Marshall Ramsey

Yesterday, I watched the first episode of Band of Brothers. It’s the one where Easy Company forms and trains at Camp Toccoa in the North Georgia Mountains. They are pushed hard by the ruthless Capt. Sobel and forced to run up Currahee Mountain (which means we stand alone.).  Three up and three down.  It’s a 900 ft. gain in elevation from the surrounding countryside and the last mile is nearly straight up. It’s a brutal run.  But Easy Company makes it. They push together as a team.  (Even after eating an ill-timed spaghetti dinner.)

Watch the two-minute scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgTFNUUl9mg

Today my line started with the Gauntlet and the mini gauntlet. We ran the home and visitor stands twice. We then went into the weight room. From there, we ran 10 combo gasser/40-yard dashes with Wayne (which was surprisingly tough).  Wayne did a good job pushing us to run faster — even through we were pretty tired. And then we went to Paul.

Paul painted a scenario where we had to have the strength to carry a loved one out of a disaster. He then gave up a 25 lb. weight and we ran a 50-yard box for the whole session. It was tough — mentally as much as it was physically, especially just coming out of Wayne’s drills.

I kept thinking about Easy Company. About how they ran three up and three down.  How they went on to D-day and then to Germany.

It made carrying a 25 lb. weight much easier.

All on a Mental Monday.

P.S. You can run Currahee Mountain now as a 10K run to help fun efforts to preserve the history of Camp Toccoa.  It’s on June 2 (we just missed it) but I’m sure they’ll have the race next year.

PLS training (which I am in the middle of) lasts 12 weeks. It’s four days a week of intense training for one hour. We workout at 5 a.m. starting on Monday and go through Thursday.  And then we have three days off.  I normally run two of the days and throw a rest day in there for the third. My body is old and needs at least one day of rest. I’ll run a shorter run on Friday and then a long run on either Saturday or Sunday.  Today I ran 4.5 miles — but I did something a little different.  I drove and met some of my PLS friends and we ran on Highland Colony Parkway together.

Of course, if I am just running from home, I can sleep later. There is no drive at all — it’s just run and then run back home.  But even though I still had to get up at 4:09, I enjoyed today immensely. I enjoyed seeing my linemates (Line 4 was well represented).  I enjoyed having someone to talk to while I was running. And I enjoyed the competition to push me a little harder than I would normally run.  I ran 4.5 miles in a little less than 45 minutes. That’s not a bad time for a training run.

One of the amazing things about the training program I am in is that no matter how good of shape I think I’m in, they find a way to push me to my limit and make me sore the next day.  My legs are VERY tired from this weeks intense legapalooza.

We’ll see if I can wake up early enough to get in a good long run tomorrow.  I want to beat the heat and humidity.

The theme for the day was running. As in “running your @$$ off” running. (I did lose three pounds this week, so I kinda ran my @$$ off.)

We started with wall sits. You’re sitting there eating your cheese danish and wondering, “Marshall, what exactly is a wall sit?” Why I’m glad you asked.  You lean your back against the wall and bend your legs at a 90-degree angle (like you are sitting down.) But wait! There’s more! Then you pass a 45-lb. weight back and forth (which I like because it takes your mind off the fact you are sitting there creating a lactic acid surprise.)  You do that over and over until your legs scream, “Uncle.” Or worse.

Then we went over to Scotty and ran gassers/suicides.  Forwards, backwards, sideways you name it.  I felt like an old, creaky yo-yo. Fifteen minutes into it, the running came down like rain.

A visit to Wayne involved big tires, sprints and planks.  What’s a plank? We put our toes on the tires and held ourselves up with our elbows. It ain’t as easy as it sounds.

Then the real running began.  A quick lap (1/4 mile) around the track led to a trip to the football stadium where we ran the steps.  Then rinse and repeat.  A 15-minutes ’til the end, hustled the end zone and ran 100-yard sprints.  (I like to pretend I am running a touchdown).  We did some of them with bear crawls thrown into it.  Somewhere in there we weighed. I’ve lost three pounds so far.  (But am more muscular so I’m thinner.)

Tomorrow morning, I’ll get up and go running with some of my line-mates.  And then Saturday, I plan on running a long, long run — maybe 13.1 miles if I get up early enough.

Next step on this journey is to start totally overhauling my eating habits. But I’ll save that one for another day. Right now, I’m unscrewing my legs and throwing them in a vat of ice.