GORUCK Tough San Francisco Class 086 - Training and Prep

Well, one thing is for sure - these Goruck Challenges aren't getting any easier. GRC Class 086 was the longest (13 hours), heaviest (6 bricks), coldest (low 40s to possibly dipping into the 30s), and wettest (it was raining pretty steady almost the whole time) challenge that I have done to date. This simply means that the the conditions were better for testing my gear, set up and training.

Over all my pack set up worked well. I would change a few things about it though. I used the Radio Ruck again, which for me is the perfect size for the challenge. The last post shows how the bricks were positioned in the pack with 3 up high and three low beneath them. With the bricks wrapped individually, they did shift in the pack by the end of the challenge.

Next time, after the bricks are inspected, I will strap them all together in their bundles with a few more wraps of duct tape. A few people had their bricks zip tied together after being individually wrapped. this worked out great because when we had to shoulder extra packs, we could more easily divvy up the bricks and spread the weight amongst more team members. Next time as well, I will play around with a 4 high/2 low brick set up. This time having the 3 bricks low did place some strain on my low back.

Another change I made for this challenge was adding the Camelbak HotShot bladder to the outside.

This worked out quite well. Because there's no telling when we'll get to refill our water, I'd recommend carrying at least 3L of fluid from the beginning. Another thing that I liked about the Camelbak is that it has an insulated tube and a cover for the mouth piece. A lot of the times in these challenges a drink tube might find itself dragging across the ground during bear crawls or when we roll around in the sand. Also, a lot of the water that we find ourselves in is less than pristine. Here you can see me biting my drink tube while doing pushups in Manhatten's East River.

The water really was as murky as it looked. Ah yes, memories of that East River aroma are wafting back to me now... or that might just still be my gear. Seriously though, protect your drink tubes. It's all fun and games until someone gets Salmonella or Hep A. Both Camelbak and Platypus make mouth piece covers that can be purchased separately. While I like the ease of filling and the locking feature on the mouth piece of the Platypus Big Zip, unfortunately, it is not compatible with the cover.

Along the lines of hydration, race nutrition is something that I'm constantly tweaking. In the past, I've had snacks easily accessible in front zip pouches or in MOLLE pouches attached to the bag. This time since our bags were not allowed to touch the ground, I rarely took my pack off during breaks. Other times, we rotated our packs so much during log carries and at other times, that I rarely knew who's pack I was carrying, or where my pack was. Therefore I recommend keeping at least a few snacks on you in easily accessible pockets that won't rub or chafe. These are long events, so it's very important to eat, even if you don't feel hungry.

For my gear I'll start from the top and go down.

The 5.11 watch cap worked great. My head felt toasty and warm the whole time despite the rain.

I once again used a Princeton Tec Byte headlamp, same as class 036. This light is inexpensive at around $20, it has an additional red LED to preserve night vision, two brightness settings with a max of 35 lumens, and is fairly lightweight at 64 grams. I was really impressed with this little light after Class 036 when I didn't realize that I had sent it through the washing machine until I saw it shining bright through the pocket of my windbreaker afterwards. It rated as IXP4 resistant to splashing water and inclement weather. I wouldn't go dunking it in a tub of water to test it out, but mine did survive the spin cycle. One drawback to this light is that it does drain batteries when it is turned off, so therefore the batteries have to be stored outside of it until it's ready to be used. Last challenge with class 057 I used a Petzl e+ headlamp. This is also a great little light. It is waterproof up to 1m, operates in a wide range of temperatures, has a shelf life of 10 years and is extremely lightweight at 28 grams. I took this one along for 086 as a back up light. I chose not to use it as my primary this time, because I wanted something just a little bit brighter, with its brightest settings only being 16 lumens.

New for this time I tried out the Columbia Omni Heat thermal 1/4 zip top. The Omni Heat line has these little silver dots on the inside of the clothing making it look like a space blanket. In the days before the challenge when I was wearing it around town it did in fact feel warmer than a normal top. Still though, it was not quite as warm as I expected it to be once it got wet. I wore it over the 2XU short sleeve compression top, and under my windbreaker. This was not enough insulation for these conditions. I was starting to shiver pretty significantly until a classmate lent me another light jacket to wear on top of my other layers.

New for the bottoms, I tried out the REI Airflyte Running tights over my 2XU compression shorts and under board shorts. One of the easiest ways to identify a Gorucker or like minded person is by our snazzy fashion sense of board shorts over running tights. This is similar to the wildlander look of shorts, 8-12" leather boots and wool hiking socks, which I've also sported on training hikes. The tights held up to the abuse of the challenge and were pretty comfy. In the cold and wet I could've used another layer here too.

My feet were surprisingly toasty and warm. My toes got a case of frost nip years back on a high school camping trip. Because of this they tend to get cold and go numb earlier than they normally would when it gets cold outside. I wore a pair of smart wool PhD running socks which kept my feet much warmer and shed water quicker than expected.


For the training portion this time I stuck with my tried and true 5k to 50k. As I was starting to ramp things up, I got a mild case of plantar fasciitis which forced me to back off of the running for a bit. Weighted pack stair workouts and Viking Warrior made up the bulk of my longer cardio sessions.

This worked out okay. I would have liked to have a better cardio base for this challenge, especially with the mission based challenges with time limits to destinations. It's no longer enough just to gut your way through a challenge. Now there is a pretty rigorous pace that needs to be met. I still do not recommend running with a fully weighted pack right off the bat. Work up to this gradually, on varied surfaces, learning to cushion your foot strikes by keeping your feet low to the ground with a shuffle run.

Another thing to practice is moving at pace holding the pack without using the shoulder straps and/or moving at pace with an extra pack. This turned out to be a pretty good forearm burn. One thing that helped us during Class 086 was to rotate the packs frequently and at predetermined times. This way we weren't waiting until someone was completely burned out before looking for someone to take over for them.

So that's it for this time. Three GRCs down, more to come soon.