This is what I did during week 5 of my training for the 9/11 GORUCK HTL in Washington DC.
Wednesday, June 29
Ruck 5 miles
1 hour 21 minutes 41 Seconds
Pace 16:19
Ruck weight – 39#
PT
100 Push-ups, 100 Sit-ups
Notes: Didn’t want t0 train this morning. Ruck felt refreshing after yesterday’s 12 miler. I did “cheat” and listened to an audio book during the ruck. After yesterday, needed to break the monotony. Push-ups still so hard. Gone after like 20…
Thursday, June 30
Rest Day
Notes: Meetings in the morning, work all day, birthday party in evening. No time to ruck. 🙁
Friday, July 1
Rest Day
Notes: 10 hours in a car. Does that count as mental toughness training?
Saturday, July 2
Ruck 4.5 Miles
1 hour 13 minutes 56 Seconds
Pace 16:26
Ruck weight – 37#
757 Feet elevation gain
PT
100 Push-ups, 100 4ct Flutter Kicks
Notes: Really didn’t want to ruck, but got better once on the road. In the N. GA mountains, so tons of hills. Much different from normal training. Today was a recon ruck to check out how bad the hills impacted pace and to make sure a road exists that I want to take later in the week for 10 miler. All in all, good morning. Also PT felt better. Push ups are improving.
Sunday, July 3
Ruck 2 Miles – Heavy
0 hour 52 minutes 18 Seconds
Ruck weight – 38# + 60# sandbag
PT
100 Push-ups, 100 sit-ups
Notes: 100# solo is no fun. It really becomes a mental battle when you’re out there solo, suffering under the weight, and going slow. The voice in my head just says, “you can’t even lug this thing 2 miles… and you want to do an HTL… good luck, buddy.”
Monday, July 4
Ruck 8.2 Miles
2 hour 55 minutes 15 Seconds
Ruck weight – 38#
Avg Pace: 15:59
Elevation gain – 1456ft
PT
100 Push-ups, 100 sit-ups
Notes: Slow going up, fast coming down. Not bad. PT getting better. Will need to up the reps starting next week.
Tuesday, July 5
Rest Day
Notes: Yesterday’s ruck jacked me up. Decided after 3 days in the mountains that a rest day was in order. Been a while since I’ve had one of these for the strategic reason of needing recovery. So, that was nice.
