GORUCK Tough San Francisco Class 036 - Training and Prep

I've never had any real desire to run a marathon. Matter of fact, I have a fairly strong dislike of distance running. So why on earth did I sign up for an event that was billed as a grueling 15-20 mile running tour of the city while wearing a backpack filled with bricks? Well that just sounded like fun.

It all started around 8 months ago when I signed up for the Nor Cal Tough Mudder. There was a link on the side of the page for something called the Goruck Challenge.

http://www.goruck.com/2010/09/class-001-takes-the-goruck-challenge-san-francisco-california/

I found out about it a week too late, but was definitely intrigued by it. The above post and group suffering made me nostalgic for my wildland firefighting days. Wildland fire can be absolutely miserable; being comprised of long hours of grueling, hard, dirty work. The saying is "You haven't been on a wild land fire until the shower water runs black." If you aren't absolutely covered in dust, dirt and grime and tired to the bone afterwards, you can't say you've been on a wildland fire. The thing about wildland is the crew makes the experience. There's nothing like persevering through challenging and adverse conditions with a group of people that are motivated to do the same. A good crew can make the misery downright enjoyable. We would find ways to enjoy the little things in life like cracking open an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) together, seasoned with a light sprinkling of dust and ash (they just don't taste right without it). And we would smile as the terrain got steeper, the work got harder, and the hours longer, all adding a notch or two to our beloved misery index. Hey, the higher the misery index, the better the story afterward. Yup, good times.

So when I saw the above post and the smiles of the folks going through the challenge, I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. I emailed Jason, the founder of Goruck, and asked if I could meet up with the team for the Tough Mudder. He said sure thing and added me to the email list for team info and meet up details.

The day before Tough Mudder I found Goruck staff setting up their booth at Bear Valley. Jason outfitted me with an GR Echo backpack and a Tough Mudder Velcro patch to go with it. When I asked about the Goruck Tough patch on his hat, he smiled and said that patch wasn't for sale. It had to be earned.

http://www.goruck.com/2010/10/goruck-tough-patch-not-for-sale/

Yeah, from then on I was hooked. I ran Tough Mudder with my Echo filled with bricks and beer. It was a fun and challenging experience, that I'm looking forward to doing again. Still, though it left me wanting something more. I wanted to earn that patch.

Skip to a few months later, after seeing pics of challenge after challenge posted on the Goruck website, they announced a return to San Francisco. I signed up right away. As the challenge got closer, excitement quickly turned into nervousness, especially after reading a few reviews. This one in particular caused a butterfly or two.

"http://benogrady.com/goruck-st-augustine-review/

Yeah, remember that whole thing about not liking distance running? So okay, maybe three butterflies. Two months before the challenge I caught a nasty cold that sidelined my training for 3 weeks. Enter butterfly number four. I had been reading Tim Ferris' book "The Four Hour Body" for a while, and remembered the chapter "From 5k to 50k in 12 weeks." I liked that there was a large strength component to the program, as well as a big focus on interval training. This was right up my alley. The book stated in most ultra endurance events that people's tendons, ligaments and joints tended to fail long before their cardio. This is another reason why marathons and ultra endurance events hadn't really appealed to me before; it always seemed like a lot of the athletes that participated in these events would wreck their bodies for weeks after the events. In this chapter they talked of running marathons and lifting heavy a week after. That made this program sound like a good way to get ready for the rigors of the challenge.

With 5 weeks left before the challenge, I started the program. I had to scale some of the workouts to my fitness level, and make a few substitutions here and there. I wanted to strengthen the stabilizer muscles in my shoulder so I substituted double bottoms up floor presses with 8kg bells. Other substitutions usually involved kettlebells or my TRX. I followed the first 4 weeks of the program and then week 12 to allow for recovery time. This was necessary, because some of the workouts, (most of the workouts) in the program are pretty brutal. I was getting stronger and faster with better endurance. Still though, my feet and shins would ache on the longer runs. A few weeks in, I realized this was in large part due to running on the treadmill. The foot and shin pain was far less pronounced when I went for a few runs through my neighborhood. While my fitness was improving, I was still pretty nervous and constantly wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into. I didn't want to be a burden to or slow up the team. I knew I'd be okay under the load of the pack and doing buddy carries, but was still unsure about the running component.

Two days before the event, we met up at a local pub for the ruckoff. It was great to finally meet everyone. The common threads through all of us were wanting the bonds of camaraderie forged through shared suffering and hard work, and wanting to earn the patch. These were exactly the types of folks I was looking for with the challenge.

I got off work and finished up some last minute packing and prep before the challenge. On the official packing list, they recommended wrapping up the bricks to keep them from tearing up the inside of the bags. I took mine to fedex and had them wrapped up in bubble wrap and packing tape. I later reinforced them with duct tape. Snacks were put in a ziplock bag. Beanie, gloves, extra socks and shirt were put into a dry bag. The Echo only had enough room for the bricks, snacks and dry bag, so I clipped my windbreaker to the outside with a carabiner. With everything just barely fitting, I headed out to meet up with the team.

As for the challenge itself, now after it's all over, I realize that the biggest part of this challenge is dealing with the unknown. For this reason, I won't give a detailed explanation of what we did or where we went. Each challenge is its own experience. Our class, 036, was different than the class 035, which went just a few hours before us. All's I will say is we started at 6 pm and saw the sun set and then rise, Lou was an excellent cadre leader, and all the members of 036 were a great group of folks to share this amazing experience with.

Now, while the unknown is the biggest challenge, it is by no means the only challenge. So for anyone thinking of doing this challenge in the future here are a few tips

1. Find and stick to a good strength and conditioning program. The one in "The Four Hour Body" worked well for me and I plan on doing the full course before the next GRC. Make sure to do at least some of the runs with a pack,and on varied surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, grass and sand. Add in hikes at a good pace. For an idea of a "good pace" refer to the Forest Service Wildland Firefighter Pack Test. In order to pass this test, the applicant must hike 3 miles with a 45 lb. pack, in less than 45 minutes, no running allowed. This is a good place to start. This will teach your lower limbs to better absorb the shock and impact of moving quickly while under a load.

2. Meet up with your class and develop team strategies from the beginning. Class 036 was lucky to have Joel "the Godfather" who was on his third GRC that week. He was a wealth of information. He emphasized the team concept and told us to check our egos in the beginning. The goal is to get everyone through to the end. If anyone's hurting, they have to let their team and their cadre know so that the team can slow the pace, carry their pack, or carry them if need be. This is a long event. Everyone will have times throughout the challenge where they feel stronger than others. It's the responsibility of the individual to communicate to the team those times when they're not feeling quite as strong, and when they are feeling strong to help out those that aren't.

3. In addition to the normal cardio and strength training, add in a liberal dose of bear crawls, more than you'd normally think necessary, and for longer distances than you' think necessary. Then add in a weighted pack. The pack adds a whole new dimension to the bear crawl. If you don't keep your back level and butt low during the bear crawls, the pack slides up towards the neck, putting more strain on the neck and shoulders. Gloves help out a ton with bear crawls since we were doing them on various surfaces. They kept the gravel and debris from grinding into my palms. I used a set of Mechanix work gloves which were light enough to run in and held up to the abuse.

4. Practice the technique for firefighter carries and add a liberal dose of these into your training. Again practice this for longer distances than you'd normally think necessary, minimum of working up to 100-400 yards, practice going up hills and carrying people that weigh more than you.

www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Fireman's-Carry

One technique that helps me on the firefighter carries is I put a shoulder right into the persons hip joint to ensure I have enough of the weight of the person's torso evenly balanced across my shoulders.

5. Invest in a good set of shoes. You're going to be spending a long time on your feet so treat them right from the beginning. I used a set of Solomon XA trail running shoes (not the gore-tex ones, but the kind that easily drain water) Montrail heat moldable insoles, and Wright running socks that stated they guaranteed against blisters. All worked quite well.

6. Get the right pack for you and outfit it well. I love my little Echo, but for the challenge I would make a few changes to it. A little bit of molle webbing on the straps would've been helpful to attach a chest strap to cinch in the front of the pack and take some of the pressure off of my shoulders. After doing the challenge, I think the Radio Ruck would probably be the best bag for me for this event. They mentioned wrapping the bricks in order to protect the inside of the bag, and also to make the load more manageable. I knew that I didn't want to use t-shirts or towels or anything that would absorb water and add weight. I took mine to FedEx and had them packaged together to limit movement within the pack, then wrapped up with small bubble wrap and packing tape. I later reinforced this with a few wraps of duct tape. This worked like a charm. In the bigger bags, past challenge takers have mentioned keeping the bricks high in the pack makes them easier to carry for long distances. Some folks have used either long zip ties or webbing attached to the molle straps in order to accomplish this. I just picked up this super strong Velcro strapping from REI called StrapAll. I plan on using this in the Radio Ruck for the next challenge. The bricks barely fit into the Echo, so keeping them high wasn't too much of an issue. Another item for the pack was the Platypus Big Zip Hydration bladder. This worked great and was very easy to fill without having to take it out of the pack. Also have a spare supply of carabiners and webbing for any "coupons" you happen to pick up along the way. The StrapAll might work out quite well for this as well.

Another advantage of having my pack in advance was that I knew exactly where it contacted my body and all the potential chafe points. Taking another bit of advice from our ruck off, I applied large patches of mole skin to my shoulders where the straps rubbed, and to the small of my back where the bottom of the pack came in contact with me. I gauged this both in the standing and bear crawl positions. Because of this, I had no problems with chafing from my pack.

7. Hydrate and eat early and often. I started hydrating with a gallon of water and half a gallon of pedialyte the day before the challenge and another combined gallon before the challenge. Be sure to hydrate with both water and an electrolyte solution. One bit of advice from the ruck off that helped quite a bit was to keep hydrating and eating during the challenge before we would get hungry or thirsty. I strongly believe this helped to sustain my stamina and muscular endurance through the long hours. Keep your snacks easily accessible at the top of your bag or in a jacket pocket. The harder they are to get too, the less likely you'll be eat early and often. Have some sort of food with you that you enjoy eating. It can go a long way for moral in the wee hours of the challenge. Peanut m&ms and Montana Huckleberry Hammer gels were a big pick me up on the challenge.

8. After the challenge was over I took a hot bath filled with Epsom salt to reduce inflammation and muscle soreness. The day after the challenge I had minimal muscle soreness, mainly in my shoulders from the pack straps. I believe this quick recovery was due to the workout regime and the Epsom salt.

9. And my last little bit of advice is to either stay close to the event, carpool, or have a friend drive you home. I am no stranger to sleep deprivation and operating in a sleep deprived state. I felt awake and wired after the challenge was done, but once I hopped in my car and started to drive home, the tiredness hit suddenly and like a ton of bricks. It'd be a shame to mar the joy of earning the patch with a car wreck, so plan accordingly.

So there ya have my two cents. Any out there who have been through a challenge and have anything to add, or anyone that has any further questions, please feel free to leave a note in the comments section. This was an amazing experience and within hours of it ending I was already thinking of the next one. The challenge has a 98% pass rate of those who do decide to attempt it. Our cadre leader Lou mentioned that for women it's been 100%. More info can be found in the FAQ section of the challenge website.

http://goruckchallenge.com/faq/




I'm somewhere in the middle of the group in this video.

If you are at all inclined to this sort of thing I highly recommend it and hope to see you out there.


Update August 13, 2011
One of my 036 classmates posted his experiences here

http://www.rotarypayphone.com/post/8009552475/goruckchallenge