The Thang

Buy-in: 7 rounds of: 10 Ruck Get-ups (Ruck on Front, lay down, stand all the way up) + 10 Ruck Pull-Through’s (each pull is 1)

Evolution 1: Ruck March approx 3 miles. Bedpan was winner of Buy-in so YHC identified him as the first Team Leader. I shared with him the directions of the march, what was expected of the formation, and he picked 48 minutes as the Time Hack to make it. Off we went. A visit by a Parks Police vehicle had us re-route the path so distance and time was voided. 

PT #1: The Team made it to some hillsides over by Book Rd in a big park field.

P1 drags partner’s Ruck up the hill while Bear Crawling UP and Crawl Bear’ing DOWN with their own Ruck on. P2 does BLIMPS (Burpees, Lunges, Inchworms, Merican Hammers, Plank, Squats). Switch and work through BLIMPS. Only tell the group the exercises ONCE. Lots of good Ruck on and then off again movements here. The hill work took longer than expected so we only cycled through once. 

BREAK 1: 7 minutes (time to hydrate, grab a snack, sit down, lose a watch band if you are Baby Hands, etc)

Evolution 2: Ruck March back to our Startex (had to go a different route because of the Parks Police presence). Just a few short steps into the march we “found some Coupons” that had been planted behind a tree. The Team now had some extra weight as part of their journey: a Water Can (30.2#), Two 20# Plates, and a 100# Sandbag (for 2 to carry). Baby Hands was identified as the Team Leader for this one. Told him the route (sorta) and formation expectations. The Team did a great job on this March rotating through the Coupons. The 100# sandbag was a beast and Pax came up with some street light measurements along the streets to try and make sure we kept moving and no single Pax was overworking.

PT #2: For this, every Pax needed a sandbag weighing between 20#-40#. Pax were to complete 25 Ruck Squats + Sandbag toss across field W/O Ruck + 25 BBSU Get-Ups w/o Ruck + Sandbag toss back across field. Rinse/Repeat.

BREAK 2: 7 minutes (more time to hydrate stationary, eat, rest, change socks, etc).

Evolution 3: The Ruck marching turned westward now. Team Coupons were the Jerry Can (30.2#), both 20# Plates, Two 40# Sandbags, and One 20# Sandbag. This ratio meant that half the Team would be carrying extra weight at any given time and the other half would be “resting”, hydrating, etc. This March took a few different turns than originally planned. Ended up being a lengthy march with no actual PT stop this time around as the trail we were on was pretty close to some homes and figured it best to keep logging miles, especially after the first two PT stops were pretty solid in time and effort required. About 1 mile in, YHC presented a Time Hack. Ruck the next 1 mile in under 14:30. The Team pushed well, Baby Hands jumped up to the front and led 20 second shuffle intervals to keep pace down. Team finished in 14:16. Success. Onward. Next hour or so was just some good rucking under weight. 

Break 3: 6 minutes. Hydrate, eat, the usual stuff.

March Home. A few tenths of a mile into this next March we halted and presented the Team with another Time Hack. They needed to cover the next mile in under the 14:16 time they had done at this time over an hour ago. There would be penalties and rewards for this one. As a plus, they needed to complete this in complete SILENCE.

The Team crushed this challenge physically. Time was 12 minutes and something. Reward was dumping the water out of the jerry can. All were pleased. Unfortunately, there were at least two murmurs of words that YHC heard. So 50 Ruck Swings was the penalty served for that.

Ruck up, buckle up, and onward we went.

At the outset, YHC wanted to cover more than 11 miles and endex past 0100. As we neared the Outpost grounds both of these were coming into focus. The Team had put in some really great work. We had covered enough distance and time that each man was in a place where they could identify some good learnings about where they are – fitness-level wise, gear plans, hydration/nutrition plans, etc. So we looped around to the Startex spot and Endexed a few minutes after 0100 on Saturday morning.

Final Tally: 5 hours, 4 minutes, 12.7 total miles covered.