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Hot hints from #rucking events
What to expect from rucking events, specifically on the example of #GORUCK events.
First off, GORUCK purposely doesn’t share anymore info than the packing list, starting point and time, and minimum duration of the event. This is to void any specific training towards such events and limit possible expectations.
In general the key focus is rucking undetermined distances with various weight and weather conditions, and occasional workouts.
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This indeterminism is the biggest struggle for many, since all sense of time should be stripped.
The easiest way to achieve this is to remove all technology that can track time. Further one can events that start in the evening and end in the morning or events that happen in an indescriptive landscape with little to none shadow creation like walking on the fields on a cloudy day or through the forest.
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When comparing events between the States and Europe, it is really hard to remove time in an urban, especially Europe. Since most cities have at least a church, that either rings every 15 minutes or has a clock.
Further lots of stores have LED displays that have time as one of their roll through sequences. Or one can find the time on parking meters.
If one is native to the area then intrinsically already has a sense what time of day it is. Thus if one wants the hurdle of time, then make sure that one has not acclimatized to the region.
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If one gets tasked with the role navigator, one gets this hot mess handed to you.
Early in events it can be relative relaxing since one has the knowledge of knowing. Though as the event prolongs and the team becomes tired, some will start nagging at the question how much further.
In this case one can either shared an over estimate to the checkpoint or be concrete or an under estimate to motivate that it’s not that far.
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Numbers have power!
Which is better sharing the time or distance left.
Knowing that it’s less than an hour is usually better than knowing it’s 5 km, since 1 is less than 5.
Sharing 30 minutes left vs half an hour vs 3 km, usually the latter is more promising although it’s not the smallest number.
Now towards the end 10 more minutes is better than 1 km. Since minimal fractions of time feel like they vanish in a moments notice. Another descriptive is a handful of directions like one more right and left turn.
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Long monotone stretches where a seeing never ending distance are the worse towards motivation. Since it feels like one is never making any progress.
The easiest solution is head down and go, where a cap can help block the urge to look how far left. Or one choose either a path with more visual obstacles, goes during limited like when foggy or during the night.
All these solutions try to target the next 5 - 10 seconds, thereby breaking the huge distance in manageable ones.
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The starting of a GORUCK event means that everyone is at the starting point, not viewing the starting point. The typical events recommend to put yourself in a formation unless the host aka Cadre says otherwise. Thus, one should be at the start no later than 15 minutes.
This extra time permits to check your ruck one more time or have some small talk with the other participants.
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Alternatively, one can use the time to warm up, since depending on the Cadre there might not be a warm up.
In less fortunate cases one can either expect right away movements with the pre-filled sandbags or dive directly into the Welcome Party, which is the first workout of the day and can last upwards of 30 min.
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In the team events, GORUCK tries to bring a variety of people and make them an unit by giving them challenging tasks that need to be tackled as a team.
This usually includes moving an undefined amount of equipment an undefined distance within a specific time interval. The trickiness is that one usually doesn’t have GPS or time to track the data.
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An example, let the team be of size 12 and gear amount be 10. What configuration should be used that it is fair for all?
In the next example, of the 10 pieces of gear, 5 of them have to be connected together with carabiners of your choosing.
These formations can vary depending on the task at hand. It could be a log, star, or stick human configuration.
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The trickiness by the configurations is to find enough people to create a squad; both fitting in physical capabilities and in height.
One option is to offload one’s ruck to the other members who are not carrying the configuration.
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For the carrier formations, there is a large variety of possibilities:
- double file
- zipper file
- triangle or reverse triangle
- single file
- diamond file
- etc.
No matter the formation chosen, synchronized walking and communication are the corner stones for successful completion.
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Achieving synchronized walking will give you efficiency and a feeling of gliding through the distance.
On the other side, asynchronized walking is usually the typical start. It feels very choppy as if with every step the configuration is pulling one even more down or to the side. It is a constant pulling and tugging.
One can compare this flow as those found by rowing.
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There is one formation that can ignore a lot of the pulling and tugging motion, which is the stretched formation.
The idea behind this one is to pull the configuration apart. The upside is one can be quite fast if the squad head is fast. Though the downside is that one quickly loses power.
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Learn the acronym ABC which means
Always Be Carrying
This is good to know if one has to carry a lot of weight over distance.
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A typical ABC challenge is to move three sandbags with various weights over a distance and having the caveat that one cannot carry more than two bags at a time.
The trick with ABC is to place the lightest bag perpendicular so that one does not need to waste much energy to bend over to pick it up. While leap frogging and switching between the other two bags.
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In details, let’s say there is an 80#, 60#, and 40#.
The 40# is the lightest so this one will be used as perpendicular one. Thus take the time to make stable enough to stand alone by dropping/smashing it against the short side to create a bigger area.
Next take one of the either two and put it onto the shoulders. Squat down some what to grab the 40#. Move a distance of e.g. 25m and place the 40# gently so that it’s still standing. Drop the heavier one.
Go back to grab the other one and walk up to the 40#, pick it up and do some more distance before placing the 40# and dropping the heavier.
Go back and repeat the process. This way the 40# is always being carried.
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Considering the movement with #GORUCK’s #SimpleSandbag one only gets two vertical handles compared to #sandbag and its filler which has a whole arrangement of vertical, horizontal, and side handles. This can make the carrying of such bags more tedious depending on its fullness amount.
To ease the task of carrying one can acquire and use #RuckStraps. This has the benefit of freeing up one hand and giving a larger area to hold onto. Plus it can also mark the sandbags when participating in a competition.
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The roll of the navigator is both a blessing and a curse, since you always know what the distance is still left. This can also be the case if one in well versed in the local environment and knows the destination.
The reason being, knowing the distance can be a demotivator to continue. Since one intrinsically knows how grueling it will be to accomplish it.