I’ve started rucking regularly. By that I mean, more than just during events. The last time I did this was 2014 while on my train up for the Seattle HCL and that was a couple of 12 milers if I recall correctly. Turns out it still sucks and crazyTom would agree.
I guess I’ve been rucking wrong all these years because I tried rucking while keeping an upright chest position and I’ll be damned, that shit felt better. Granted, it was only for one mile that I tried this new one and that shit was pretty good. I’ll try it for more miles in the future. Interesting how my splits improved as I warmed up. It usually takes me a mile or two to warm up now when I’m running and I must say that most of my runs are like 2.5 miles at work ’cause that’s how much I can squeeze in. While the first two miles are terrible and make me question my life, that last half mile feels not bad. Looking over my splits, that was somehow the slowest one but it is uphill for like 1/8 of a mile so I got that going as an excuse.
Back to rucking- GORUCK likes to say it’s good for you and all that jazz but I don’t know if I believe them. What I do like about it is that I’m just outside walking and that’s fan-freaking-tastic. Like, it’s not running and that means I’m not huffing and puffing immediately and instead I can delay that level of effort. Maybe they should market it that way. “Rucking? Shit here’s why you should do it- it’s not running.” BOOM. Millions of rucks sold. You’re welcome, GORUCK.
Since I’m walking so slowly when rucking, I had all sorts of ideas today. Like “hey I can just walk a 5K to the gym tomorrow, then do the reverse and make all the gains” and it was a good idea at the time but as soon as I got home I was all “first of all, no. Second of all, see the first.” I reckon that’s exactly like when you’re fighting a cold and you swear up and down that you’ll take better care of yourself as soon as you’re over it and then that feeling just goes away. Or when you’re having a bad allergy day and you promise you’ll never take breathing for granted again.
I actually had someone slow down beside me on their bike and ask me if I was rucking the other day. I told him it sucked but to have his son check out the GORUCK anyway. I was surprised by him and I had to take out my earbuds at the time and man, I need to listen to music at a lower volume. Rucking is the only time I’ll have my phone on me when I’m cardio-ing. Or maybe I should quit listening to music like I do (don’t do?) when running. My favorite reply when asked why I don’t run with music is that “the soundtrack of my own personal failings is enough for me” or some variation thereof. I stole that shit from the internets and it’s been amazing.
Also, I had to turn my Facebooks back on so I could login to some other apps. Plus, I figure I could get some more readers. I imagine I write and enjoy it when people read my blogs instead of me writing it and having nobody read it. Tomorrow’s topic: fruits of your labors and shit.
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