Possibility.

Training is over.

Five hours from now, I'll step off into the unknown with the fifteen or so other GORUCKers in Class 116. My gear is ready, my bricks are dressed for the occasion, and there's no more time to work out. I have to trust that the last four months of work have made my body and mind strong enough to get through this.

I'm a long way from where I'd hoped to be back when I planned out my training program, but I'm also stronger than I've ever been before. My knee has been holding up OK, but not great. My final training run on Tuesday was a 1-hour long ruck run with the full six-brick load. It was hands down one of the toughest workouts of my life, but I made it through despite some knee pain. It was aggravated for several days afterwards, but I've calmed it down with ice and stretching, and spent the week praying that that last workout made it stronger rather than set it back.

Meet the bricks

With the GORUCK Challenge looming, it's time to introduce you to my training partners: the bricks!

Every participant in the GRC carries either four or six bricks in their rucksack for the entire challenge. Don't ask why; it's just what we do. Now, it's highly recommended that the bricks be wrapped in something soft to keep them from rubbing holes in your backpack and to save your lower back a lot of grief. Standard practice among GORUCKers seems to be wrapping the bricks in bubble wrap and covering them in duct tape.

My bricks lined up for duty a couple of months ago, when I found them under my house. (It's either coincidence or Providence that there happened to be exactly six random bricks left under my deck by the previous owner). I dutifully wrapped them in bubble wrap and duct tape and started carrying them on some of my workouts. We've logged many miles together at this point, and they've never failed in their job of making workouts harder!

With less than a week to go until my Challenge, I decided to dress up my loyal workout buddies for the occasion.

Ruckin’ and Rollin’

Done freaking out. I got that out of my system in the last post. In the days after writing it, I went on a 1.5 mile swim, did 2 hours of intense fitness classes at the gym, and hiked 7 miles up a mountain with my pack in snowy, below-freezing weather, helping me realize that despite the hiccup in my training program, I am still fit. At the same time, I ran everyday and have continued to build up my mileage. I've made my way from the treadmill to the "wild," and from there to running with my pack again - first two bricks, then three, and yesterday, four.  With such short time before the Challenge, I've been running as much as  my body could possibly take without pushing the knee back into inflammation, which has meant lots of shorter runs, sometimes multiple times a day.

Square Zero

The GORUCK challenge is less than three weeks away, and I'm starting to freak out.

Despite my best efforts to work through the IT band problems that derailed my training plan five weeks ago, I'm only now returning to running. I had an encouraging appointment with the PT yesterday, which confirmed that I've pretty much resolved the biomechanical issues that caused the problem, but the knee still keeps getting inflamed whenever I try to run. It's critical that I not let that happen. I left with some new exercises to do and clear instructions to run ONLY as much as I can without causing pain afterwards.

Today, that was half a mile. No weight, no dog, no hills, on the treadmill.