Physical Fitness and the Prepper

I know every few months you hear on the blogs etc. about physical fitness. The drumming is the same, get in shape, get in shape, get in shape. Sound familiar? Have you?

Ok, the weather has finally broke some in my part of the country. Still a bit chilly and I would not run around the yard naked just yet but better than it was just a few short weeks ago.

About 2 weeks ago my friend wanted to run his dogs along a trail at a state park, seeing the opportunity I threw on the ruck sack and tagged along for 6 miles. Not a bad walk. All that winter working out at the gym, leg squats, etc, etc, etc. paid off.

Here was the conversation after the first trail walk:

Me: wow good ruck, thanks for the invite

Friend: You want to do this again in a couple weeks?

Me: Sure! (feeling rather snarky after a 6 mi ruck and not hurting) what are you thinking?

Friend: Well this trail goes about 15 miles, we could walk to the next town, have a car there and drive back.

Me: Sure! (whats 15 miles!) cool, call you and work out the details.

Flash forward a couple weeks and we had the car per-positioned at our planned end point and started out on our adventure. 52 degrees, overcast with 15-25 mph (head) winds.  Two guys, two 35 lbs ruck sacks and a head wind walking generally North West at a pretty brisk pace.

Miles 1-6 not bad, my feet are starting to blister. Stopped and had some chow changed my socks.

Miles 6-10, blisters getting bad hard to walk. Stopped, pulled my socks and broke out the moleskin.

Miles 10-11, had to throw in the towel, my feet were just killing me and we had to back track a mile to the nearest road just to get a cellphone signal and called for a exfill. Total walk time? just over 3 hrs. Total time with stops and chow, 4 hrs 15 mins.

Physically, I did fine. My hamstrings were getting tight towards the end but I could have muscled through the past few miles. My feet? they just blew out.

The picture above was taken the day after. For those of us that have delusions of walking out of some sort of natural or man made disaster? All I gotta say is umm…. get off your ass and get walking with your bug out bag. If you don’t I can tell you from personal and painful experience your not gonna make it 2 miles let alone 5 or 15. I will be 48 in about 3 weeks and if I can take a Saturday to do a bit of training so can you.

I will tell you though, I will be back on that trail in 2 weeks with my friend giving it a go again. Prep yourself, prep your gear and prep your head.