50 pounds of Sand

I stopped by Lowe's Hardware today to grab some sand to throw in the Ruck sack my recruiter loaned me, I ended up getting a 50 pound bag. I soon came to the conclusion that it gets very heavy, very quickly. I think that the load distribution of the ruck is horrible. I have a sweet expedition pack from EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) and fully loaded (with tent, sleeping bag, etc.) it comes in at about 47 lbs, but it is soooo much more comfortable! I was really surprised at how bad the ruck hurt after even a few minutes. Now I know why there are so many "enhancements" you can buy for it. The waist strap is really just to keep the bottom of the ruck close to your body, whereas on my EMS pack, the waist strap supports the majority of the load, which leads to better balance, and less fatigue in your shoulders. I guess I better get used to it though...that's what I'll be carrying all through selection. I might also be so uncomfortable because the bag of sand just hangs out in the bottom of the ruck, so its not really what a full load at that weight would feel like (it would be distributed over a wider area within the pack). Anyway...it's a real pain (literally) to carry around. I'm going to take a few days of just lugging it around campus before I do any real mileage, at least get used to picking it up and putting it on. Because I've been such a couch potato for so long, I have to have a slow start with all of this to avoid injury. Getting hurt now would take time away from getting ready...and I'm going to devote all my time from graduation untill I ship to getting ready. I'll hopefully be in decent shape by then, or at least on my way to decent shape. I know that I'll be getting a good workout in OSUT, Airborne, and SOPC1....but anything I do now will them all suck that much less when I finally get there.