End with
10 burpees
Round 3
12 American Hammers
12 forward lunges
12 squats
12 swings
End with
10 burpees
Ruck up, time to ruck another mile to close out our hour.
We rucked this morning at a fellowship pace to allow for lots of good conversation and questions from our newly minted and veteran ruckers. We toured over to look at the logs and discuss some future workout plans.
All in all, it was an awesome start to a great day. Thanks for joining me and letting me lead. Love you brothers!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Blood drive on Saturday January 21st. Signups are open, available, and waiting for you!
I had two discoveries after this workout…
1. I believe that I’m allergic to something in the telephone pole. I’m going to be replacing it very soon.
2. I received two more bags for use at Ruck U! That means that we have four loaner bags with weight available for those wanting to dip their toe!! Come on in, the waters fine!