WTR Progress and a favorite workout!

It’s been a decently long week and I’m ready for rest. Unfortunately, I’ll only have about 10 hours rest from the time I get out of of my nine to five job and head down to Southern Maine to fulfill my Army Reserve Duties. For the Warrior Trail Runner, progress has been slow and it’s been a doing of my own. I find that I take a reactive approach to marketing instead of a proactive or aggressive approach. Today, I changed that. I have the first flyers printed out for WTR and hope to distribute them Monday and get some feedback through out the week.

On a much different note, it’s been a good week for trail running and keeping healthy the spirit of the adventurer. I’ve travelled an approximately meager sixteen miles by foot this week, but I’ve also accomplished awesome things with awesome friends. I’ve been through the cloud cover atop a frigid Cadillac Mountain, through rocky gorges, sloshed through knee-deep water and mud in the greater Bangor area and brought out one of my favorite workouts of all time–

THE RUCK MARCH!

Outside of military circles, you may recognize ruck marching as throwing a backpack on and filling it with heavy things and then walking for awhile at a brisk pace. It may not seem hard, but I guarantee you– a 30lb. pack for 4 miles will wear you down. Too easy? Go ahead and pack more weight in there.

(disclaimer: don’t actually do it if you’re not medically qualified, I take no responsibility for uncalculated risks to yourself.)

In any case, aside from weekly regimin of trail runs, log drills and body-weight exercises, I will again be adding in ruck marches to the mix for some variety! It’s too easy to do. You go out and get a relatively strong bag and fill it with rocks wrapped in a towel or old blanket because you don’t want the rocks to rub up against your pack and wear it down. It happens.

Your body expends a lot of energy to keep you going, to keep your core straight and not to mention it’s a great back workout. I was definitely feeling it the next day! So, if you’re feeling up to it, load your ruck up and go out for an hour and tell me what you think!

 What would you do to add to to the intensity or make it a better workout?

More Adventures

A shot from Gorge Trail between Cadillac and Dorr Mountain

In the spirit of the Warrior Trail Runner, my best friend and gunner from our humvee in Iraq , Brendan Winkel joined me in hiking Acadia National Park this week. We took an afternoon to hike Cadillac Mountain. In the rain. In the sleet. With fog. But without regret. One of the best adventures I’ve had in awhile.

While down there, Wink brought his New Balance Minimus trail shoes and I ended up wearing an old pair of light-weight Puma running sneakers to test the trails. After three hours of hiking and jogging up wet and rocky trails and sloshing through knee-deep water, both the Minimus and old Puma’s ended up being great choices. The minimalist approach to running and hiking definitely works better for me, and Wink reported the same for our journey.

With summer approaching quick, I hope to get the Warrior Trail Runners up and running (no pun intended) so we can make day trips down to Acadia and run some of those trails. Some trails where very unfriendly to runners and even some were difficult to pass just hiking, but hey, we only explored Cadillac Mountain and the descending Gorge Trail- there’s still just under 30 miles of the famous Park Loop Road and the rest of the park spans over the majority of Mountain Desert Island.

Without a doubt, I look forward to getting a good group of friends together and tearing up those trails during the day and relaxing in Bar Harbor with some Maine-made brews at night! I gotta say, Acadia National Park definitely includes some of the best sights that Maine has to offer!

Pictures from our journey!

A shot from Gorge Trail between Cadillac and Dorr Mountain

The eerily empty parking lot atop Cadillac Mountain.It was sleeting and very windy.

Wink in his boonie cap and me soaked to the bone. There was rain and wind and it appeared that Thor was on our side.