This month was good. I saw less overall ruckmarches (down to just three over the course of the month), but there was a concerted effort to get the gear list worked out and get the parts required on-hand. As parts came in, I just had to hope that everything listed would fit, be carry-able, and not wind up being removed due to selective planning (spoiler: some things are probably gonna have to go).
The month started off strong. I finally put the extension and loop-backs all together in a single run, and it was awesome. By the time I come across the second loop-back, I’m probably less than a few minutes from my house - so I’m finding this last one is the hardest just to convince myself to do.
Once I turned off and made the commitment, it was just as good as all the other parts of the track, and it bumped me up to about 7.5 miles :)
For me the goal is to be in shape enough that I could do 20 miles a day for several days in a row. But the only time I have even potentially available for my ruckmarches is generally after 10:00 PM, and I still have to get up at 6 every morning to get my kids ready for school and go to work. This route took me 2 hours and 11 minutes and I left the house a little after 11 PM…so I don’t think I’ll be doing any 20 milers any time soon.
To make up for that, I try to do these shorter treks with higher rate of travel, generally now aiming to keep the pace around a 13-16 minute mile. For consistent 20 mile days, I’d be fine with 20-25 minute miles.
After the 7.5 mile route was fulfilled, I was talking with some friends at work who are into hiking. I haven’t gotten any of them interested in urban/rural ruckmarching yet, but one of them told me about a private driveway near me that connects back to main roads. He described this wood bridge set back in the trees with a sharp incline right behind it. He told me at the top of the hill there’s a house, and that if I turn left there it will (eventually) connect back to a known road.
This route was an absolute adventure. Trusting his general description of the bridge, I wandered down the main road in the pitch black, only turning on my shoulder light to scan the woods for a bridge occasionally.
The route I usually take is on a paved road through a suburban/rural neighborhood. There are streetlights along at least 1/3 of the route and some houses have porch lights…it gets dark on that route from time to time, but the paved road always lets me know I’m going the right way.
The route I took this time? Pitch.Fucking.Black. I crossed the wooden bridge and stole into the woods, charging up the dirt/rock incline with my hand on my knife handle. I know that’s a bit much, but being blinded in a strange space can tend to put you in defensive mode, still I appreciate the stealth mode of not using a flashlight.
When I got to the house he had described, I had to climb over a road gate to make the left turn. It felt questionable, but I couldn’t see any better options so I ran with it. This feeling of uncertainty stuck with me over the course of about 30 minutes as I wandered down a dirt road, just hoping it was right…I had not expected the “road” he had told me about to be a narrow dirt one-lane, but when it finally came to an intersection with a paved road, I knew it had been a success.
This began the longest but most uneventful part of the trek. Not much to say about the last 2/3 except that it was a really great route with no traffic.
For the last run this month, I took the weight up to 45 lbs and did the normal route. I was impressed to see how significantly the slight increase from 38 lbs impacted my speed and stamina.
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