Fitness. Fellowship. Faith.Preamble: The Creek is F3 Summerville/Goose Creek’s Monday Wednesday Group Run AO. We meet at Goose Creek City Hall at 0500. Get out here and get you some of them sweet, sweet miles!
Conditions: July, hot and humid.
FNGs: None.
COP: Stretch it out and listen up. I got a plan.
The Thang:
YHC has been hurting a little bit lately (yeah yeah, I know, I sound like a dadgum whiny baby…. no more of that). So I thought to myself, “Snowden, you’ve got a ruck. You’re pounding yourself with this running while you’re trying to recover, why not change it up and put on that ruck? it’s not just a laptop bag… Nothing like a little extra weight on your back to encourage the healing process, AND you’ve got a couple guys out there who are consistent posters who get out and put miles in at your AO, why would you NOT want to put in some work alongside these men!?”
I have lengthy internal dialogs. I even bore myself.
So I put a little ruck vs run challenge together.
Rucks, follow path A. A 1.4 mile out and back for a total of 2.8 miles.
Runners, follow path B. A roughly 3.75 mile loop that returns to the AO.
Everyone in your group must finish together. Don’t dilly-dally, get it done!
What?!?, McFly and Splinter took off in the run group. I figured all three of them were pretty decent runners and it was pretty likely they’d average in the 8’s which meant we’d have to finish our 2.8 in around 35 minutes to have a shot. Brisk pace for a ruck… like 12.5 min/miles. That was probably a little too aggressive. Because the rucks got passed with about 2/3 of a mile left to go. Maybe I’ll make the runners do an extra half mile lap around the AO next time. Yeah…… Nevertheless our ruck group averaged in the 13’s and we would’ve won if not for those speedy kids and their fancy running shoes.
The runners went for an extra lap while us ruckers moseyed back. We did a good amount of shuffling to keep up and it wore me out. YHC had a 20lb plate on his back. Stringbean and Humpday had 30lbs. I don’t ruck much, and it wore me out. I respect the training these guys put in. Not to mention the 10 miles Stringbean did a couple nights ago.
Pledge and COT. Prayers spoken.
Devo: On the importance of hard work and the limits of where raw talent will take you. There are plenty of cases of people that coulda been this or that and never live up to their potential. Hard work is the great equalizer and we can’t work hard at everything. Choose wisely.
Moleskin: Q’ing a run group when you can’t run forces a little creativity. I’m grateful for the guys who come out and ruck consistently. I appreciate the opportunity to put in some hard work in a different way. I’ll tell you what, I have NEVER been that tired after a run. I dozed off in my car when I got to work. That’s a beatdown of a different type!