Sunday

Another day of 4 hours of sleep, waking up, eating, then working out.

Wanted to get a ruck march in since I hadn't done one in a little while.  It was going to be a nice day outside so I thought it would be good to do it in the forest.  Got all my crap ready and headed down there to find the forest closed due to the river flooding.  Damn.  Turned around and headed to the Lake Murray Dam.

Put on my pack, which is still around 50lbs.  No rifle simulator today since I wanted to do PT with rucking.  Headed out and did 6 rounds of rucking 1mi, 25 push ups, and 25 squats.  The exercises were done immediately after my watch beeped for 1mi, with no rest, and while still wearing the pack.  Had a good pace for the rucking.  Kept it under 15:00/mi for most of the intervals.  I think only a couple intervals were over 15:00, and those were just barely over.

Left foot started developing a small blister after the 2nd mile. Right foot started developing a small blister after mile 4.  Pushed through it.  I think they developed because I wore the wrong socks.  Ah well.  I have enough experience with fixing blisters that they aren't that big a deal anymore.

Did every set of exercises unbroken.  The last couple sets of push ups sucked.  150 push ups with a 50lbs pack is rough, especially considering the "rest" breaks were still an upperbody workout.

Friday

I knew this was going to be a tough day.  Worked all night from 7pm to 7am.  Got home, changed into my rucking gear.  Headed to the forest.  Rucked the 6mi loop with my 50lbs pack and carrying my 10lbs "dummy rifle" in my hands.  Could definitely tell that being awake for 24+ hours at that point was slowing me down. Still finished strong in 1:37.

Wednesday

Everything felt pretty decent this morning.  Thought my legs would have been sore from the 300 squats but they were good.

Got my flu shot finally.  It pretty well wrecked me last year, so I was expecting more of the same this time around.  Went back to my house, changed into my rucking gear, and headed out to the forest.

Ruck marched the 6mi loop in reverse carrying my pack and my faux-rifle.  It was tough, but I don't think it had anything to do with the flu shot.  Finished in 1:37.

When I got back to my house, I weighed myself with my pack and faux-rifle to see what they were.  Pack is 48.2 lbs, and my faux-rifle is 10.2 lbs.  That 10.2 lbs doesn't sound all that heavy, but after holding onto it for a friggin hour and a half, it gets so annoying.

Wednesday

Upper body was pretty sore waking up this morning.  Shoulders and back were definitely worked yesterday.

Ran a few errands in the morning.  Turned in two job applications to law enforcement agencies.  We'll see if anything comes from those.

Decided I still wanted to get a work out in, and since I haven't done one in a while, I decided on rucking marching.  Headed out to the forest around 2pm.

Did around 6mi on trails with a 45lbs pack and while carrying my 10lbs "faux rifle."  Finished it in 1:36:13.

Everything felt fine, buuut, around mile 4 I noticed I was feeling the formation of a blister on the ball of my left foot, and the abrasion on top of my right toes.  Got home.  Bottom of the left foot looks ok, hopefully it was just sore and it will be fine in a day or so.  The top of one of my toes on the right foot was a little abraded, I think it will be ok.  Fingers crossed everything is good by Saturday morning.

Wednesday

Wanted to do a ruck march today, but I wanted to try to catch up on sleep as well.  Decided to push the ruck march to the afternoon.

Got out to the forest a little after 1pm.  Since the last few times I've done 5-6mi on a moderate trail pretty easily, I decided to do 4mi on the hardest trail in the forest.  Brought along the 10lbs hand-weight that my neighbor helped build.  Its to simulate having to carry a 10lbs rifle.  10lbs sounds like nothing, but now that I know what its like to hold it for over an hour, ugh, it sucks.  Total distance was 4.22mi, and finished it in around 1:17.  I'm not too worried about the time, there are some tremendous hills on that trail, and having the extra 10lbs definitely takes a toll.

Wednesday

Got up early since I wanted to do a ruck march.  Haven't done one in a couple weeks and thought it might help get my legs ready for the climbing on Saturday.

Got out to the forest around 0650.  Stretched for a few minutes then tossed on my pack and headed out.  I started off thinking I would do the 5mi loop, but after 1.5mi, I decided I should bump it up to the 6mi.  Took the left turn to take add on the extra mile (and 2 big hills).  Kept up a pretty decent pace, considering its off road and really hilly.  Unfortunately, I think I was the first or second person out on the trails, so I was constantly getting spiderwebs to the face.  Yuck.  Finished in 1:39.

Got home.  Did my normal breakfast routine.  Then remembered that my neighbor was going to get a truckload of sand to spread around some low spots in his yard.  I decided it made more sense for me to help them do all the heavy lifting so that they didn't hurt themselves.  Helped them carry all of the sand 50m from their truck to their backyard using a couple large buckets.  This would be another of those "farm fitness" type of workouts.

Decided to rest the remainder of the day.

Wednesday

Got up early so I could get my morning ruck march in.

First:
5mi ruck march on trails with ~45lbs pack.  Thought it was going to feel disgusting outside since it was 73F with over 80% humidity when I left the house, but it was surprisingly cool.  Kept a good quick pace the whole way.  Finished in 1:20:27.

Headed back to the house, ate breakfast, did my normal morning routine, then headed to gym.  Had to get there a few minutes later than usual because a friend asked me to ferry him to Walmart and back.

Decided to do a 5:00 warm up on the elliptical machine, rather than the rower, since I knew I would be back on it in a few minutes.  Followed it up with 10:00 of stretching.

500m sprint on the rower with 10/10 resistance.  Didn't PR but I'm happy with anything under 1:35.  Finished in 1:32.9

1min of planks, for each side and front.  Tough to do immediately after killing yourself on the rower.

Usual series of ankle/knee/hip mobility exercises.  They're boring.

Another 500m sprint on the rower.  Always tough doing it a second time.  Finished in 1:34.1

Another series of 1min planks for each side and front.

Debated jumping in the pool but it was getting close to the time I needed to get going so I headed out.

Wednesday

Left shin is still sore.  Going to have to keep an eye on it.  Otherwise everything else feels pretty good.

Got up early and rucked 5mi with ~50lbs.  Pretty good pace and time.  It was awful out, high 70s with 85% humidity.  I was drenched by the time I finished.  Kept a good pace though.

Went to the gym a few hours later.

5:00 warm up and 10:00 stretching.

First:
500m row with 10/10 resistance for time.  This is always tough, even more so when your legs are a bit gassed from the rucking earlier.  Had a good time though, 1:33.8, which is .2 off my PR.  Jumped off and did 1min of side planks per side.

Second:
My usual ankle/knee/hip exercises.  They are boring.

Third:
Back upstairs for another 500m row with 10/10 resistance for time.  Much harder this time.  Only managed a 1:35.1 and almost fell off at the end.  Another 1min of side planks per side.

Wanted to get in the pool but I managed to forget my swimsuit at the house.  I'm chalking it up to not a whole lot of sleep the night before.

Wednesday

I have a set formula for how I pick which workouts I'll do each week and on what days.  Its something I've come up with over the last couple years of doing pretty rough workouts.  Since I'm probably going to explain it more in depth later on, the short version is that Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are hard days, Wednesday is my (relatively) low impact recovery day, and Sunday is my complete rest day.

Wednesdays for me mean no running, no pull ups, push ups, squats, dips, or shoulder stuff, no burpees, none of that stuff.  Instead, I ruck march (speed walking with a heavy weighted backpack), row (on a machine obviously), pool stuff (mainly treading water, but I try to toss in a few laps every now and then), and some joint mobility exercises I've picked up along the way for my ankles, knees, and hips.

First:
Got up earlyish and did a 5mi ruck march with about 50lbs at 0700 this morning.  Mid 70 degree temps weren't so bad, but the 85% humidity made it awful.  Thankfully there were a few people on the trails in front of me so I only had to eat spiderwebs a few times, rather than constantly eating them for an hour like the last time.  Finished in 1:21.

Second:
Off to the gym.  Warmed up by rowing 5:00 with a resistance of 6/10, changing grip every 1:00.  Then spent 10:00 doing full body stretching.

Headed back upstairs to the rower, bumped the resistance up to 10/10 and did a 500m max effort sprint.  PRed (personal record) it with a 1:35.8.

Hopped off, did side planks for 1:00 per side.

Started on my joint mobility stuff.  Its a bunch of boring, low weight, low rep exercises to help strengthen the ligaments and muscles in and around my ankles, knees, and hips.

Back upstairs to the rower.  Did another 500m max effort sprint and PRed (again!) with a 1:34.8.

Did another set of side planks for 1:00 per side.

Third:
Changed into my swimsuit and jumped into the pool.  Stretched in the water for a bit, then jumped into the hot tub for 5:00.  Back into the pool and treaded water in the deepest part for 30:00.  Then back into the hot tub for 5:00, dried off, changed, and headed home.