An 8-mile personal best for Christmas

I'm a few weeks into my structured GORUCK Challenge training now, and Lola and I have definitely been putting in the miles. On Sunday, just 10 days after increasing my load to 20 lb I took the dog out and completed an 8-mile run on the American Tobacco Trail. Normally my long runs are time-based, and Sunday's goal was 1:15, which put me just shy of 8 miles. I really wanted to hit the distance milestone, so I pushed through an extra 3-4 minutes. My joints were hurting a bit, definitely tired and unaccustomed to that length of workout, but they went the distance and ultimately I felt strong at the end.

GORUCK Training: Evolution 1 and Feeling Pumped

Wednesday, 6:45 AM

The sun is just coming up. After several weeks of informal training for the GORUCK challenge, I've logged almost 50 miles of running and worked my way up to a 7 miler with a lightly loaded camelbak (about 8 lbs). That 7-miler was the longest run of my life, so I'm feeling good about that, but it's time to increase my load. Last night I got two concrete pavers out of the backyard, wrapped them in bubble wrap and duct tape, and loaded them into the larger backpack I'll be using from here on out. The pack weighs about 17 lb with the pavers in it.