WAR MACHINE – Phase 4

4 down, 2 to go....

I felt great during this phase. My lifts were up during the initial assessments, and my back squat was a lifetime PR, which I was pumped about since I’m currently 44. The structure of this phase worked well for me, every day felt like I could go hard, but there wasn’t interference due to the prior day’s training. It was great to get outside twice a week and use the track for my running workouts, and I feel like I’m in the best running shape I’ve been since 2020, which was when I had my 2nd knee surgery and stopped running entirely. I was surprised at how much the ab workouts crushed me after the running workouts—excited to get into Phase 5 and concentrate on my ruck speed improvement. I went off the rails a bit and have been using 55 pounds instead of 40, but my natural gait times aren’t going to be enough to get 12 miles in under 3 hours. My push ups also feel very good and hopeful the number will increase on the next test. I switched to the “new’ish” ACFT hand release style. When you jump into the 6 phase commitment, just follow the plan, I’m thankful for the layout out, and the slow ramp up has made me more durable so far. Prior errors in my training were to my engine getting better than my chassis.