"Do you suppose they will choose to make war against lean, solid dogs rather than against fat and tender sheep?"
I don't even buy them anymore, I swear. They're breeding and multiplying. After experimenting a lot, I have arrived at some hard-won conclusions about boots for rucking. Great for flat roads and short to medium distances, but nothing hairier than that. As reported earlier, I rejected GORUCK’s own house brand of boots, the MACV-1. Though... Continue Reading →
I met The Jolly Irishman minutes into my first GORUCK event, at kissing distance. We were all told to pair up: one person would bear walk across the beach and tow the other, who lay supine and clutched him around the neck. I ended up as a “top” with Irish as my “bottom.” Not having... Continue Reading →
"At GORUCK events, people's foot care is surprisingly poor," said the former ultra runner somewhere around Mile 20. I smarted at the comment, but I couldn't deny it: the inside of my own boot was slowly grating my little toe like parmesan. ... This was the first time I'd encountered a serious distance runner, though, and it became clear that that community was privy to an advanced science of foot health as foreign to the rest of us as architecture was to Visigoths and Huns.
To prep for the (in)famous Star Course, I tried a 42-mile ruck march. I'd read one man's AAR suggesting that in training you aim for 40 miles (64km) in something close to 10 hours, and on paper that sounded almost reasonable. It's only 15 minutes per mile, right? Heck, I've motored along at that speed... Continue Reading →
Final installment in my after-action report from the GORUCK D-Day Heavy Challenge. The faithful, indomitable, light, nimble "Moose Head" rucksack. I love this thing. Made in the 1930s, it was intended by the Swedes as a cheap mass-production item for hurriedly equipping a big army that Germany would choose not to tangle with. Eighty years... Continue Reading →
Today's the day, friends. 24 hours, 40+ miles, with logs, sandbags, PT beatdowns, and surf torture along the way. Wherever you are today, get after it! Hammer along with me and (I'm completely serious about this), please remember my team and me in your thoughts and prayers. I may be Buddhist, but I'm not choosy... Continue Reading →
We’ve all had friends who exerted unhealthy influence over us. They were charismatic and had qualities we wanted to emulate, but in the exuberance of growth we also idealized them for a time and didn’t want to accept that they too were just fragile, finite people with foibles, not all-purpose role models. And so we... Continue Reading →
When Lars Grebnev at Survival Russia talks, I listen. First he got me into jackboots, which I like more all the time because they're weather- and terrain-proof. On slippery rocks, in muck, over a gravelly boulder-scape, in a calf-high stream, the jackboots keep you stable and dry. This time I tried them with snowshoes. My... Continue Reading →
Finally, someone who understands why they're called "shorts." At the GORUCK Heavy Challenge, after some refreshing PT, you start the 24 hours with a twelve-mile timed ruck. You need to walk it in 3½ hours or you can be disqualified. Lauren Four Boots and I were discussing this menacing prospect in the middle of a... Continue Reading →
During the Buddhist Backpack Pilgrimage, I acted as your personal bodhisattva, dear readers, and compassionately offered myself as a sacrifice for your welfare. How? By venturing out to do the whole 34 miles in jackboots (sapogi) and footwraps. In our previous field test we'd shown their value in wet conditions, but we still didn't know... Continue Reading →