Sunday, March 09, 2014

Sunday Ruck 30 lb pack

" A back of iron and legs that never quit".

That was, and is my main training/life goal, and has been ever since I read it in Pavel's original classic the Russian Kettlebell Challenge.

At the time I was suffering greatly from a lumbar disc herniation and my knee was, well my knee and barely worked at all. So it was a dream more than a goal. But now it is coming to pass, thanks to a Czech manual therapist named Vladimir Janda and my amazing knee surgeon. Janda's work, which I learned of through Paul Chek taught me about length tension relationships, and inbalances, and helped me rehab my back through proper stretching and strengthening.
My surgeon replaced my arthritic knee was metal and high grade plastic and that has made all the difference.
I don't care for doctors much but I love me some surgeons! :)

Bumped up the ruck weight to 30.4 lbs and could immediately tell the difference when I started walking! My legs lit up very fast and it was slow,literally, start.I wondered if I could do all ten laps and made peace with the idea I might have bit off too much and would have to cut back to eight or so laps instead.

Daylight savings time didn't help either but I like walking in the dark :)

The first five laps were a slog with lap times down 10-15 seconds a lap ( from 8 min to 8:15-20). I still stopped each lap for a minute of squat stretches as well. The second half of the walked was much better; I loosened up, my groove appeared and my per lap pace picked up. I am a seriously slow warmer upper :)

According to the pedometer:
8,781 steps
3.7 miles
2.7 average speed
1:44 minutes

this didn't account well for the 10 stops but it gave me the gist of what I did.

My stats
30.4 lb pack
1 hour 45 min time
ten laps
10 min long squat stretches
bw at start 159
bw at finish 157 :)

going to keep this pack weight for a good while. It's heavy enough.

datsit
neverquit/


2 comments:

Diana said...

With the weather warming up here in the midwest (both happy and sad over that!) I would like to give these ruck walks a try!

Mark Reifkind said...

go for it! just make sure to get a pack with a solid hip belt. makes a huge difference on the shoulders

190 x 1 x 12, 210/225 static holds, 24 kg goblet squats, floor pushups 30, 20

 This went VERY well almost all reps identical. Realized I get better drive AND minimize shoulder stress if I unrack it with more weight on ...