Testing the Bug Out Body

Two days before Thanksgiving I decided to sign up for a 10k (6.2 mile) Turkey trot held not far from my house. I decided I would load my assault pack with 30lbs, run to the race, do the race, and run home, all the time wearing the ruck. In all it would be over 11 miles of running plus all the standing around pre/post race.

I planned on a pace of 11 minute miles for the 10k wearing the ruck or about 70 minutes. My goal was not stop running at all and that seemed reasonable.

The first mile marker race clock showed 10:50, right on pace. Then I didn't see anymore markers for a while. I felt fine running with the pack but it seemed I was losing ground to the runners around me, so I figured my pace slowed. I then saw a mile marker ahead and figured based on my stopwatch it was Mile 3. When I got close it read, Mile 4, time 38:08. I wasn't running 11 min. miles, I was running 9:30 miles.

I decided to slowly open up the pace and I finished the 10k in 57 minutes. A pace of 9:14 per mile. I was pretty thrilled I was running that pace w/o pushing it carrying the load. Then I got to run home with it, too.

The moral of the story; it's important to create opportunities to test your get home plan with a pack on your back.

We did similar about a month ago, found a difficult hiking trail in the general direction we would bug out if ever we had to.

Commute by bicycle. Get in shape and save money. I have been bike commuting since 1970.

Great thought, Comms. The better our health, the better our resiliance!

Izzy, I am signed up for goruck Phoenix in a couple months. Next weekend, (of 12/3) I am flying to Glen Rose Texas to participate in the Super Spartan race. Its an 8 mile obstacle course that normally has about 16 obstacles. This one will have over 2x that, something special they cooked up for the last race of the year.

Furthermore, I am part of a very, very few people that have signed up to run the course 3x over 24 hours, called the Spartan marathon. First is the hurricane heat Friday night, then a normal heat Saturday morning, and then the final run through is being hosted by goruck, so who knows how long we will be out there and what we will be doing. There might be 30 people out of 5,000 attempting to complete each unique run through.

thumbs up

Comms, I'm getting exhausted just reading your post! <wipes sweat from brow> Where's the water station around here?

That goruck is interesting, I wonder if any previous routes are published anywhere for practice runs.

Good for you, reminds me of my CO in Basic Training, he ran around the whole company continuelly for our ENTIRE forced road march after our "final" out on the range. We walked 8-10 miles he must have ran 4x that with a five gallon jug strapped to his back. His saving grace was he was NOT in the cloud of dust we were ALL sucking in from the feet of all the soldiers. It was CRAZY HOT and we sucked in a TON of dust.


Ironwood

So what do we chronically ill people do? I think bugging in may be our only option. Day to day life already feels kind of like surviving already.

Ride a bike? Just do your best (Cub Scout motto), it is a continum of response. Some folks will be able to do very little. My Dad (70+ ailing health) says he will be walking into the "whatever" IT is, so he can put himself out of his misery. I cant argue with that. we all have choices.

Ironwood

Ironwood is right on. The only meaningful reference is personal and internal. There is always someone else who is faster or stronger, but that is irrelevant to the important issues of being prepared as much as possible.

Round is a shape.

Agreed. What I do for physical conditioning is different than someone else's and its not necessarily for a long term bug out in a disaster. It might be I just need to get home after dropping the car off at the shop.

I'd like to rephrase the "someone is always stronger/faster" into "we all have our limitations". Identify YOUR limitations and make decisions and preparations so that those limitations doesn't kill you.

The way I see it, the difference between myself (fairly OK fit, fairly OK skill set - but no superman) and the elderly lady who can barely walk on flat pavement is more about degrees, not absolutes. Both she and I have very real physical limits. I might walk 30 miles farther than her before I freeze to death, but I'll still be just as dead if I don't respect my limitations.

The old lady and I share the need to do what-if thinking and preparations - but the specific answers will be different. Different circumstances dictates what options you have avaiable (or what options you CAN MAKE available through preparations).

I might have the "bug out in the woods for 3 days" option with my skill set, fitness level and a little preparation (gear and plans). She doesn't - so she need to place more weight into other options. Such as bugging out to a neighbour.

Another similarity is that both she and I will enjoy HUGE benefits if we do physical training on a regular basis. She might be too old to run, but she WILL be able to maintain and expand her current physical capacity - and in doing so she will enjoy so many health benefits that I won't list them here.

One payoff from exercise is that you will have a better sense of what you can accomplish. In an emergency, you will be much more confident if, say, faced with the necessity of hiking ten miles, you know that you regularly run six or so, twice a week.

A rule of thumb from my running days is that your limit is about two and one half times your normal workout distance. Thus if you run eight miles regularly, you can complete a marathon of twenty-six miles, 385 yards. You won't be moving fast, and it won't be fun, but you will complete it.

I drive a lot in a state with a lot of bad drivers, plus an Army and AF base with a bunch of 19-yr-olds with their first brand-new trucks and sports cars. Most sections of the freeway have three lanes.

The right lane is taken up by the people driving too slow and the ones getting on and off the freeway, often on their cell phones or texting.

The left lane is full of people who think the speed limit doesn't apply to them, the ones who only slow down when there is a pair of tail lights four feet in front of them, and the ones trying to outrun the red/blue lights flying along behind.

The middle lane will get me there a bit slower, but still in good shape. Getting to my destination in good shape beats most of the alternatives.

Sue