Today I wasn’t able to get away with just hitting the treadmill. No. Today Sam and Tom came to the gym and we met up with some of Sam’s friends from a previous job. One of them brought “the sled”. The sled is a 60-pound metal structure with three feet, each on a small skid pad. We added a 45 pound disc to each of the two back legs, bringing the total weight of the sled to 150 pounds. Then we pushed it back and forth in the parking lot. One direction we pushed from a high position behind the two legs on the back, and then we switched and pushed from a low position just above the single leg on the front. Each direction was about 35 yards. It was pretty tough. We did each direction 10 times. Most the time you got a break between pushing each direction, but sometimes nobody at that end of the parking lot was ready to go, so you just had to jump back on and push it back.

For those that really wanted to hurt themselves, there was also an army duffel bag filled with sand bags that you could lift to your chest and carry back and forth when it wasn’t your turn on the sled. I wanted to see what it was all about, so I ran the duffel a few times. I didn’t do more than about 3 rounds with the duffel. It was much harder than pushing the sled, because you have to carry all the weight of the bag. I don’t know how much the sand weighed, but it was plenty. With the sled you don’t have to carry any of the weight; you don’t even have to carry all of your own weight. There was nothing as brutal as finishing a round with the duffel and hearing that it was your turn with the sled without any rest. I think that’s what convinced me to stop carrying the duffel.

I said I wouldn’t do any rounds with the duffel next week, but I think we all I know I will.