Ruck Running 105

Eat before you're hungry, drink before you're thirsty, and walk before you're tired.

Last week I had the great opportunity to participate in a Norwegian Foot March with a group of 100 Marine Raiders and support personnel.

The finish line of the Norwegian Foot March

The NFM is a 30k (18.6) mile foot movement with a ruck of 11kg (25 pounds), sanctioned by the Norwegian military.

It was interesting to watch as we went along because most of the Marines do not regularly cover distances greater than 12 miles.

The time limit varies by age but is roughly a 15 min-per-mile pace.

The youngest age group needed to finish in  4 ½ Hours. As the oldest guy there, I had 4 hours and 50 minutes.

While I did not do any training events longer than 12 miles, I do have a significant long-distance base  (which I have been harping on).

 I will never question my ability to cover 20 miles at a shuffle. In fact, I feel pretty sure I could pull myself up from my deathbed and cover 20 miles if I had to. That’s not a brag, it’s just that I’ve done it so many times.

Any long-distance event comes down to preparation and strategy.

This is why I believe that even if you are preparing for a 10–12-mile event, you should become comfortable with 20 miles. If you are lucky, you can gut your way through 10 miles without considering pacing, lubrication, foot care, nutrition, or hydration.

But luck should never factor into your plan, or as we say in the military:

Hope is not a course of action.

On long runs/rucks, you will find out where you chafe and blister. Get ahead of it. I start by lubricating before the event. I saw a lot of bloody nipples. They suck, but they are dead easy to prevent. I’ve said before I’m a huge fan of Salty Britches. There is a 20% discount code below.

My friend Fred, an ultra-runner and retired Army Special Forces Colonel, gave probably the best advice you will ever get in the comments a few weeks ago:

Eat before you are hungry, drink before you are thirsty, and walk before you are tired.

If you want to perform well at longer distances you need to have a plan.

Your body can process around 150-250 calories per hour. If you are going for more than an hour you need to take in calories. I would focus on carbs, something easy to digest: gels or drinks. I am a big fan of Tailwinds. Whatever it is, you need to test it out in training.

A way to determine your fluid loss is a sweat test: weigh yourself naked before you run, then run/ruck for one hour, and weigh yourself naked after the run. Subtract your post-run weight from your pre-run weight (as well as the weight of any fluid you drank during the session.) and convert it to milliliters (rule of thumb is that 1 gram = 1 millilitre) – This is how many mililiters of fluid you lost during the run at that temperature and humidity.

You may not need to replace all of that loss, but you should aim for .75 ml – no more than 1 liter per hour, and try to replace all fluid lost within a few hours of the event.

Find a run/walk pace that works for you.

For the NFM I ran the first mile then walked ¼ mile ran the next 3/4 and repeated until mile 15. After that, I increased my walking a little.

I felt a distinct drop in energy after I went over the length of my recent training runs at about 12 miles. The first sign I notice is that my shoulders start to slump forward. This action compresses my lungs and makes it harder to take in oxygen—not good.

If I don’t do anything, as I get more tired, my head drops until I’m looking at my feet. To combat this, I focus on keeping my head up, looking at the person ahead of me, and concentrating on closing the gap.

Long runs/rucks will let you understand your own signs that you are getting tired.

I finished in 3:49, which was right in the middle of the pack of a group of special operations Marines most of which were half my age.

 With concerted training I could have done better, but I wasn’t unhappy with my performance.

For the event, I wore a pair of First Spear wool socks under my GoRuck MACV-2 mid-top boots and had no foot issues.

I was also rocking my Bold Bannds belt which I wear constantly. It still looks new and does a great job of keeping my pants up and looking badass.

Next week we’ll continue with prepping for your event.

In case you are thinking, “Damn, I’d like to know more about this Dailey guy!” you’re in luck. You can preorder a copy of my forthcoming book, Tough Rugged Bastards

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Just giving you the heads up we may have some cool Sad Clown t-shirts and sweatshirts coming soon. I’ll keep you posted.

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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week.