As it was the Friday of the BRR, and having not seen much activity on Slack for people planning to show up for the Rolling Stone workout, and knowing there were only moderate SCs for the only official ruck AO in all of Carpex, I really didn’t have much planned out in advance for the crew that was anxiously awaiting my arrival at 0527. That all being said, there was a surprisingly large turnout for Rolling Stone, which in fact, blotted out the Bootcampers at GT by an almost 2:1 ratio. Loaner rucks were distributed to those who wanted them, and to make it all the more fun, YHC threw some extra weight in the sandbag so we’d have a 45# coupon to lug around the friendly confines of of Green Hope Elementary and Preston Village. Since there were no FNGs, there was a half-hearted disclaimer before we made our way around the bus circle, negotiated the two gates, and got to the bottom of the hill leading into Preston Village.
Thang 1: Good news - you get to take off your ruck! Bad news - we’re doing 7s on the hill, ruck swings at the bottom, strapless carries (recommended overhead press position) to the top, OH squats at the top. There were many requests for demonstrations, as there were several new ruckers in the group, along with two walkers on the semi-IR. Somewhere around this, there were a number of inquires about “How can we have a good day if we haven’t done any Good Mornings yet?” from the PAX. To which I explained that it was not going to be a good morning, for purpose of rucking is to have things suck tremendously. More to come on that note.
We then made our way over to the gazebo in south-central Preston Village, taking turns carrying the 45# sandbag (FYI I checked the map on this one, and the traffic circle is indeed in south-central PV). One of my favorite things about the gazebo, in addition to the newly-refurbished benches and lovely landscaping, is the sign that reads “Residents Only” but it doesn’t really specify where you have to be a resident. We found out that at least one of the PAX was a resident somewhere, so we felt that use of that area was, at least grammatically, authorized.
Thang 2: Since a number of the PAX had joined in on the complaints of not having done Good Mornings, we assembled at the gazebo, removed rucks, and did 5 Good Mornings rucker style - AKA Burpees OYO. That really didn’t quiet down the complaining as much as I had expected it to, so we put our rucks back on. YHC directed all PAX to find a seam of the concrete radiating outward from the gazebo flowerbeds and extending to the grass, and we did bearcrawls up to the gazebo, and lunge walks back to the grass, repeato x3. The bearcrawls were probably the most entertaining and caused much grumbling about weights hitting people in the back of the head. Embrace the suck and carry on!
Quick time check, and we’re at a pretty good point to circle back towards GH Elementary. We complete the loop of the roundabout, again taking turns carrying the sandbag. There were some inquiries on how coupon duty is assigned and the appropriate way to transfer / take turns with the sandbag.
TL;DR, a quick primer here on the protocols for coupon carries: Generally people volunteer to start with the Coupon, or it is assigned to them (PAX A). PAX A then picks up the coupon and carries it until 1) PAX B offers to take the coupon (e.g., “I am ready when you are to take the load”, or 2) PAX B is in such physical pain that they have to request another PAX to take the load for them (e.g., “need some help here!”). In instance 1), the normal practice is that PAX A will identify a landmark (be it a street sign, light pole, pooping dog, etc.) where PAX A will transfer the load to PAX B, or PAX A can hand over the load immediately. In instance 2), someone needs to step up to help his brother out.
We make our way back through the greenway shortcut to GHE and over to the track / fields behind the school. Lots of mumblechatter underway, which is one of the best things about rucking. Instead of following the track all the way around, I shortcut us across the fields and towards the playground / picnic pavilion. This caused a lot of grumbling, including complaints about people getting their shoes wet. Suck it up, buttercup!
Thang 3: Get to the pavilion, grab a picnic bench, and do sets of 10 Urkins and 10 Dips OMD, repeato x3. At some point during the first set, Franklin pointed out a peculiarity of my “down” calls, in that I was already approaching (or at) the down position when calling “down.” Ok, so that really got in my head and screwed me up for the rest of the time, but we all got a decent chuckle out of it, including YHC.
With that completed, I took a quick glimpse over at the sand volleyball courts. Everyone had a pretty good sweat built up at that point, since the relative humidity was around 98.4%. But given that I want to get more people to come back and ruck more, I decided to bypass getting everybody “sugar cookied” (aka rolling around in the sand to cover oneself with grittyness, any questions, ask Frisco) and we went for a quick albeit circuitous walk back to the shovel flag for some Mary with the GT fellas. Luckily they were taking turns around the circle with PAX calling Mary of their choosing, so when it got to Nature Boy, he got his wish and did Good Mornings (I think they were supposed to be in cadence, but his counts & motions made me feel a little bit better about how I was calling Urkins and Dips OMD). I requested to call the last Mary, which luckily was granted, and we ended with four count flutter kicks, holding at the end until Nan’tan Emeritus Ma Bell did a countdown from 9 to zero, and into Have a Nice Day.
Joint COT with GT, including announcements for 9/11 stair climb, the Odyssey, and the first Rucktoberfest event coming up on Friday 9/13. Prayers for all the brothers off doing the BRR, and for me and the interview that I had upcoming that morning at 0830 (which actually went very well, I will keep everyone posted on any news / next steps).
Liverpool took us out.
NMS:
It was an honor to lead the group of HIMs on a lovely Friday morning, and I will certainly consider incorporating some light warm ups into future Ruck workouts, which may or may not include Good Mornings.
We had nearly full attendance from RS and GT at coffeteria afterwards (I think Lookout was the only one who didn’t make it). Unfortunately, some fella had already claimed our usual table, and had covered nearly half of it with his business papers, receipts, invoices, and TPS report cover sheets. Subtlety not being our strong suit, we gathered into a mini Ball of Man right next to him, and he was surprisingly un-phased by both our gregarious mumblechatter as well as the lovely odors of a bunch of guys who had just come from a workout. We moved outside and enjoyed the lovely but humid weather.
Hope to see y’all back out there again for another ruck, please reach out to me if you’re ruck-curious, always looking to find more HIDAs to do it with me!