Eye opening little jaunt

[Nathan_Bell]

Yesterday, I dropped my truck off at my buddy's garage and decided to walk back home. The walk was almost exactly 5 miles.

I followed the road for about 2 miles of this and then decided to walk the rest accross country. Fields and woodplots make up most of the land, nothing overly rugged but not flat by any means. After about 40 minutes of walking I was just wanting to get home and sit on my ass. Unfortunatley I was only about halfway home.

Forgotten how much extra exertion pushing through that kind of country takes from you. Used to walking through it during hunting season when you are moving a few yards and then stopping. Not pushing on at a good clip to cover ground.

Took about 1 hour 20 minutes to get home. Not a great pace by any means, but not bad IMHO considering I hadn't done any woods stomping like that for a few years.

Why I bring it up?
Just because you can do an hour of cardio at the gym or on the court, it doesn't mean that a good solid walk will not suck the wind out of you and make your legs burn.
So mix it up and go stomping through the woods at a good pace once in a while to see how your program is doing on getting you in shape for traversing the countryside.

[BushmasterFanBoy]

Whenever I get out in brush, its a reminder of how out of shape I really am. Doing it in gear only exacerbates the lesson, but I like getting a bit of experience in moving around with my rifle/gear, so I usually make a trip to some family owned property every once in a while to get some running in.

If you haven't tried it, it really will slam home any weaknesses you might have in your kit, things will snag, get torn, etc. And that's not even hitting any of the fitness aspects. You can't run nearly as fast as you think when its through chest-high brush.