Jump to: Weekly Format | Week 0 | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12/13
WEEK 0: |
Week 1 Day 1 (W1D1) is the first Monday of your Class session. If your Class begins on another day of the week, you will need the Week 0 Programming. Find Week 0 schedules here by the day of the week that your Class session begins on: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. |
WEEK 1: |
W1D1 | Mobility WOD: Mobility Introduction |
W1D2 |
Flex Ruck 2-4 Miles Pick your distance for W1D2, opting to go anywhere from 2-4 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: Your Posture Is Key |
W1D3 | Full Body WOD: "The Boss Lady" + 1 Mile |
W1D4 |
Speed Ruck 2 Mi Resource: The Need For Speed |
W1D5 | Core WOD: "The Phoenix" |
W1D6 | Ruck 4 Mi |
W1D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 2: |
W2D1 | Mobility WOD + 1 Mile |
W2D2 | Rest Day Resource: The Importance of Rest |
W2D3 | Full Body WOD: "The Bass 20-30-40" + 1 Mile |
W2D4 |
Interval Ruck 2 Mi Resource: How Are Intervals Different? |
W2D5 | Core WOD: "The U-Haul" |
W2D6 | Ruck 6 Mi |
W2D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 3: |
W3D1 | Rest Day |
W3D2 |
Flex Ruck 2-4 Mi Resource: Hot Day? Tips for Summer Training |
W3D3 | Full Body WOD: "Star Force" + 3 Mile |
W3D4 |
Speed Ruck 4 Mi Resource: How To Use Mobility Tools |
W3D5 | Core WOD: "The Sidewinder" |
W3D6 | Ruck 8 Mi |
W3D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 4: |
W4D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W4D2 |
Flex Ruck 2-4 Miles Pick your distance for W4D2, opting to go anywhere from 2-4 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: How To Use Mobility Tools |
W4D3 | Full Body WOD: "The Enigma Machine" + 2 Mile |
W4D4 |
Speed Ruck 2 Mi Resource: 12 Mile Timed Ruck Overview |
W4D5 | Rest Day |
W4D6 | Challenge: 12 Mile Timed Ruck |
W4D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 5: |
W5D1 | Rest Day |
W5D2 |
Flex Ruck 4-6 Miles Pick your distance for W5D2, opting to go anywhere from 4-6 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: If Some Is Good, Is More Better? |
W5D3 | Full Body WOD: "Neighbor Nate's Crazy 8's" + 3 Miles |
W5D4 |
Speed Ruck 3 Mi Resource: How to Stay Motivated |
W5D5 | Core WOD: "Devil's 15" |
W5D6 | Ruck 6 Mi |
W5D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 6: |
W6D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W6D2 |
Flex Ruck 4-6 Miles Pick your distance for W6D2, opting to go anywhere from 4-6 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: The "Whys" and "How" Behind the 10-Mile Conditioning Ruck |
W6D3 | Rest Day |
W6D4 |
Interval Ruck 4 Mi Resource: Back to Back Long Rucks, and Why? |
W6D5 | Core WOD: "The Girls Can" |
W6D6 | Challenge: 10 Mile Conditioning Ruck |
W6D7 | OPTIONAL: Consecutive Ruck Flex Ruck up to 4 Miles |
WEEK 7: |
W7D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W7D2 |
Rest Day Resource: Team Dynamics |
W7D3 | Full Body WOD: "Left, Right, Center" + 2 Mile |
W7D4 |
Speed Ruck 5 Mi Resource: Team Roles |
W7D5 | Core WOD: "Nowhere to Run" |
W7D6 | Ruck 8 Mi |
W7D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 8: |
W8D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W8D2 |
Flex Ruck 4-6 Miles Pick your distance for W8D2, opting to go anywhere from 4-6 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: Being a Good Teammate |
W8D3 | Full Body WOD: "Death by Ruck" + 2 Mile |
W8D4 |
Speed Ruck 6 Mi Resource: Pacing & Break Strategies |
W8D5 | Rest Day |
W8D6 | Challenge: Ruck 20 Mi OR Ruck 26.2 Mi |
W8D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 9: |
W9D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W9D2 |
Flex Ruck 6-8 Miles Pick your distance for W9D2, opting to go anywhere from 6-8 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: Fueling Strategies & Nutrition |
W9D3 | Full Body WOD: "Worst Hobby Ever" + 2 Mile |
W9D4 |
Speed Ruck 5 Mi Resource: Packing List & Printable PDF |
W9D5 | Rest Day |
W9D6 | Ruck 6 Mi |
W9D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 10: |
W10D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W10D2 |
Flex Ruck 4-6 Miles Pick your distance for W10D2, opting to go anywhere from 4-6 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: Support Crew |
W10D3 | Rest Day |
W10D4 |
Interval Ruck 4 Mi Resource: Navigation Challenge |
W10D5 | Core WOD: "3:60" |
W10D6 | Challenge: 10 Mile Navigation Ruck |
W10D7 | OPTIONAL: Consecutive Ruck Flex Ruck up to 6 Miles |
WEEK 11: |
W11D1 | Rest Day |
W11D2 |
Flex Ruck 2-4 Miles Pick your distance for W11D2, opting to go anywhere from 2-4 miles at your regular rucking pace. Resource: What to Do When Things Fall Apart |
W11D3 | Full Body WOD: "The Boss Lady" Revisited + 2 Mile |
W11D4 |
Speed Ruck 3 Mi Resource: Tapering |
W11D5 | Core WOD: "The Essentials" |
W11D6 | Ruck 4 Mi |
W11D7 | Rest Day |
WEEK 12/13: |
W12D1 | Mobility WOD + 2 Mi Ruck |
W12D2 |
Taper Resource: Getting Your Mind Right |
W12D3 | Taper Resource: What Next? |
W12D4-ENDEX | Taper |
WEEK 0 - Tuesday Start: |
W0D1 | Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
W0D2 | Ruck 2 Mi |
W0D3 | Core WOD: "The Girls Can" |
W0D4 | Rest & Planning Day |
W0D5 | Ruck 4 Mi |
W0D6 | Rest & Planning Day |
WEEK 0 - Wednesday Start: |
W0D1 |
Ruck 2 Mi Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
W0D2 | Core WOD: "The Girls Can" |
W0D3 | Ruck 4 Mi |
W0D4 | Rest Day |
W0D5 | Rest Day |
WEEK 0 - Thursday Start: |
W0D1 | Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
W0D2 | Ruck 2 Mi |
W0D3 | Core WOD: "The Girls Can" |
W0D4 | Rest & Planning Day |
WEEK 0 - Friday Start: |
W0D1 | Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
W0D2 | Flex Ruck 2-4 Mi |
W0D3 | Core WOD: "The Girls Can" |
WEEK 0 Saturday Start: |
W0D1 | Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
W0D2 | Flex Ruck 2-4 Mi |
WEEK 0 - Sunday Start: |
W0D1 | Resource: Starting Off on the Right Foot |
WEEKLY FORMAT: |
D1 | Mobility Workouts |
D2 | Shorter Rucks |
D3 | Full Body Workouts |
D4 | Speed or Interval Rucks |
D5 | Core Workouts |
D6 | Longer Rucks and Challenges |
D7 | Rest Day |
Shelby Park (Mission Picnic Pavilion)
401 S 20th St., Nashville, TN 37206
Universities are generally used in the Star Courses. The following colleges/universities are in the Nashville area:
Two major sporting arenas are in the City:
Shelby Bottoms Greenway will be a key greenway and it also links into other greenways in the Nashville area.
Look how close this Greenway is to the start point.
For example, the Shelby Bottoms Greenway can be used to get to the Grand Ole Opry. The Grand Ole Opry is at the top right of the picture across the river. You will see that the park is at the bottom of the greenway.
Familiarize yourself with all the Greenways or link up with a local for tips. This is a great resource for information on all the greenways:
https://www.nashville.gov/Portals/0/SiteContent/Parks/docs/greenways/Greenways-CountyWideMap.pdf
It's our last, most important week. Tapering. You've been working hard for the last twelve weeks, improving your mobility, building core strength, hitting full-body workouts, not to mention you've rucked all those miles. You've thought about how you'll fare on the long-haul miles during your 12, 20 or 26-mile rucks. You've felt your legs quake or ache on the hills during your Conditioning Ruck. You've learned the ropes of the navigating apps during the Navigation Ruck. All this time, you've been driven by the final goal to ruck 50-miles - an unheard-of achievement by most athletic standards.
You've done hard events before. You know how to get comfortable being uncomfortable. You're not scared of the pain of a tired body. You're prepared. You know the reward of a completed goal is bigger, and better, than you can imagine, and you focus on that achievement instead.
You've cultivated mental strength this whole time. If you're unsure, it's time to believe it now.
You're ready.
Ward against taking your own self out - sabotaging your own efforts - when your body gets tired and your will gets weak. Welcome the moment, however good or bad or awful, and see it for what it is. A moment. The next one will come and wash it away. You've spent so much time anticipating this day. We all want time to go quickly when we're finally at the true challenge - the moment that finally truly challenges us, when we wish for it to all end, and quickly - but you don't want to be on the other side of this yet.
Not really.
You want the sweat and pain and aches and aggravation. Welcome it. You signed up for that. Don't let 'quit' silently creep into your mind without a way to shut it down, immediately. As the aches grow, as the miles wear down, as the hours slow, smile. Acknowledge that there is literally nowhere else you'd rather be than right there, right then. In all of your personal history, know that there was never going to be any other way for you to spend that particular day.
Keep in mind why you're there.
If you get hurt, know that sometimes as an athlete you have to go a little backward to go forward.
If you sit down, exhausted and unwilling to stand up, set your timer for 1:00 to have a temper tantrum, have a snack, and get.your.ass.back.up.
Let the Star Course test you, if that's what you want. You might be curious about your mettle. You may have just been curious about the team setting, or the city, or any number of things. In any case, the course is an adventure. Don't miss the parts of a city you never would have seen, speeding by in a car. Keep your eyes open to appreciating a city in a way you never would have seen it before. Appreciate the uniqueness, or beauty, or even just the secret, gleeful awfulness of the experience.
Think about your body, and how grateful you are to have strong legs, a strong back, and a strong will. You know people in your life who walk to the car, to their office, and then back to their cars at night. You know people who are hurting, who are sick, or who are no longer with us. Think about them. Dedicate miles to a friend, family member or stranger, and keep their face in the forefront of your mind. Think about the courage it takes to do difficult things, and about everything you've done to cultivate courage in your own life.
Prepare to enjoy every moment. Acknowledge that "demons" exist, but acknowledge they also MAY NOT. It's okay to have an event that's strictly fun, where you relished the work and miles and didn't have one dark thought. Secret: dark thoughts aren't necessary to have a meaningful event. You've trained for this and you're prepared. It doesn't have to be something you approach with dread. Not every event, even a long-ass 50 miles, has to be the event that "changed you." Meaning happens during the training, and it gives its final exclamation point on your event day. It can "just" be a wild and memorable adventure, and be an awesome photo in the scrapbook of your own incredible life. Don't feed the negative feelings with "oh no, here it comes." Consider how you handle difficult things in your day-to-day life. You didn't just decide to ruck 50 miles by accident. You planned for this. You purposefully trained for this. Don't buy "punching demons in the throat" as your only ticket into this party.
Be grateful for the opportunity, instead. Put your whole heart into this. The achievement you will feel will be second-to-none.
This is our love letter to Horizon. This is our love letter to PATHFINDER rosters, your commitment, your courage, and your determination. Get living.
- Amy & Lyell
]]>I’m addicted to logging my workouts. I blame Lyell. I started PATHFINDER in Class 008. Prior to that, I just “worked out.” I rucked, I lifted, I ran, I swam, I did yoga – it was uncomplicated. Then, I was finally brave enough to sign up for PATHFINDER and started logging. Recording my workouts gave me validation, made me organized, held me accountable to someone other than myself. In those days, there was a month-long break between classes, and I felt lost. It was strange as even though I kept doing the exact same workouts, the fact they didn’t count for something made them less important in my mind. Whew, thank goodness that archaic time has passed and we now roll from one PATHFINDER Class right into another!
I use this personal truth as an introduction to the topic of “what’s next.” As we train for an epic event like a 50-mile ruck, we need to be aware of post-achievement letdown or depression. This is common after you have spent months focused on one goal, and suddenly that goal is gone. This is a real issue, with many articles written about it, some of which I have read and posted below. I have experienced this to some extent as well, which is likely one reason I have many GORUCK patches on my patch board.
If you’re prone to this type of post achievement let down, spending some time (perhaps while rucking) examining the “why” of it is important. Is it because the training gave you purpose and organization? Is it because the achievement was important to your self-worth? Did the event have emotional significance to you that was separate from just the physical portion? Did regular exercise help combat stress and anxiety in your life? Identifying the "why" helps a lot to determine the next steps.
As I was studying for my yoga teacher certification, we spent a lot of time talking about being present in the now, not worrying about the past or the future. We also spoke a lot about letting go of the outcome. I’ll shorten 200 hours of training for you, and be specific to our chosen outlet. If we can learn to enjoy just rucking, or getting friends together for a workout, regardless of the goal, we are happier. One way to combat post-event let down is to remain focused on the present and the process. Just because you finish 50 miles doesn’t mean you stop rucking, or stop interacting with your PATHFINDER Class, or stop joining your local ruck club for outings. All of that is still there, in the present! Even if you don’t sign up for another event, stay connected with the parts of the training that benefited you.
Many people will combat these doldrums by finding a new goal to work towards. I fall into that category. I absolutely function best when I have a goal. My husband is the opposite. He easily gets up at 5 am for workouts, with no event or race on the horizon. For me, completing PATHFINDER has been a big goal, and most Rosters can tell stories of excessive work they have done in the last week of a Class in order to finish! I now automatically sign up for the next PATHFINDER class, as I know that motivation is good for me. Many of us will sign up for another big event, whether it’s rucking, OCR or running. However, that next goal could also be organizing a charity ruck in your town, starting a ruck club, or another non-physical goal. Knowing why you may have post-achievement let down is important to know how best to combat it.
As with all things, awareness is huge and prevention is better than treatment. Know that post-achievement depression is a thing. It’s normal. It’s something we welcome a conversation about. While we will absolutely preach about adequate recovery after your event, we also want to see you right back at it, interacting with our great community and enjoying the mental and physical benefits of rucking. Also, remember it’s ok to get together with rucking friends just to eat pizza and hang out. Friendships born out of suffering can continue to exist in comfort!
https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20804968/the-postrace-blues/
]]>Congratulations! You've made it! This is the week you've been waiting for. This mobility workout is your last official Horizon workout as your taper week begins and your focus is on slowing down, trusting your training, checking your gear, eating nutritionally-sound foods, drinking plenty of water and getting as rested as you can. Mobility has played and should continue to play, an important role in your training for the Star Course and many events to come. We hope we've given you enough resources and tools to make it a welcome part of your life! With that, here are our mobility recommendations for this week:
You either love Adriene by now, or you wish you've never heard of her. In either case, this is one last chance to experience how excellent her YouTube channel is with this great video on spinal work.
Here's a quick 10-minute yoga core workout with another of our favorite's, Sea Vigue. This is if you're looking for slightly more vigorous movement as you begin your taper week.
This is a great routine for tight ankles as you begin to wind down and consider your event. This video moves quickly, but the information is really useful, so this is a play-and-pause as you watch his recommendations and then pause to follow through.
I really like this guy's no-fuss approach to mobility and yoga. This is an excellent video for any additional mobility you feel like you might need during this upcoming week.
]]>The Essentials
This is our last core workout of the Horizon cycle. We hope you have noticed improvements in your core strength! Today, we will be focusing on Essentials as your wind down on your way to taper week.
THE WARM UP
1 mile ruck, regular pace
THE WORK x 2-3
25 x Russian Twists
25 x Mountain Climbers - hard count (1,1,2,2 etc)
1:00 Elbow Plank
25 x Toe Touch Crunch (video demo)
25 x Flutter Kicks
1:00 Side Plank - Left
25 x Half Windshield Wipers (video demo)
25 x Bird Dogs (video demo)
1:00 Side Plank - Right
25 x Dead Bugs
25 x Raised Leg Crunch (video demo)
1:00 Hinge to Side Plank
Tapering is the practice of gradually reducing your training programming to allow your body the proper time to rest, repair and recover from the fatigue of intense training. Tapering is an extremely necessary and effective way to prepare your body for a long endurance event. But sometimes, it can cause extreme anxiety because the thought of scaling back and incorporating true rest days in the last few weeks leading up to an event can seem counter-productive to success. In reality, tapering is essential to optimal performance and is key to reaching peak performance for your event.
The benefits of tapering far outweigh intense training up until the day of your event. One of the biggest fears is losing or depleting your fitness levels and gains during the period of tapering when, in fact, the tapering period actually makes you stronger. Intense training or high mileage deplete your muscle glycogen, antioxidants, enzymes, and hormone levels while the tapering period allows your body the time it needs to return these levels to optimal ranges. Tapering also allows your body to repair muscle, ligament and joint impairments that may have occurred during your most intense training.
Tapering isn’t just beneficial to the physical aspects of your body. It also allows you to mentally refresh, reflect and spend the time doing the activities you may have had to skip due to the commitment of your strict training regimen.
During your taper week, we want you to plan for success by focusing on sleep, hydration, mobility, and nutrition, as well as trying to remove as much anxiety as you can. Thinks of Taper Week as a rest day x 7. Since you’ve been following our Horizon planned rest days so well, you should feel confident that what you’ve done then also works now. And if you haven’t been following our recommendations as closely as you could have, consider this your week to finally do it!
In a perfect world, we’d all be getting 8 hours of solid, restful sleep a night. Unfortunately, pre-event anxiety can impact your sleep. Following our recommendations from earlier posts and keeping your bedroom dark and cool, limiting electronic devices prior to bed, limiting alcohol and going to bed at a consistent time can go a long way to getting the best sleep you can hope for. There’s a lot of discussion in long-distance communities about paying attention to the quality of your week’s sleep, rather than the individual night’s sleep. It takes some of the pressure off the “night before’s” sleep, which can help calm any jitters. If you can nap prior to the event, god-speed. Do that.
Going into an event hydrated sets you up for success. Believe it or not, the weather is not as big a factor in hydrating as it might seem. An individual can get just as dehydrated in cold weather as in warm. Instead, watch your urine for clues that you are keeping your hydration at peak levels. Be cautious not to over hydrate though. Sometimes, overcompensating by drinking too much water can lead to unexpected issues. The standard rule of thumb for hydration during taper week is to be mindful leading up to the day before the event, but drink only to thirst. The night before your event, drink 16oz prior to bed. (Some athletes find benefit with Pedialyte prior to an event, or even 1% milk - the jury’s still out on the science of milk being more hydrating than water, but worth a shot.) Then, 2-4 hours before your event begins, drink 16-24oz of your preferred hydration drink - either water, Gatorade, Tailwind or other electrolyte drink, or juice.
While drinking water before bedtime the night before your event might lead to more trips to the bathroom, and potentially more anxiety dwelling on what might be, it helps keep you topped off and avoid losing hydration while sleeping through sweating (which we all do, regardless of if you notice it or not). Stay away from hard alcohol, but a single beer or a glass of wine isn’t the worst thing that could happen the night before.
Keeping your muscle fibers flexible, pliable and moving with mobility (especially focusing on hip mobility) will help retain muscle tension, which will help keep your body feeling fresh for event day. Go back through our recommended mobility videos to do the yoga or foam rolling video that worked best for you. You will want restorative movement, to keep your blood flowing, and you might even need some of the mental break your mobility practice can provide.
Don’t eat junk. One of our favorite “carb” dishes is roasted sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and cranberries. Delicious, nutrient-rich, and provides the kinds of carbohydrates a healthy body needs prior to a grueling event. Save the pop-tarts for a post-event treat! Eating them now will make you feel like a garbage truck.
Follow our nutrition and carb plan in the nutrition post. Top off your glycogen stores with good carbs, but don’t overeat. Instead, focus on good nutrition, and foods that work best for your body during training. Don’t eat anything new, and don’t eat carbs you don’t typically eat. If you don’t eat bagels and spaghetti usually, don’t start the night before your Star.
Anxiety is a normal part of our current existence, but there are things you can do to limit how much you absorb.
Pack your ruck early! Don’t wait until the last minute and have to rush around looking for things. Lay everything out you plan to use, test equipment you’ll need, snacks you want to bring and how best to pack your ruck to access your most important items.
Finalize all travel plans ahead of time, and if you’re traveling to your event, arrive with enough time to rest, have a meal and maybe even a nap. Arriving early = feeling calm and in control. Look up parking, public restrooms nearby...whatever you think you’ll feel better knowing, even if you wind up not needing that information.
Minimize stress leading up to the day before your event. If you can leave work early a day or two before your event to buy yourself some time to prepare, do that. Ask for a day off after your event, if the thought of going straight back to work stresses you out. Consider the things that stress you in your day-to-day life and make plans to minimize what you can.
Plan for the best outcome. World-class athletes play the mental long game. They take the time to visualize their process, their progress, and the end result. Spend some quiet time imagining yourself working through difficult moments on the course and how you’ll get through them. Visualize finishing the course, how good it will feel, and what achievement means to you. Remind yourself of your “Why.” Why are you doing this? Why is it important to you? Carry those reasons with you.
Every person is different, so it’s important to use a taper plan that works for you and this may take a few events for you to figure that out so use the trial and error method. Be sure to track what you do for each event and make a list of the pro and cons and how each of those affected your event. Remember tapering is about learning to Embrace The Less so you can prepare your body to Embrace The Suck!
]]>In a perfect world, your 50 miler is smooth sailing. Everyone on the team feels great the whole time. Everyone gets along perfectly, with no disagreements. Navigation is perfect. You find all of your waypoints quickly. In less time than expected, your team arrives at the Endex, with exactly 50 miles covered. We don’t live in a perfect world, though, and especially in an event with as many variables as the Star Course, you’re bound to encounter surprises and challenges along the way. You can do all you can to anticipate and mitigate risks by reading AARs, communicating well with your team, and learning through experience in your training. Even so, there will be some aspects of the event that you can’t control. When issues happen, that’s where you have to put on your problem-solving hat, work with your team, adapt, and overcome.
Here are some stories with examples of the types of challenges you might encounter, along with examples of what was done in those cases to try to solve those problems.
In CLT, my team made two mistakes early on, the consequences of which were felt later in the event. First, we started too fast. I didn’t pay enough attention to our instantaneous pace in the first few miles, and I assumed that because everyone on the team was rucking that fast, that they were comfortable with going that fast for the duration of the event. We got caught up in the excitement of all the teams rushing out to the first waypoint, and I was only thinking about my role as Timekeeper in terms of break timing and not in terms of pace-setting.
The second issue was that we didn’t stick to our plan of taking our first break at mile 8. We were feeling good, so we decided to press on and keep rucking until our next waypoint, which was another 5 or so miles away. This decision resulted in some feet that were hurting by the time we got to that waypoint, and paces that slowed.
Running some numbers and seeing the trend in our mile splits, I developed concerns about our ability to meet our time hack. It was important that I not keep this concern to myself because I needed to make sure that everyone was aware of this risk so that we could do what we needed to physically and mentally to get back on track. That seemed to help at first, and our pace time improved. The early speed and the skipped break did cause muscle tightness as we continued, though, and paces struggled again later. Our break plan kind of fell apart. Because we skipped the first planned break, we ended with more unplanned breaks and extra pain.
To get back on track with pace, we did a few things.
In the end, through the perseverance of my teammates, their problem-solving skills, and a never-give-up mindset, we made it through the 52-mile course with 40 minutes to spare. It’s important to never give up and to focus on solutions, rather than the problem. I even know of some examples from events like San Francisco 2018 or ATL 2019 where the route was more challenging than even the Cadre expected, and modifications to the requirements were made mid-way through the event. Those who continued on despite challenging circumstances were rewarded later on with new hope and a fighting chance. I don’t expect many of those scenarios to happen in the future, now that the event, the apps, and the cities are more familiar to the organizers. However, it’s a good lesson that one should never give up.
My very first Star Course was the ATL 26.2. I wanted to use it as a low-pressure environment for learning how the event works before I tried going for the longer 50 miler. I was on a team of 3 that I found through the Facebook event page. One would be our Navigator, one would be our Team Leader, and I was the Instagrammer. The Navigator was a local, so he was going to take the primary role. I had read AARs that pointed out how critical the initial waypoint entry and route optimization were, so even though I wasn’t the Navigator, I was going to also put the points into Road Warrior Pro, which I had practiced with on real rucks prior to the event. We came up with the same shape (although opposite directions in the somewhat circular route, which is OK… we just picked a direction, based on whether we wanted to do the city waypoints early in the night or at the end).
We knocked out our first set of waypoints easily. Our Navigator knew the area really well and was on top of things. After the third waypoint, our Navigator started taking us down a road that wasn’t on the route that I had plotted in Road Warrior or found recommended on Google Maps for point-to-point directions to the next waypoint. I asked him about it then, but in our quick discussion, I accepted that we were fine and that this was a good route to our next destination.
About a mile and a half of a long walk later, during a pit stop where I had lots of time to think through it some more, I determined that this couldn’t be right. We had gone past some waypoints that would’ve been to our north, and I didn’t see how we could possibly be going the optimal way if we had to somehow come back to this area later on to get those points. I decided to ask the Navigator about it again, and we figured out that he had been re-optimizing the route along the way, and because the Road Warrior setting was on “Round Trip”, it always thought that we’d be coming back to the area.
I’ll take this moment to point out - there shouldn’t be a need to re-optimize the route once you do the initial optimization at the beginning of the event when you plot your points and get the sequence. You only need to re-optimize if something significant blocks your originally planned route, and if you do re-optimize, make sure you adjust settings like round trip vs. one-way if needed.
We hope these two stories of what happens when things go wrong will help you troubleshoot when things start to go sideways in your event. Knowing how to fix a situation beforehand can lead to a better outcome!
]]>Today's Core Workout is focused on abdominal and core endurance. Each exercise you'll complete requires 3 rounds, of 60 seconds each. You can choose to knock them out continuously, or you can rest for up to :20 seconds between each exercise.
As always, read the workout fully before attempting it, and make sure all your questions are addressed, either by posting to your Horizon class page or a simple google search.
Ruck 1 mile, easy pace
Stretch focusing on your abs, holding each stretch for up to :30 seconds.
]]>Welcome to PATHFINDER Horizon! This content is exclusive to PATHFINDER Horizon subscribers. New classes begin monthly. Contact support@pathfinderrucktraining.com to find out how you can join today!
The PATHFINDER Horizon Navigation Challenge is intended to simulate the actual navigational skills a roster needs for Star Course participation.
At the beginning of the Star Course, you and your team are eagerly waiting for the start of the event. There’s tension and excitement in the air. Months of training and preparation have come down to this moment. First, there’s the admin portion… the check-in, weigh-in, and safety briefing. You keep checking the time, to see whether it’s 9 pm yet. Finally, the waypoints are distributed to the team captains.
The clock has started.
You get a list of anywhere from 11-25 waypoints. Each waypoint has an address, a GPS coordinate, or a landmark name, a brief description of the historical or cultural significance of that waypoint, potential specific instructions on how and where the team selfie should be taken, and a hashtag that you should include in your post to HQ to uniquely identify that waypoint in that selfie.
Example:
You’re full of adrenaline. You are eager to get going. But you need to figure out your route and keep a cool head. It’s important to get this right. Why?
Consider these insights that the cadre at DC 2019 shared…
People in DC 2019 had a full year of Star Course AARs and stories to go on. It was the second year that the event was held in DC, and events had taken place in many other cities. But people still didn’t recognize the importance of becoming very familiar with their Navigation App. That’s where this challenge comes in.
In a nutshell…
To make the most of this challenge:
Download the route optimization app you plan to use for Star Course. Most of the apps have a free version, but you’ll need to upgrade to the PRO version in order to plot the number of waypoints that the 50 Mile Star Course requires. For subscription-based apps, you can upgrade for a month and then cancel the subscription once your Star Course if complete. The biggest difference here is the free versions allow fewer waypoints and lacks some functionality, while the paid versions allow enough for a 50-mile course.
Apps that have been used on the Star Courses (which can be purchased on the App Store or Android Play Store):
If you want a recommendation on which one to pick, Road Warrior (upgraded to the PRO version for the event) is the most popular among Star Course participants. The basic free version of Road Warrior will allow you to plug in up to 8 waypoints.
Before you even start this challenge, familiarize yourself with the app that you’ve chosen. There are different settings that you may need to check and update to set yourself up for success. Remember to make sure that the app is set on walking mode and not driving mode. Set it on round-trip for the purposes of the Nav Ruck. It's possible that your Star Course will be point-to-point with a different Start Point vs. ENDEX, so familiarize yourself with how to update that setting as well. We’d also advise optimizing based on the shortest distance.
Pick an area where you know that you can cover 10 miles without much backtracking. Next, pick at least 8-9 landmarks (restaurants, gas stations, schools, landmarks, parks, etc) on the route. For a more realistic experience, ask a friend or family member to pick the route and the landmarks. They should not tell you the route, but only the landmarks, and NOT in the obvious order! Plug the landmarks into your app NOT in the obvious order, and then use the app to optimize the route.
To reiterate, you should use a Route Optimization App, which tells you the optimal sequence in which you should tackle a list of waypoints. Google Maps is not a Route Optimization App. It tells you the optimal way to get from point A to point B, and point B to point C, and point C to point D. But it doesn’t tell you whether you hit the waypoints in ADCB order, or CDAB order, etc.
Once the route is planned, you can consider using a point-to-point navigation app such as Google Maps, to see if there are shorter ways to get from point A to point B. If you use satellite mode, you can also check for short cuts through alleys, parks, parking lots, trails, etc. Google Maps can also give you a heads up of potential road closures. Gated communities can be a problem and Google Maps is more likely to catch this.
Consider bringing a power bank and cable, since the apps will run your battery down over time. Note your time between your navigation, rucking, and Instagram activities, and use this to plan the pace for your Star Course.
Practice all of this now in training, so that you don’t struggle with it during the middle of the event, under time pressure. Even if you don’t plan to be the Navigator, you may end up needing to take on that role, if your Navigator drops or has issues. Familiarity with Navigation is crucial for all team members.
]]>A 50-mile GORUCK Star Course presents several logistical challenges, with resupply being one of the most significant. The courses can cover an expansive space, and the route is not known until right before you step off, so drop bags are not an option. Since having a support crew is allowed, this seems the most logical way to address the issues of food, water, and personal gear.
The first option for having a support crew is Dedicated Support. This kind soul is committed to the team for the duration of the event! They are often a spouse, or GRT friend, who may think 50-mile participants are stupid but are happy to provide you with water.
Dedicated Support may be present at the start, might help with parking and route planning, and will arrange to meet the team several times. Dedicated Support can often follow two teams, and this is made much easier if they have similar routes planned. Prior to leaving the start point, decide on an approximate time and place for the first break. Depending on the course, you may not need much, or you may be black on water, or just want to change socks. Having them meet you around 1 AM is awesome, a common time teams often want to change something about their situation. Most Dedicated Support will then head to home/hotel to catch a few hours of sleep while you continue to log the miles.
Daybreak is the next time most teams will see their Dedicated Support person, who might arrive with a glorious breakfast of fast food biscuits and coffee. Knowing this is coming, so you don't have to deviate your route at all, is so helpful.
After the early morning stop, when you next see your Dedicated Support may depend on the course. In a really drivable city, you may see them 2-3 more times for water, Gatorade, shoe changes, sunscreen needs, bananas, oranges, or even to pick up team members who have to drop. In a not so drivable city, they might have to park and ruck in to meet you for resupply.
The last job for the Dedicated Support person is at the finish. They should scope it out, if the end point is different than the start, so you take the most direct route there. Or, meet you as you arrive, to take your celebratory pics! Once you have finished, having a fresh person around is helpful to provide essentials such as beer and pizza. No question, if you can convince ANYONE to be your Dedicated Support person, you should go this route!
Drive-By Support can be one or more different people, who meet the team a single time each. This can work if there is no one available for Dedicated Support, as even a single resupply can be really valuable.
Loosely plan your Drive-By Support team stops ahead of time, based on driver availability, and then refine the stops after you finish your route plan. Clear communication is essential with your Drive-By Support, as they may have a limited window to meet you. Consider traffic and parking options as you pick your meeting points, for maximum efficiency.
A breakfast Drive-By is always a good idea, so you don't deviate from your route to find food, and you don’t waste time standing in line. A midday Drive-By is helpful, as you may need new clothes or shoes by then, depending on how conditions have changed. If you are utilizing this method, consider hiding your car keys where your Support can get to them, so they can fetch needed items for you.
The last type of support is Don’t Need ‘Em. This works for folks who have done a lot of Ultra distance events and have their nutrition and gear really dialed in. It’s fine for teams with a high risk tolerance, who are willing to accept rucking in weather they are inappropriately clothed for. Don't Need 'Em also happens due to poor planning and organization.
Participants who elect this option will need to carry more water, food, and gear than with the other two types of support and should train appropriately for the additional ruck weight. Make sure you have plenty of cash as well as a credit card, because you will be purchasing food and water on your own and want all your options available (think cash only street vendors). Consider buying a water key to obtain water from building and gas station spigots. If you find yourself in this spot, try to make friends with a team at the start point who has a Dedicated Support person, as they may be willing to be on call for you in case of dire need!
Having a crew can make rucking 50+ miles slightly less challenging. Regardless of the type of Support Crew that works best for your team and situation, we hope you see how useful they are!
]]>Week 10 mobility is here! Not much is different this week as far as recommendations go. We want to make sure you are continuing to progress mobility-wise, feeling more flexible and continuing to see improvements. Mobility is important to keep you strong and injury-free, so keep up the great work. As always, remember to ruck at least one mile either before or after your mobility work.
As with all Adriene videos, an easy, basic stretch to keep your hamstrings and low back feeling fresh and mobile.
This video, while not a real-time workout, has some great stretches for you to do prior to any event. Your hip mobility is important to keep your body comfortable and stable, so follow through the basics with this trainer, and then attempt a full workout with his recommendations on your own.
While this video is focused more on weight lifter mobility, it's a tremendous resource for endurance athletes at the Star Course level. I know we have two hip mobility videos this week to select from, but they are both unique and important to have in your back pocket for recall when you need them.
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We've also created a recommended list of items for your Star Course or other long-distance ruck events, as well as a printable pdf checklist you can use to mark off what you've packed or need to get.
PRINTABLE PDF CHECKLIST FOR STAR COURSE
Some of the links below may be affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, PATHFINDER earns a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. All pricing is based on currently available info. and may change without our knowledge. We appreciate your support!
Reflective bands for hands, arms and rucks can literally be a life-saver. We like these especially because they come in a baggie so you can keep them in your ruck when they're not in use, and are slap-bracelets, so no fumbling with clasps when you're trying to keep pace.
We recommend you keep an extra bladder on hand and in the resupply bin that goes with your Support Crew in case of emergencies. A Source bladder is one of our favorites, and the 3L size is necessary during events to keep hydrated.
You know you need a headlamp, but having a second as a backup can also be a lifesaver. These come in a two-pack and are lightweight, bright, water-resistant, run up to 45 hours on low-light and have the right light filters (both white and red) you'll need.
We keep these in our rucks all the time. Bug repellant wipes are easier than sprays, work just as well, and keep you from being bitten while you're focused on your Star Course. These wipes have up to 8 hours of protection from mosquitos, tics and more.
If you couldn't tell by now, we're fans of Tailwind. It's got caffeine, electrolytes and plenty of carbs. I like this trial flavor pack for variety, but my new favorite is Mandarin Orange.
This is a must-have. This water key will unlock spigots and will open most municipal water sillcocks (the water spigots on the sides of buildings or gas stations that don't have handles) for a source of clean water.
You need good socks. (That feels like the understatement of the year.) We recommend having several pairs as backups, and we really like FITS and Smart Wool. Both brands are soft and breathable. They have gentle compression, so they also don't slip around on your foot when it's sweaty.
This lightweight "multi-functional headwear" is really useful. We've worn it when it's hot and forgot a hat, we've worn it when it's cold and wanted a warm face. It's anti-stink, easy to wash, has UPF 50 sun protection, makes you look like you are doing Serious Business, and dries fast.
No one wants to talk about chafing, but we all chafe. Shoulders, seams, arms, legs, etc, etc, etc...sweat has salt, salt dries, salt abrades your skin, and you're left with a stinging red rash where you'd rather not. We recommend Bag Balm. Get some.
Yeah, you could wear flip flops...but why, when you could wear legit recovery Oofos slides? We weren't believers at first, but one wear and we were convinced. Wearing these for post-long-mileage shuffling around, they are the best thing you could ever dream of wearing.
Oh yeah, we're going there. I won't say much, but I will say - these are the best out there. They're quick-dry, made to move, lightweight and no weird seams in disappointing locations.
Dr. Frederick's Better Blister Bandages
Yeah, you've tried other bandages. But this 12-count pack will be the blister bandage you reach for from now on. It protects, it heals, it helps you not cry because blisters when you get in the shower for the first time. These really will be the best you've ever used.
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This is the second-to-last week of Full Body Workouts. The name of this week's workout says it all. The workout this week is an EMOM, Every Minute on the Minute. It is a circuit-style workout of 8 different exercises you do every minute, on the minute, for between 3 and 5 total rounds, depending on time (the workout itself will take between 24 and 40 minutes to complete) and how hard you want to push it. Alternately, if you can blast out 15 push-ups with plenty of time to spare, increase the reps. We want you to be challenged, strong, and cardio-ready for your event ahead.
Start a timer and perform the first exercise, 20 Ruck Swings then rest until the timer reaches 1 minute. At the one minute mark, perform 15 Pushups, then rest until the clock has reached 2 minutes. Continue to do the required reps in the 1-minute time limit until you've reached the end.
As always, read through the workout to prepare. If you have any injuries, modify as needed.
Ruck 1 mile, regular pace
Ruck 1 mile, cool-down pace. Select a mobility workout from the Mobility options for this week for extra bonus points!
]]>Nutrition can be a source of anxiety for a lot of athletes. What to eat during training, pre-event, during the event, and when the event is over can feel like its own intimidating gauntlet. So many diets, supplements and plans claim to give you a physiological advantage, how do you know what’s right for you?
There’s the truth, and what dances around the truth, in nutrition. While we’re not going to tell you what specifically to eat, we want to guide you to the soundest nutritional options for your body, and give you the knowledge on how a body runs during a long-distance endurance event so you can make the best choices.
We encourage all our PATHFINDER athletes to have a nutrient-rich training diet. If you’re training for a Star, you should know all this by now, so we’re going to leave our advice short and sweet: don’t eat crap. If you open a bag or a box to get your food, maybe try and do that less often. If you can name the single-source ingredients of your overall meal, bonus points. Drink water more than ACRT, eat protein and veggies and complex carbohydrates like grains.
Over the years, we’ve noticed that as people get closer to their Events, their desire to be more virtuous in their diets gets stronger. We’ve seen (ok, and done) some ridiculous things to get “Event ready.” Even if you know better, sometimes the temptation is there to be “better." I’m here to tell you right now: going Keto, Whole30, 1200 calories a day, all beer and bread, only meat, Halloween-candy-only diet, etc. are not the right moves within a 12-week Event training window. Are they okay outside of training? Sure - you do what you want with your body. But if you’re in your window, you want prime cellular output. You get prime cellular output by eating plants, animals, and grains.
First, the basics. The body runs on three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Carbohydrates are the major fuel for energy production. Carbs are the only macronutrient whose stored energy generates more energy. It’s stored as glycogen in your liver and muscle and when it’s released into your bloodstream, glucose is carried to your muscles and used as fuel. Your body doesn’t keep large stores of glucose, so this is why we encourage you to consume carbs in greater quantities leading up to your event.
Like with carbohydrate usage, fat usage during endurance exercise depends on the intensity and duration of your exercise, and it is the second fuel for energy production. With endurance training, your body has adapted to use fat more efficiently as fuel but can be second to carbohydrate usage, even though your body (even if you’re very lean) holds far more calories to use from fat than from your glycogen stores. With a long-distance endurance event, 50% of your bodies fuel will come from carbs, while the other half will come from fat stores. As your event progresses, your body will use more fat for fuel. All this being said, you do not need to eat much, if any, fat during your actual event. Your body definitely dislikes attempting to digest fat during exercise and it will let you know in no uncertain terms. Rest confidently knowing you’ve got all the fat you’ll ever need to get you through your event.
Proteins role as an energy source to fuel your exercise and events is small. Protein is better eaten late in your event, or after exercise to fuel recovery. Protein can be difficult to process during exertion and it can satiate you too much, leading to insufficient carbohydrate calorie consumption during your event.
The research bears it out. When you have an endurance event lasting longer than 90 minutes (safe to say a Star Course qualifies many, many times over), an athlete benefits from “carb loading” in the days prior to the event. Eating more carbs helps muscles store more glycogen. If more glycogen is stored, it takes longer to deplete the body’s preferred energy source. This is also why we taper - to maximize the amount of glycogen in your ‘tank.’ (Don’t pop on the scale during taper week either - you will likely see a small weight increase - carbs require holding water for storage.)
A note of nutritional caution: While refined carbohydrates definitely count as carbs, an influx of them into your healthy body can make you feel sick. When considering how you will eat on the days leading up to an event, take into consideration how you typically eat. If your diet is already full of sweet potatoes, carrots, rice, apples, quinoa, and other complex high carbohydrate foods, eating a box of Pop-Tarts will make you feel disgusting. Look at your typical daily eating habits and calorie count, and select foods that you like, are good for you, and STILL achieve your carb-loading goals. There is definitely a right way, and a wrong way, to do this.
If you’re paleo, and have been training, or want to train as a fat-adaptive athlete, this should be started no less than 8 weeks prior to your event. If you have not trained with a protein-intensive diet, this isn’t the time to start. Your body will struggle with the transfer from running off of carbohydrates to running off of fat, and there’s no easy or quick way to convert your fuel usage. This can lead to significant and costly physical struggles during your Event. If you’ve been training as a fat-adaptive athlete for a while, our advice to you is: keep doing what you’re doing. A vegetable carbohydrate increase (more squashes, sweet potatoes, white potatoes and possibly rice) would be a wise addition in the week prior to your event.
The “last meal” prior to your event should be full of familiar, high-carbohydrate foods that are gentle on your system. Sandwiches; sweet potatoes; bagels; no-butter, low-sauced spaghetti; roasted carrots; a plain-ish baked potato. If something looks good, but seems suspect, err on the side of caution. Don’t eat anything unusual or outside of your normal diet right before your event.
*If you have medical dietary requirements that would preclude you from eating carbs in any significant quantity, make an appointment with your doctor or nutritionist to go over your specific nutritional needs during a 50+ mile endurance event. They will be best able to guide you with a program specific to your needs.
Your gut can be very particular about endurance exercise, especially coupled with jitters, and no one likes to NEED a bathroom when one isn't around. Considering the factors below can minimize urgency.
Heat, and overheating, can make a tummy feel funny. If heat is a factor for your event, get heat acclimated during your training. This usually isn’t an issue for ruckers unless you’ve trained on a treadmill to get your miles in, but if that’s the case, include several long-distance outdoor rucks into your training, do your WODs outside, take a hot yoga class at least once a week, and if your gym is equipped with a sauna, take advantage in the six weeks leading up to your event.
Stay hydrated before, and during, your event. Hydration is whatever you’ve trained with. We recommend you train with an electrolyte/carbohydrate blend (we like everything from Nuun to Tailwind - what works for you and your system during training is the most important). Considering the distance being covered on a Star Course or other long-distance ruck event, it’s important that you keep your salts and minerals in balance. While we don’t want to scare anyone about consuming too much water (hyponatremia), it is a very real occurrence. Whenever you exercise for longer than two hours, or during an event, plain water should be consumed in moderation. Electrolyte-balancing drinks with a sodium content greater than 100mg/8oz are what you should consume most. Keep an eye on your urine color when you stop to use the restroom and let that be your guide. Too pale, you’re overhydrating. Too dark, you’re under-hydrating.
Avoid over-nutrition before and during the event. It can be tempting for people to overeat prior to an event - you’re worried about having “enough” and it’s easy to go overboard, causing GI distress several hours later.
Limit protein and fat intake prior to your event. You want to eat high-energy, high-carbohydrate foods (pasta, white or sweet potatoes, rice, whole-wheat bread) prior to your event, with a focus on healthy nutrition. Stay away from junk food: Donuts, ice cream, pizza, greasy wings, and lasagna taste good, but they’re super gross for your body to process during an endurance event.
Limit NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen), alcohol, caffeine, supplements and check with your pharmacist about any antibiotics you might be currently taking to make sure they have no impact on endurance athletic events. They can have a negative effect on both your gut and how your organs function during strenuous work.
Our CA’s have many hundreds (likely thousands) of miles between them, and I’ve collected some of their most salient advice for Pre-, During, and Post- Event nutrition strategies:
“Eat something periodically, even if it’s small, and even if you’re not feeling really hungry. Stay on top of it from beginning to end. Don’t let feeling good at the beginning, or thinking you’re close to the end and able to push through without proper care mess with your plan...Small, split-up quantities of food are easier to properly digest than huge amounts that you try to cram in at once. Digestion requires too much energy away from your rucking muscles by overwhelming your stomach with a lot at once.” - Jennifer Lee
“For me, I stick with what I know works. No new food types! Eating continuously is important for me, as I know this works for my body. I don’t wait until I’m hungry. For that reason, I also chose Tailwind because it contains calories and electrolytes.” - Shannon Bass
“This is mostly a personal preference for me. Pre-event, I’ll eat a real meal - something substantial, since it’s my last meal for a while. Personally, I like protein because it’s satiating. I don’t want anything too heavy or fibrous.
During, I like to eat real food because 20 hours is a long time. I bring snacks with a mixture of flavor profiles and macronutrient combos, to suit whatever I’m craving at the time (salty, sweet, sour, oily, carb-heavy, protein-heavy, etc.) I’ll eat a snack/bar sized package of something about every five miles.
After: I eat whatever I crave, which tends to be acidic foods, salt, protein, and vegetables.” - Jennifer Lee
“BACON!” - Shannon
Another Horizon CA, Emily Baggett, has an awesome, informative podcast on All Day Ruckoff (listen to it here), and in it, she notes she sets a timer every hour to remember to eat. Those hours can tick by quickly at times, and other times, you feel confident you don’t need to eat.* This alarm helps her stay on track and stay honest. Also in the podcast, she recommends carrying food in your pockets as well as in your ruck so you don’t need to slow down.
* If you feel like you don’t have an appetite in the middle of an endurance event, and it’s been a while since you’ve eaten, this should serve as a reminder that it might be too late glycogen-wise and you need to force the food. A lack of appetite, coupled with a difficult attitude to adjust, can often be a marker of central fatigue. A short rest with lots of carbs can help remedy the situation.
You want to refuel with 150-300 calories of mostly carbohydrate during the event, as frequently as needed. Recommendations are to eat this quantity every hour, but if your body isn’t a fan of that much digestive effort, splitting that quantity up over two hours is fine. Toggling between carbohydrates and protein and then back to carb snacks during your Star Course can help your body systems keep up their processes and keep additional fatigue at bay. Utilizing caffeine during your event can also be useful, in moderation.
You did it! You’re done! You’re starving! But what do you eat?
You have three goals when you’re eating after your event. One, eat plenty of carbs to refuel your glycogen system. Two, restore your fluids and electrolytes, and three, eat nutritious foods and protein to repair your body’s damage.
There’s an optimum ‘window’ of 30-60 minutes after completion to maximize the refueling of your muscle cells. (You technically have 24 hours to refuel before body systems level off, but your body just absorbs more slowly after that first hour.) Start with bananas, oranges, bagels, dried fruit, sports drinks...basically gentle, high carb foods. Beer is super tempting, but give yourself at least a little time before you crack one open - it can dehydrate you and it can wait until you down a Gatorade. If your body feels solid after those first snacks, break open the pantry! Order the pizza, eat the wings, guzzle the chocolate milk, but be careful not to overdose on All The Food. Try and include some potassium in your meal.
So now you’re winding down, and are a little peckish before you head to bed. Eat a Greek yogurt, have some grilled chicken or a protein shake, and maybe drink an ounce or two of Tart Cherry Juice before you go to sleep to help your body recover optimally.
Give yourself anywhere from 3-7 days to recover. Every body is different, and every body recovers a little differently every time. Stay hydrated, move back to nutritious foods, give yourself some time to truly rest, and then make a plan to get back out there.
]]>Welcome to Week 9 of Mobility for Horizon! We just have a few weeks left of our programming, and you should be feeling much more mobile and flexible during your training. As always, we have three recommendations for this week. Take a quick run-through to see what you might enjoy doing. Don't forget: 1-mile ruck either before or after your mobility work today!
A 20-minute Power Yoga for Athletes flow is a pretty solid way to start your Mobility day off right.
Tight hips? Needing more lower body mobility? This is a great resource for you then. I might have cried a little when I did this one. It's an excellent mobility video to do post your 20+ mile ruck.
Yoga doesn't always have to be this "serious" practice, forcing yourself to be quiet or thoughtful. By this point in Horizon, you should be feeling a lot more mobile, limber and have begun to see that a yoga practice is a natural fit with rucking. This video is a short-ish, playful practice for this week.
]]>When you're planning for a 50 mile, 20-hour event, breaks and pacing are a super important topic. We’ve heard the stories of teams making the mistake of too many breaks and not finishing in time. Sometimes, errors can occur with not enough breaks in the first part of the event, causing a team to miss the opportunity for early fixes on things like foot issues. Not paying attention to pacing can lead to anxiety and stress in team dynamics. Breaks allow the team to rest briefly, rehydrate and eat, and plan their next moves. Pacing takes breaks into account, but most importantly keeps your team on the event time goal. There is no one right way to strategize breaks and pacing, but in this post, we’d like to highlight some options for teams to consider.
The biggest advice is for this to be a topic of team conversation prior to the event, but then remain flexible to changes as conditions require – Adapt and Overcome!
Ruck 70 minutes, break 5 minutes (70/5). I like this as a starting strategy because a 70-minute ruck is easy to wrap your mind around. You can compartmentalize this as several 70-minute rucks with 5 minute breaks in-between. This is a great way to get through long stretches on the course, especially towards the end.
There are two big things to emphasize in this strategy. If you begin using this strategy, you won’t want to take the first break. You’ll feel too good. But, five minutes with your ruck off and doing some basic stretching will help you go further later in the course. Second, time your breaks. Five-minute breaks mean you are strictly stepping off at five minutes. You start gathering your things at three minutes and walk away at the five-minute mark. Each team should have someone in the role of Timekeeper, to make sure breaks don’t get away from you.
Ruck ten miles, break for ten minutes (10/10). This strategy can be slightly modified to fit with the waypoints, so the closest waypoint to every ten-mile interval becomes the break. This requires a slightly higher level of fitness than the 70/5 plan but does allow a team to move faster. The ten-minute breaks allow for foot care, a bathroom stop, and stretching – all important things! If your team can maintain this, this seems to be the best strategy.
Random break plan (?/?). This is basically what happens when a team does not discuss breaks. The biggest negative with this approach is you end up taking a lot of breaks, as they tend to be timed based on individual needs instead of team goals. You stop for Person A to use the restroom, for Person B to change socks, and for Person C to find something in their ruck. Without a plan for breaks, each of these stops turns into a longer time period, with no structure, and no one monitoring the time. This is not recommended!
Even if your team adopts a break plan you will want to account for additional breaks, as stuff will happen. A team has to be flexible, but the Timekeeper will need to monitor how many extra breaks are taken, and how this fits into the overall time plan. Having a strong Timekeeper is important, and ideally, this is someone’s only job on your team.
When we talk about pacing, we mean a minute per mile plan that will get you to the finish. We recommend you chose a 19-hour time frame in your planning. This is because you may not get your waypoints until 9 pm, so you may not leave the start point until 9:30 pm. It’s also to provide a cushion for the unexpected.
We recommend you plan for more than 50 miles, as many Star Courses have run long, either because of the placement of the waypoints or due to teams navigation errors. Your Timekeeper should have a minute per mile pace info for 50, 55, and 60-mile distances. We recommend you start your pace on the 60-mile distance. As you progress on the course and feel confident you will finish in less than 60 miles, your pace can slow.
An example of pacing planning:
19 hours = 1140 minutes
1140 – 50 minutes of breaks (ten minutes every ten miles at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 miles) = 1090 minutes
1090 minutes \ 60 miles = 18.2 minutes per mile
1090 minutes \ 55 miles = 19.8 minutes per mile
1100 minutes (fewer breaks) \ 50 miles = 22 minutes per mile
This simple math shows how much faster you need to be when your distance is extended. It is essential to navigating well with the Not One Extra Step navigation plan. It also shows how breaks add up. Even minimalist ten-minute breaks every ten miles adds up to almost an hour of breaks!
Fast out of the gate. This can be especially effective on a course like Washington DC where the first 30 miles are part of a long out and back. Start with a relatively fast pace and build a time cushion early in the event. Slow down a bit after the first 10-20 miles. This is not recommended for a very hilly course, as early burn out is a concern.
Smooth is fast. This means you pick a pace and stay with it. You find a pace that fits your pacing plan, and which all team members can maintain, and you try to stick with it. This is a strong endurance strategy that has a great chance of getting your team across the finish line together.
Interval Pace. This is not likely something teams adopt as an initial plan, but is more often a coping strategy. If you are behind on pace, perhaps due to navigation errors, you designate a couple of miles to speed up. This may happen one mile at a time. The team can do one 15 minute mile, then fall back to an 18-minute mile, then another 15-minute mile. By breaking up the catch-up miles into smaller distances, it becomes more mentally manageable for the team. Knowing you need to do this is the trick, and would fall under the role of the Timekeeper.
]]>You're now at the apex of your training, where determination, endurance, and athleticism come together. You should be feeling like you've improved cardiovascularly, are better able to handle tough work-loads with more oxygen, you've increased your minute-per-mile time, and grown your confidence for that long-distance rucking event on the calendar.
Today, we will be doing a classic AMRAP. It consists of 4 different 8-minute AMRAP (as many reps as possible) exercises, with 2 minutes of rest between each. Each 8-minute period features 2 different back-to-back exercises, for 8 reps each. This workout should take you exactly 38 minutes.
For this WOD, start a timer and begin with 8 Ground-to-Overhead Ruck Presses, and then 8 Ruck Weight Squats. Keep alternating between these two exercises to complete as many rounds and reps as you can in 8 minutes. Once the first AMRAP is complete, rest for 2 minutes before you begin the second round. Continue like this for the 3rd and 4th rounds.
As always, read through this workout before you begin, and modify as needed. If injuries prevent you from certain movements, especially jumping or pounding movements, like burpees, walk or gently hop them in and out, depending on your comfort level.
Ruck 1 mile at your regular pace
REST 2 MINUTES
REST 2 MINUTES
REST 2 MINUTES
Stretch what needs to be stretched for your situation. Even adding another slow 1-mile cool-down ruck or a simple walk would be advantageous after this workout if you feel up for it and have the time this week.
]]>This is the third post in our PATHFINDER Horizon three-part post on teams. To see the first post, click here. To see the second post, click here.
In prior blog posts, we've discussed Teammate Roles and Team Dynamics. In this post, we're going to be talking about being a good teammate on your Star Course. Regardless of your team role, everyone is responsible for being a good teammate. Encouraging your team when the going gets tough, staying positive and keeping the energy and enthusiasm up are important to reaching your collective goal.
Good communication and transparency are crucial for all teammates. Some skills to keep in mind:
Be a good listener. Listening actively and with an open mind can save your team headaches down the line. If something needs clarification, ask. Most people like knowing that the people they rely on, in this case, the team, will actively hear their concerns or thoughts. If you're too busy thinking about how you'll respond, or how to cut their concern down, you may be missing some important details. Taking the time to actively listen makes you a good teammate.
In the same vein, if you have a concern about a plan, it's always better to speak up than to keep quiet. You may save your team from a costly mistake. Be concise and direct. If there is a disagreement, try not to take anything personally.
Good communication with your teams also means discussing things about yourself. Let everyone know of any physical issues you have that may need to be monitored or addressed. Good teammates have everyone’s best interests at heart.
Positivity is contagious. It keeps your team energetic and enthusiastic, regardless of the situation you're facing. Be positive, but balance it with practicality. It's tempting for some personalities to be optimistic to the point of being blinded to the realities of rucking 50 miles. Look for potential roadblocks prior to the event. Acknowledge the challenges your team might face but create and encourage a positive and goal-oriented mindset to manage expectations and instill a sense of resiliency from the start.
Encourage your teammates, and look for solutions when things go wrong. How can you make the best of whatever situation you find yourselves in?
Be dependable, and come in prepared physically, mentally and logistically. This starts long before the day of the event. Every day you train, you're helping your team and yourself. Start preparing yourself now for the Finish, and encourage your teammates to keep up with their training as well. Having the team become accountability buddies for one another prior to the event will help everyone become more successful.
Often, teammates may struggle to ask for help, because they aren't communicating effectively. They may think it's they've done a job poorly and are afraid to admit perceived failure. Be empathetic and be on the lookout to help. Build your teammate back up when they're struggling. Compassion and empathy can be a reminder to your teammate that they CAN do whatever they are struggling with.
Be willing to accept help too. It may hurt your ego to have someone carry your ruck for a while. If it’s better for the team, let them take your ruck for a while. Team before self. Appreciate the willingness of others to give you a break.
Tempers will flare. Understand and discuss this with your team prior to the event, and plan to react with understanding and patience. Often, expecting trouble to arise can mitigate the damage and time delays of a disagreement. Planning for everything includes planning to maintain a good attitude and keeping your ego in check.
Physiology and psychology can come together around mid-way in a 50-mile event. The central fatigue theory is well known about in the marathon community, but not discussed much yet in ours. Central fatigue is a hypothesis, but one you should be familiar with for any long-distance event. If you've ever "hit the wall," you're already acquainted with its effects. Simplistically, central fatigue is when your brain chemicals (like serotonin) increase leading to mental fatigue, causing a deterioration in sports performance. Coupled with a lack of energy resources in the muscle and the central nervous system, the athletes form deteriorates. Central fatigue can set up the classic "I'm quitting" scenario. Carbohydrates (and BCAA's possibly) can improve the situation, but awareness of the possibility for this to exist can have everyone prepared ahead of time, both practically and psychologically.
Be aware of your teammates’ body language/behavior, in case they aren’t as good at communicating. Are they head-down and struggling? Oddly quiet? Has their form started breaking down? What can you do to help them, physically or mentally? While your first instinct might be to give your teammate some space, it’s important that everyone is aware of the physical signs someone might not be doing well. Some questions to ask when you notice these signs:
These are signs that your teammate may need medical care:
Always carry a basic First Aid kit with you, including baby aspirin and a pair of latex gloves, and never hesitate to call 911 when it appears a teammate might not be doing well. Often, an athlete may not realize they are having a serious medical problem, and being a good teammate means taking control of the situation, stopping and caring for someone who might be having the onset of more serious issues.
Ultimately, being a good teammate is about being a good human. You listen, you speak up, and you care for the person to the left and right of you.
]]>Welcome to Mobility for week 8! This week, we're continuing with turning you into a rucking contortionist with these new videos.
As always, ruck a 1-mile warm-up or cool-down today as well.
Just a dude, his cat, and a solid restorative yoga program you will need this week before your upcoming 20-miler. This is our #1 pick of the week!
Tim is super groovy, so it always takes me a minute to get on his wavelength, but this is a great foam and trigger point ball rolling video. You might cry the first time you use a tennis ball on your feet but DO THIS. It's the best 17 minutes you'll spend all day.
Personal Trainer, Kai Wheeler out of San Diego, CA shows you how to relieve hip joint and lower back pain caused by trigger points in the tensor fascia latae. If you sit, walk, run or hike, chances are, your TFL needs some TLC.
This week PATHFINDER Horizon is digging into the team specifics you need to consider for your upcoming Star Course Event. Read the first post, “Team Dynamics,” here. Stay tuned for the third post in the series, “Being a Good Teammate.”
In the first post, we discussed general Team Dynamics, and hopefully, you’ve found your crew. Once you’ve agreed to team up and conquer the Star Course together, the next step is to determine how responsibilities will be divided up. It would be overwhelming for one person to take on all of the responsibilities that we’re about to cover, so this first exercise in teamwork gets everyone’s buy-in.
Ideally, each person will focus on executing a key task. Hopefully, it’s one that they’re naturally inclined towards, and/or have mastered through practice. Roles are also nice because they give each team member purpose, and something other than tired feet to focus on through the miles.
As a team, decide how responsibilities should be approached. While each individual may have a primary role, it’s important to have trained back-ups ready just in case. Another option would be for your team to rotate roles so that each member spends time in different tasks. Whatever you decide, make sure everyone clearly understands their job description and is prepared for the task.
To help you and your team think through different options for how to divide responsibilities, here are some ideas and descriptions for each role:
Team leaders bond the team together and create an optimistic and resilient team, (even if they don't always feel like a strong, confident leader on the inside). They lead communications, listen to ideas and are the final vote in decision making. When you’re considering who will be responsible for this job, or if you have been selected for it, these are some good traits and tasks:
In the weeks and months leading up to the event, be proactive about communicating with your team. Set up Messenger chats or conference calls to keep the conversation going. This keeps everyone motivated in their training. It’s also necessary for making all of the plans for goal setting, pacing and break strategies, support crews, travel logistics, team gear, etc. Don’t feel like you need to handle everything, though. Delegating tasks can make your job easier, and your teammates want to help.
Consider ideas and feedback from all team members. Make them all feel included in the decision-making process. Create an environment where it’s OK for people to bring up concerns and alternative ideas. Be transparent, so teammates feel comfortable with sharing concerns (their own training, their physical condition, etc). If you don’t know about potential risks or issues, you can’t put plans in place to mitigate them.
Your team will need motivation - and it's your main job to provide it. Find out during planning whether your teammates prefer positive or negative motivation. Preferences can vary widely, and one tactic might grate on one teammate, while another may thrive on it. Be considerate of preferences, but be goal-oriented. Positive attitudes encourage your teammates to stay engaged, focused and motivated. Cultivate a sense of humor when things go wrong, focus on the good things that come your way, and actively look for the silver lining when needed.
Look out for everyone’s safety. Keep an eye on peoples’ physical and mental states. Is everyone regularly drinking, eating, and staying mobile? Remind everyone to do so periodically.
When your team encounters challenges, think of solutions. Know during planning how to team would like to deal with difficult decisions. This means either getting consensus or having the Lead make an executive decision on how to proceed. Be decisive, clear and occasionally, “the bad guy,” if it comes to that.
Make sure that there are redundancies in your roles and back-up plans. If your Navigator has to drop out, who’s prepared to immediately step in? There won’t be time for knowledge transfer mid-event, so decide on these contingency plans, and make sure that everyone is familiar with how to do both their primary and backup roles ahead of time. If someone isn’t fulfilling their role to the desired extent, feel free to suggest that they work with their back-up, or swap for a while, for cross-training purposes.
Be the best teammate. Lead by example. It’s your job to smile when no one else is, to encourage and motivate when everyone’s energy has flagged and put others before yourself. What can you give your teammates? The answer may change mile to mile, but there will always be something you can give everyone - a word of encouragement, a growl of determination, a reminder not to be too hard on themselves if things haven’t gone the way they planned.
During the event, you’ll use Instagram hashtags to post each waypoint you arrive at. (ex: #ArtMuseum @teammatename) In this role, it's best to select the team member with the most social media experience. If the lead in this role is not familiar with Instagram, it’s recommended they start practicing prior to the event, and playing around with the app to get acquainted with it.
When you’re on the course, type up the list of hashtags you’ll need while you’re still fresh. You can do this while the navigators plot the course if they don’t need your help looking anything up. You can also cut-and-paste the hashtags from Notepad into Instagram, to help avoid typos and to make the process faster, especially if you’re Instagramming while rucking. (This list can also be a way to double-check your progress on the waypoints against what the Navigators are doing and make sure that you haven’t missed any.)
If you’re unsure of where your team should be taking the selfie, search for that hashtag on Instagram (by “Most Recent”) for pictures that other teams have posted. You can do this while walking to the next waypoint, to save time. (But be safe! Appoint someone to be your eyes while you’re looking down at your phone.) This can also help you confirm that you took the team picture correctly. Make sure that the picture is taken as soon as you get to the waypoint and post the picture immediately.
Keep an eye out for incoming Instagram messages and post comments, in case Star Course HQ tries to contact you. Why would they want to contact you?
This individual's job is to communicate with the support crew to ensure everyone on the team has what they need when they need it. They should have a general plan of when the team will meet the Support Crew, and communicate those needs to the crew in the weeks before the event. Asking friends and family to "sherpa" your team is a big ask, so be sure to let them know what they're getting themselves into. There will be an upcoming “Support Crew” post for more specific details that you will want to share with your support person.
In this role, the Controller will give your support crew a list of gear to bring so that they know what kind of space they need to plan for. Refer to the upcoming “Gear List” post for more details.
During the event, it’s considerate to give the Support Crew a heads-up of when and where you’d plan to meet them next, an hour or more in advance. Along the way, and when you get within a mile, give them updates so that they’ll be ready for you. If you have special requests for them, like breakfast orders, or a need to pick up specific items from a store that you may have forgotten, this would be a good time to let them know.
This role entails keeping the team disciplined in sticking to the agreed-upon pace. Especially at the start, it will be tempting to charge out at full speed because many other teams will be doing so in an overabundance of excitement and adrenaline. Stick with the plan for long-term success and to avoid burning out everyone’s muscles.
If this is your role, you will want to:
If your team has the flexibility, try to designate more than one team member as a Navigator, as this is the most error-prone job. It demands a lot of focus, and with 50+ miles to cover in 20 hours, there is only a small margin for error. Even one mile in the wrong direction can cost you 40 minutes between the initial error, the realization that it’s happening, figuring out how to course-correct, and then getting back on track.
Some tips to make this job a little easier:
Welcome to PATHFINDER Horizon! This content is exclusive to PATHFINDER Horizon subscribers. New classes begin monthly. Contact support@pathfinderrucktraining.com to find out how you can join today!
This is the first post of three regarding Team Dynamics and Team Roles during a Star Course event. To read the second posting, Team Roles, click here. To read the third posting, Being a Good Teammate, click here.
If you've done a GORUCK Challenge, you know they are significant tests in teamwork, but the Star Course takes it to another level. Star Course is teamwork on steroids. You don’t have a Cadre who tells you what to do the whole time or where to go. You’re given a list of waypoints, and it’s up to you and your team to figure out how to accomplish the mission. During those 20 hours, you will be tested physically and mentally on an individual level, and you will be tested overall as a team. There will be difficult times. There may be differing opinions about what to do at times. How will your team deal with those challenges?
You might have known the members of your team for years, or you might be meeting the team in person for the first time at dinner right before the event. Regardless, there are a few things the team should consider prior to the start of any Star Course.
GOALS
Whether you are building a team, or whether you are looking for a team to join, it is important to identify your goals as a team before you get started. One of the decisions to be made: is the team going for a fast time, a top-3 finish, or any kind of finish? This is key because there could be different skill levels of ruckers on a team and the expectations of the team should be known from the beginning. Make sure that you’re aligned on a target pace range.
DYNAMICS
Also think about whether the team is a group of people that you won’t mind spending 20 consecutive, sometimes trying, hours with. Is this a group that you will enjoy being around? Does your team consist of a group of people who will be able to work together when there are difficult circumstances? When there is a decision to be made, is your team able to quickly come up with options and then take decisive action?
There will be intense moments during any Star Course. Sometimes team members need to listen to music or go to their “happy place” for a bit. Pay attention to your teammates and work together through the dark moments. Let’s not forget – Star Course is incredibly fun, too, when you have a good team.
TRUST
Are your potential teammates' people that you can rely on to put in the necessary training and Star Course-specific preparation? When everyone is tired at mile 35, can you count on them to mentally and physically power through the fatigue and keep moving? When you’re struggling, can you count on them to help you, and can they count on you to do the same?
STRATEGY
Each team has its own personality and will handle the course differently. What works for one team may not necessarily work for another team. Be confident in the choices the team has made, and do not start letting other teams mess with the choices yours have made. With that said, if whatever your team has been doing isn’t working, then it is up to the team as a group to figure out how to adapt and adjust.
Here are some decisions that should be made prior to the event:
HANDLING DROPS
No one wants to drop, but the issue of how the team is going to handle drops needs to be discussed. This is a hard conversation to have but is a necessary one. Drops can be medical drops, but potentially performance dropping a teammate is a legitimate topic. Should you? Shouldn’t you? There should be an agreement put in place prior to the event that determines what to do if one team member slows down to a pace that means the team will not finish.
Some team members might know when to drop because it’s best for the team while others will not want to drop and will have to be asked. Always assume at first that a team member needs the motivation to get through a dark moment, but having had this conversation upfront and honestly prior to the event should prepare all team members on how to handle this. The team needs to know everyone else’s expectations.
WORKING WITH OTHER TEAMS
Even though this is a “race” type event, consider the other teams. Other teams can be useful sources of information. For example, one team gave information to another team that saved them at least ¼ of a mile on a steep hill. The only thing asked in return was to pass that information on to the next team to hopefully help someone else. Offer to take pictures for one team and reciprocate. Ask teams where they have been and if they have found anything tricky. Contact other teams through Instagram and encourage them. Just because this isn’t one big team like a traditional GORUCK event doesn’t mean that your team can’t still be a team player and encourager.
Finishing the 50 mile Star Course and earning the patch is a great feeling. Having done it with a team that helped you through it, and that you were able to help along the way, makes it 100x more rewarding. The bonds forged through fire are the strongest, and what you’ll get to experience with your team at the Star Course is something you’ll never forget. Find a solid team. Figure out your plan. Be a good teammate.
]]>Ruck 1 mosey-mile. We don't want to push the pace here, just warm up the body before we do the work.
Today, we're going to be working on lateral movements and explosive power drills. Movements like these build strength, endurance, speed, and flexibility so you can tackle whatever mileage you're staring down. As always, read through the workout first to get some familiarity before you begin.
If explosive work is difficult due to injuries, do what you can, either hopping or stepping with knees up, to bring as much power as you safely and comfortably can to the exercise.
Ruck 1 mile at warm-up pace. Remember good form.
BONUS:
If stairs, a step or a short box are available to you, we're going to do some eccentric work. Wearing your ruck, stand with both feet on the bottom step, facing out. Balance on your left foot and bend your left knee. Lower yourself until your right heel touches the floor. Push back up. Alternate sides, 3 sets of 15 reps.
Activating your glutes prior to your workout, especially one with plyometric work, can really remind your butt that they're the boss. Glute activation work is vital to maintaining a healthy back, support your core muscles, and help avoid muscle imbalances. A strong butt means a strong back.
20 x Side-lying Clamshells Lay on your side, arm extending along the floor and your head resting on your arm. Bend both knees and bring them forward so your feet are in line with your glutes. Keeping your hips stacked and feet together, point your knee to the ceiling, firing your glute muscle. Once you've done 20, flip and repeat.
20 x Knee Taps Staying in clamshell position, do the reverse motion. Lift your foot up until it's parallel with your hip, and tip your knee into the other knee pocket, keeping your foot elevated.
10 x Bodyweight Pause Squats Stand feet hip-width apart, toes pointing slightly outward. Bring your arms out straight as you go down into a squat, hold for 3, and stand back up.
10 x Bodyweight Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts Standing straight, lift arms overhead as you lift and stretch your left leg out behind you. Keep your right leg softly bent. Stand back up and alternate legs for one.
20 x Lateral Ruck Lunges Holding your ruck in hand, stand with your core braced and your feet hip-width apart. Take one step to the right into side lunge, until your knee forms a 90-degree angle to the floor. Push up with your right foot and return to starting position. Repeat on the left side for 1 rep.
:30 Ruck Jumps Laying your ruck on the floor, make sure there's enough space to the left and right of it to jump and safely land. (If your ruck is too tall, or you feel unsure, use another implement to complete this movement.) Standing on one side of the ruck, lower yourself into a deep squat. Using your arms and hips, drive and laterally jump over your ruck, landing softly in a deep squat. Pace yourself and jump side to side across your ruck for :30 seconds. Take :30 seconds rest. Repeat, aiming for greater power, height and speed.
20 x Lateral Bear Crawls Wearing your ruck, start in Bear Crawl position. Shuffle your right hand and right foot to the side, followed by your left hand and left foot, as you move to the right. Switch directions, moving back to the left. Try and have space for at least three movements before you switch directions. More is better!
20 x 8-count Ruck Body Builders Yeah, you're welcome. Wearing your ruck, burpee out into a pushup, do the pushup, jump your legs out into a plank jack, jump your feet forward to your hands and then stand back up.
20 x Lateral Crab Walks Wearing your ruck on your front, get into crab walk position. (Sit on your bottom, hands behind you on the floor, feet flat on the floor in front of you, lift your hips off the floor) Shuffle your left hand and left leg to the left for as many as you can fit before you shuffle your right hand and right foot to the right.
10 x Box Drill Jumps No ruck for this one. Start this drill with both feet. Imagine (or draw with chalk if you can) a box with four points in front of you. Keeping your arms loose at your side for balance, hop the four points of the box with both feet. Then, just jump the box points with only your right foot. Then, only your left. Each full box rotation counts as one movement. You're doing 10 rounds.
10 x Lateral Ruck Drags Place your ruck to your right side. Starting on hands and knees, lift your knees up, resting on the balls of your feet (this position is called a bear hold). From here, grab your ruck with your left hand and drag it underneath your body until it is on the left side of your body. Then, grab the ruck with your right hand and drag your ruck to the right side of your body. That's one.
10 x Tuck Jumps No ruck. Begin with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart. Bending your knees, jump up, bringing your knees to your chest as high as they'll go. Make sure your knees are soft when you land.
Stretch, focusing on the areas that you have worked today and whatever feels tightest. Spend time in each position of your choice, releasing into the stretch. Take your time! You've learned enough by now to know which stretches are most effective for you, so enjoy some time doing them.
]]>Doing a calf release with a lacrosse ball is great for tight calves and other foot pain, especially prior or post an uphill ruck. This is a great, short video at 1:30 to demonstrate how to release your gastrocnemius. (The instructor, Kai Wheeler, also has other fantastic, brief instructional videos on how to release many other typically tight muscles.)
Ultra-weird name, but this is simple, bare-bones yoga practice if you don't like the "fluff" of yoga, but need the flexibility and mobility. While this practice was intended for people who sit all day, the same movements and yoga flow work for those who are more active. Give it a try!
This might be my very favorite YouTube yoga video of all time. Runners and ruckers have similar needs in the leg stretch and mobility department, and it's a great way to provide your body the rest and restoration it needs.
]]>
As we train for a 50-mile event, one of the most difficult questions to answer is “What should be the length of my longest training ruck?” There are lots of opinions on this topic! Here are some considerations as you answer this question for yourself. We also explain in this blog post why the longest training ruck for PATHFINDER Horizon is a roster’s choice of either 20 or 26.2 miles.
The most important part of endurance training is building a solid base. Building that foundation happens with lots of small distances, which is why Horizon contains lots of one to four-mile rucks. It is from this solid base that one can extend to longer distances. Injury prevention is key, which is why Horizon supplements with strength, core, and mobility training to keep you in the fight.
"Injury prevention and performance gains also rest on the endurance athlete’s willingness to take that leap of faith from a training plan that consists primarily of slowly, sloppily, slogging more and more miles to adding systematic balanced integration of quality sport-specific workouts. Training for endurance events is more than covering long distances. Endurance athletes who follow a 'more is better' plan with little structure, intensity and rest – suffer greater overuse injuries, sickness, as well as performance plateaus." A solid base of fitness allows you to become stronger, faster, and endure greater levels of work over time.
The distance of your training rucks needs to be accessible. Your training plan has to fit in your life. If it doesn’t fit (requirements are too time-consuming, too confusing, etc) then you don’t follow the plan. Any plan you don’t follow is clearly not helping you train for your event! As we designed Horizon, we wanted it to fit into roster’s lives as we considered work, family, and other interests one might have. Recovery time fits into this category as well. If your training efforts require a week of recovery, your training is too intense!
Getting injured during training is something all endurance athletes fear. Your training should walk the fine line between pushing your body to make physiologic improvements but not to the point of negative returns from overtraining. This is where the back to back ruck concept enters our training ideas. Back to back runs are commonly used for Ultra Marathon training. “The idea is that you cannot run a single 40- or 50-mile day in training without getting injured, so you should split that mileage up into two runs to get similar benefits with less risk.”
It is commonly said of the 50-mile ruck distance that the real meat of the event is in the last ten miles. This is the place where everyone is tired, many things hurt, and you have to mentally dig deep to keep going. Back to back training helps as “the real goal of these runs is to teach people to run on tired legs.” But, by breaking it up into two days, you lessen your risk of injury. It’s also great mental training, as you have to really talk yourself into getting back out there the second day. That is the same mental toughness you will need to get up from that 40-mile break and keep rucking toward the next waypoint.
Back to back training forces planning and prep to happen in a different way. This is a great dry run for event day about what works, what doesn’t, and how to best fuel your recovery. “For a back-to-back long run weekend, you need to fuel the first day with the second day in mind. This means eating enough before, during and after the run so that not only will you have enough energy to complete the first run, but you can replenish and have the energy for the second day.” It also lets you evaluate gear and how the gear from the first day feels on sore points the second day. This gives you an idea of what adjustments you might want to make in the last 20 miles of your Star Course.
Yes! This is an optional training weekend, where you will do longer rucks on both Saturday and Sunday. But, even if you don’t decide to include the Back to Back on the weekend we schedule it, we absolutely recommend you do this on a smaller scale after every big ruck. After the 12 mile timed, ruck two miles the next day. After the 20 mile ruck, ruck a few miles the next day. You get the idea. Instead of making those short rucks slow and easy, perhaps push the pace a little bit to challenge those tired legs. You will find benefit even from these smaller efforts!
]]>The 10-mile Conditioning Ruck is part of the PATHFINDER Horizon group of challenges, devised to prepare you for your long-distance ruck event. At least 50% of this ruck should be done on uphill and downhill concrete surfaces. The ideal area for this ruck would be a concrete parking garage if you can gain access to one for this challenge. There is no time hack. Concrete is preferable to asphalt for this challenge, due to concrete's density. Consider this challenge the equivalent to mountain ruck challenges in our other PATHFINDER programming.
10 miles in concrete-hill conditions (like up and downhill on city streets, in a parking garage or another predominately concrete location with rolling terrain.)
The primary goals of the 10-mile conditioning ruck are to prepare your feet and legs for two things: Hills & Concrete.
Even in a city that seems relatively flat, you’re likely to discover hills. Both the uphills and the downhills will challenge your quads, hamstrings, glutes, knees, and calves. The downhills may be harder on your legs than the uphills, because you’ll be landing with more force, and absorbing the shock with your legs. Get your muscles used to those forces. Practice good form, and figure out what stride length works best for you. Smaller but more rapid steps can be more efficient, and help to lessen the impact, both on the uphills and on the downhills. Your speed will naturally slow down a bit on the uphills. Try maintaining even effort across the uphills and the downhills, as opposed to an even speed.
Moderate downhills are also a good opportunity to incorporate some shuffling. You don’t need to shuffle for long. Even 100 meters of shuffling will allow you to change up the muscles that you’ve been using, giving the normal rucking muscles a break. Assuming you’re not rucking with excessive weight, shuffling on a downhill can even let you and your ruck feel almost weightless. With the slightest step, you can let gravity do the work of moving you forward. Try to minimize vertical movement of your center of mass, so that each step you take while shuffling is soft and quiet. Use your feet and your slightly bent knees to soften each step. Again, you don’t have to do it for long or very often. Even one bout of shuffling per mile can be beneficial and help you inject some speed.
In almost all Star Course cities, you will be on sidewalks most of the time. Sidewalks are hard on your feet and legs. Think about the difference in softness between asphalt and trail, and the amount of extra cushioning that you get from rucking on dirt or grass. If you think asphalt is hard, did you know that concrete is 10X harder than asphalt? (Source: https://www.hillrunner.com/jim2/id27.html) Over the course of the 211,200+ steps you’ll be taking during your 50+ mile event, that’s a lot of force on your feet. Bones require time to adapt to stress. Progressively mix in rucks on concrete to build up to the 10-mile challenge, so that during the event, your feet won’t hate you as much. During the event, by all means, take softer ground whenever possible if it is smooth enough not to twist an ankle. But prepare for the inevitable miles of concrete with this challenge.
Don’t cheat yourself out of the opportunity to prepare your feet and legs for these two sources of stress. Sweat more in training, bleed less in battle.
If you can get to one, use a parking garage. It may be more difficult for your GPS to function in the garage, but you can use a single loop on the top level, MapMyRun.com, or a similar tool to gauge the distance of one circuit, so that you can judge and extrapolate your total distance. If a parking garage is not available, find a good set of hills on concrete, or a single, long concrete hill that you can repeat. (PATHFINDER reminds you that you may not trespass onto private property and make sure you are allowed to be wherever you are. Always make sure a friend knows where you are, and use less busy times of day if traffic is a concern.)
This challenge is very likely going to feel monotonous, but that’s good mental training for the Star Course. The Star Course will test you as much mentally, as it does physically. The proportions will vary from person to person, but you may find yourself rucking the first 25 miles with your legs, the next 15 miles with your mind, and the last 10 miles with your heart. Figure out which techniques help you get through the mental grind. Is it setting smaller goals, like getting to see a nice view at the end of each trip to the top of the parking garage? Is it through dissociation, by steering your mind towards something else like the occasional song on a Bluetooth speaker (not headphones, so that you can hear and avoid cars)? Is it through association, where you pay close attention to your form and your body’s response to changing conditions during the ruck?
As always, use the challenge as an opportunity to practice with your event gear. You may find that your shoes hit and rub your toes differently on hills vs. on flat ground. Find out what gear works best for you.
]]>This week, we've got some great yoga, mobility and one of the best foam rolling videos I've ever seen (and done, for that matter). Get your Week 6 off to the best start! (And don't forget your warm-up or cool-down 1 mile ruck!)
Alo Yoga is a solid channel for yoga and mobility videos, and this instructor is fantastic as you learn yoga strength. Yoga can be far more challenging than the slower classes we've curated for Horizon, and this is a great taste of what else is possible. If you're looking for a workout today, here it is.
Feeling stiff? This is a great, quick flexibility routine you can do today, or throughout the week as needed.
This is a killer full-body, real-time foam rolling video that hits everything you need it to, plus. Great for after long workouts, or even prior, this is one to keep in rotation.
You know I can't let a week pass without singing Adriene's praises, and this week is no exception. Your feet need some TLC this week. Get it here!
]]>You're a certifiable badass.
You've done the events.
You've rucked the miles.
You've got the patches.
But what if life gets the better of you and you find yourself behind on your programming? What if you find your motivation waning? What if, after upping your programming or pace, you find yourself feeling less motivated? Even if you're an old pro, there's no shame in losing your motivation. It really does happen to all of us at one point or another. With that in mind, we've compiled some tips to help you regain your footing and get your groove back.
Motivation and discipline are fundamentally two different things. We want to clarify the difference between them first because it might go a long way in helping you define where you stand.
Your goal gives meaning to your motivation. Your discipline is what gives meaning to your goal. Motivation is often the bright, shiny mental picture of yourself at the end of your task. Sometimes, that picture can be enough to send you through the finish line. Sometimes, not.
Discipline is what you choose to do between imagining the cadre clasping the patch in your hand and actually sticking the patch to your board. I call it, "eating your vegetables." It's the things you have to do to get to your goal when you don't want to. It's your routine. It's when you put your workout into your calendar and you don't book anything else around it, and then you do it. Often, discipline requires some serious self-awareness of your personal pitfalls. Discipline is a challenge, but an essential part of truly achieving your goal.
We all know the multiple cliches about planning. But in order to stay disciplined and motivated, you have to plan. Some of us are natural planners - we know our goal and follow the path thats been set. But if that's not you right now, it can be.
An effective way to plan is to block time off in the morning and get an early start. The benefits of working out in the morning are significant, and often, we can wake up early enough to accomplish what we need to before the rest of our day barges in.
Set up your S.M.A.R.T. goals. I'll talk about this more in another blog post, but briefly, SMART goals are:
Plan ahead. On an off-day, or in a quiet block of time, plan your schedule for the week. Consider all your other obligations, and make a realistic plan of attack for fitting training into challenging weeks. For instance, if you have a conference call that always runs long, should you really plan training after that and jeopardize time you might not have? Or maybe you have the ability to cut things short and reclaim your time. Sometimes, we give our time to less important purposes because it's hard to say 'no.' Think about what extras you might need to take off your plate.
Joe Merritt, a class participant from Horizon Beta 002, reminds us, "Once you win the battle in your mind, and you become driven, your body will adapt to anything and you will overcome...Just don't forget your WHY and dig those heels in." Remembering your 'Why,' whether it's to beast an event, improve your time, or maybe even a more personal reason, is a great motivator to continue along your path. If you haven't yet considered your 'why,' now is a great time.
Jennifer Lee, a Horizon CA, says, "I may not always feel like exercising beforehand, but once I get out and start, during exercise and even more so after exercise I feel so much better than I did before...mentally and physically. It's good to get the blood pumping through my veins. Warming up with some stretching helps me get from not wanting to move to feeling more ready." Remembering the way you feel after exercise can help get you moving. Endorphins rewarding your brain for your efforts feel so good, and just thinking about how that feels prior to a workout can increase your motivation.
If you've been seated all day at work, motivation to continue your discipline can temporarily lag too. Making a plan to ruck after work and having your gear waiting in the car can remind you of your commitment.
"Being signed up for an event helps me because it feels real. When I know there are ...teammates counting on me to be well trained, it's extra motivation not to slack off." Jennifer Lee
Signing up for an event and the anticipation of teammates relying on you can be a powerful motivator to train. "I...say this often to myself, "you don't get something for nothing." I know that I want to be ready for my event, which means I have to do the work." Shannon Bass, PATHFINDER Horizon CA, has an excellent point. No one wants to be the weak link in their team, and the best way to avoid that is to have discipline over your training regimen.
Marines know it. Even if you're not though, having the ability to improvise, adapt and overcome is a life skill worth getting. Looking at challenging situations, whether they have to do with time or family constraints, weather or work, and deciding how to adapt current situations to fit future goals, can re-train your brain to focus on the positive. Meeting a problem head-on is an important skill to have. Shannon Bass, Horizon CA, says, "The biggest thing is not to get too discouraged by small setbacks...keep looking to what CAN be done as you move forward."
Choosing to view training as important as, say, brushing your teeth can create a protective space around your block of training time. I mean, you wouldn't skip brushing your teeth, right? While you can't expect your schedule to always be the same, you can spot an opportunity every day to do something related to your training plan, even if that means breaking a WOD up into three different chunks during the day.
As we all know by now, it's crucial to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Sure, we can get comfortable in freezing, muddy conditions and force ourselves to lug horrible things for horrible distances. But getting comfortable being uncomfortable also applies to your scheduling. It may mean you ruck during your lunch period, or when you get home at night. It may mean waking up at 4:00 AM. But in order to be disciplined, and keep your eye on the prize, it's a skill you've got to acquire, and then USE.
One of the best things PATHFINDER has to offer is community. Finding an accountability buddy, whether met through a PATHFINDER Facebook group, or a friend in a ruck club who's training for an event, can be a great resource to keep your motivation up and your discipline dialed in.
Ask them to check in to make sure you're following your plan and staying committed. Having someone remind you they're counting on you, and you're counting on them, can create a powerful positive feedback loop. Accountability buddies can also help you move out of your comfort zone, or suggest you that you might've pushed yourself too far. Having an accountability buddy is a two-way-street too. Connect regularly, be reliable and offer honest feedback when asked or as needed.
Lastly, your motivation and discipline might be waning because there are legitimate obstacles in your way that you cannot move. If there is pressure in life outside of training, adding the extra demands of a training schedule might be more than you can truly take. If those are your circumstances, it's okay to take a break and try again when life has opened a little more space up. Deciding that now might not be the best time to train can be disappointing, and bring up some uncomfortable feelings, but know that you are not a failure because you couldn't do it all. Taking a break is sometimes a necessary step to protect your goal for the future, rather than souring on it because you overworked yourself.
Whatever the case may be, we hope we've armed you with enough tools to stay motivated and disciplined to reach your goal.
]]>We are getting into the meat of our core workouts. As always, read through the workout before starting. If there are any movements you're unfamiliar with, post to the group! This week, we have a plank assessment too, so you can gauge where you currently are. Remember to move slowly through the cool down as well.
Ruck 1 mile at a warm-up pace
Max Plank Hold - up to 2:00 minutes. One of our goals is for you to hold a plank for 2:00. Any time more than that is fine but arbitrary. Any time less than 2:00, and you have your goal to work towards. Your core endurance is one of the most important aspects of your core development, and this is a great assessment to see where your progress currently is.
THE COOL DOWN