Ep. 07 - Blake Matthews - 2021 GORUCK Battle of the Bulge Tough (Orlando)

Ryan Burns: 0:11

Hey gang. Welcome to Under The Log the podcast where we talk to men and women who recently completed GORUCK events. Today we talk to Blake Matthews about his recent Battle of the Bulge tough. Blake's first exposure to GORUCK was at his local ruck club, what's up Vice City, where they made him get covered in dirt, dirt that some guy bought from Home Depot. And Blake still stuck around. Clearly Blake is one of us. Free. Sorry, I just wanted to grab your attention because you probably thought I was going to tell you to visit RuckingChallenges.com dot com but nope, not today. Today I want to tell you about a free website. Ruckwod.com that's ruck w o d.com. Every day we post a new ruck based workout. Nothing fancy just a daily dose of ruck based exercise. No fees, no commitments, just work. Check it out at ruckwod.com. With that, let's catch up with Blake. All right, Blake, man, thanks for coming on the podcast. Obviously, I am looking forward to talking with you. All things go wrong, and your experience your recent event, your history and GORUCK and all those all those fun stories. But before we jump into that, take a minute and just tell tell us about yourself. Your life outside of GORUCK you know, like? Like who is Blake Matthews?

Blake Matthews: 1:51

Gonna start with a deep question there. So, Blake Matthews I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And what I do when I'm not rocking is spend time with family I have three daughters and a son. So that can that can keep me pretty busy there. Definitely a motivation for staying fit to keep up with them. And I work at a private school in the area and I do their marketing and an enrollment. So so I kind of work with families on helping them you know, find a school, see if they're a fit for our school and trying to recruit them into the school.

Ryan Burns: 2:27

Awesome, man. So how old are the kids?

Blake Matthews: 2:30

It's a K through 12 or my kids or the school?

Ryan Burns: 2:32

Yeah, yours.

Unknown: 2:33

like is that I have quite a look. I

Ryan Burns: 2:35

Look at you. You're already like marketing like I got a place for your kids. There you go. Yeah,

Blake Matthews: 2:40

Just a short drive down 95 for you. Well, my kids, my kids range from seven to 26. We even I have four children that are all about six, six to seven years apart. With my youngest like that he's seven, I have a 13 year old daughter, I have a 20 year old daughter and I have a 26 year old daughter, too.

Ryan Burns: 3:04

So like I'm like picking my jaw up off the ground. For Kids all six years apart. That's,

Blake Matthews: 3:13

that's that's impressive. It's great. It's exciting. It's It's It's almost like parenting through two different generations. So it's a it's a fun ride.

Ryan Burns: 3:22

Absolutely, man. That's, that's, that's really cool. It makes me have to just ask, like who have you suckered into the older kids into doing any GORUCK and things with you.

Blake Matthews: 3:34

I am constantly trying actually the the one I can sucker in the easiest is my son who's seven. Right? Now if there's a doughnut rock, or the pumpkin rock or something like that, he's all in especially if he knows other kids are going to be there. So he's the easiest one to get involved. I have gotten everyone but my oldest daughter and she keeps kind of saying it, but there's always something that comes up. So it's always got that kind of pre built excuse somewhere, but I think I think we'll get her out there soon too. But yeah, I've even I've even gotten my my sister and wife involved a little bit too so Wow, man, you're making it a whole family affair there. Yeah, it is. They'll uh yeah, they'll either roll their eyes or say yes or or come up with something else that they had to do that they don't even know when we're going yet so

Ryan Burns: 4:27

that's awesome. So obviously you're you know, you you threw out some of the the rocks that you've been doing like the that are common with like rock clubs, so the donut rocks and the pumpkin rocks and all that stuff. So I'm I am assuming that you're a part of a rock club there and in South Florida.

Blake Matthews: 4:47

Yes, part of a I would say it's pretty active rock club. We do something at least once a week. You know COVID put a damper on that for a while but you know, once we figured out a way to do it, you know socially distance and all that stuff. We got kind of back up and running. pretty quickly. And they really range the gamut. Some of them are very family friendly kind of first time, hey, come out and try this out. There's some other ones that are just absolute beat downs. In fact, there was someone that I think adapted a, I don't know the whole history of it, but I think they adapted a CrossFit workout and now it's kind of become our annual thing. Sometime in December, we do something called The Nightmare Before Christmas. And it is it is a nightmare. So it's been between two and three hours of just constant constant PT and then something going on. So dude, and Wayne really,

Ryan Burns: 5:39

what's the what's the real club?

Blake Matthews: 5:41

Vice city ruckers?

Ryan Burns: 5:43

There you go Vice City, what's up Vice City,

Blake Matthews: 5:46

Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. So

Ryan Burns: 5:49

so so you're you're currently actively involved in this, this rock club? So how long? Like when did you get into rucking slash? GORUCK? Like, like, tell us that story? Like, how did this How did this even begin? Sure. So

Blake Matthews: 6:05

um, it was actually July of 2019, I guess you would say would probably be more of an official entry. about maybe six months before that. I think I came across, I think it was a website, I think was the Art of Manliness or something. And somehow I got onto something. And it was kind of like, you know, cardio for people who hated running and that kind of thing. And, and I was like, Okay, I probably should do something, you know, my job's not a super active job. So, you know, trying to find that thing that keeps you active and stuff like that. And so I kind of heard about working there and I was like, Okay, that sounds interesting. I got a backpack, I'll throw you know, barbell or something in there and tried it a few times. And you know, this is gonna sound like a salesperson here. But the pack I was using just ripped it destroyed. And I was like, okay, that didn't work. And you know, life goes on. So you don't really do anything for a while. And I kept looking into it, and things kept popping up. And then, you know, the timing, just kind of everything came together. And it's like, Okay, I need to do something and then you start seeing stuff, you know, that time had no idea what it was, but you know, what, this Christmas in July sale or whatever, so, looked into that and like, Hey, you know, let's see what they got there. And, you know, picked one up. Okay, so So now I have a record. Alright, what do I do? Okay, let's see here. What? Oh, they got clubs. What's this thing? So, first time I showed up for something, it was actually a club call out. It was a mud rock. So I thought, this sounds interesting. I'm like, Okay, I'm up for it. Gonna give it a try. Let's go for this. Now the interesting thing in in South Florida and course, after I've seen pictures of other mud rocks, is South Florida's more sand. So. So the first thing is I get there, and you know, I show up a little bit early and stuff like that. And you're kind of like, okay, so where are these people going to be? Who are they going to look like, of course, first thing you see is a big American flag. You're like, Hey, this is cool. And you're kinda like, are you with? Yeah, you know, and so you make the connection. And so here's the funny thing, we actually did this down at a beach that has a kind of a little creek that kind of comes in, so it's like brackish water parks on water. Park fresh. And, but again, you're not going to get good mud. It's all sand. So the guy's got his stuff in his trunk of his car, and he's pulling out some buckets. Okay, I've seen people carry buckets, I figured that's gonna be part of it. And he had stopped by Home Depot and got a couple of bags of topsoil. Yeah. So. So we basically rocked to the creek and did our best to make mud. And, you know, here we are making it and then we're like, okay, you know, we're, we're gonna get ready to do photos. And you have to look muddy. I mean, if you did a mud rock, and you're clean looking, and so we're literally like, crawling through the mud, like trying to cake it onto us. And I still think if you see the picture, you'd be like, did you guys do anything muddy? But, you know, brilliant. That was a, you know, like I said, you do have to work out some things in South Florida. But that was a that was that was creative. And I was like, you know, once I did that, I think, you know, almost constantly started coming back coming back. And, you know, they had all the different call outs and stuff. And All right, so

Ryan Burns: 9:10

let me let me get this straight. You You're like, you go to Art of Manliness, you're like, Okay, rocking, you know, throw some weight in a backpack. That sounds cool. You know, I've seen that article it has, it has links to go rock. And so maybe you go to that site, and you check it out. And you're like, Alright, so you go you, you bust up your backpack, and you're like, man, whatever. So then you get some marketing email, probably from GORUCK about the the sale and you're like, you know what, I'm getting one of these fancy backpacks. You get one of those you stumble across by city. And the very first thing you go to a bunch of a bunch of folks are like, hey, roll around in this brackish water, and we're gonna like, throw some dirt on you. Like, I'm totally coming back next week. Oh, yeah.

Blake Matthews: 9:57

Yeah. And that's it. And that's it. And of course, You know, this is all in July, which of course in South Florida, it's like a sauna. So it's like, I'm kind of glad I started with a when I did, I started nice, you know, something easy and cool weather and then it kept getting harder. And I don't know, maybe it'd be different, but definitely jumped in with both feet.

Ryan Burns: 10:15

That's, that's such a great story. So so you're you're obviously your, your GORUCK material here. At what point do you kind of like, hear about events? And, and like, do your first event like, how's that rollout?

Blake Matthews: 10:33

So so it didn't take too long. So that was that was July 2019. So first event was, let's see, July, we got August. Yeah, first event was August. That was an extortion 17. And I, you know, signed up for light. And, again, I think this was kind of probably at the prodding a little bit of like, you know, hey, you should do an event with us. There's, you know, and all these things. And so you do that, and you're like, Okay, light, okay, let's give this a try. And, and the one thing that I, you know, in hindsight of everything, I still gotta tell you, I think the lights in the daytime in South Florida in the heat. There's definitely an added, you know, just pain factor there, if you will, but I'm sure, but yeah, it was, you know, so did the first event, extortion 17. You know, just loved the whole, the whole concept of, you know, the event, the working out the, you know, of course, that was like one of their Memorial events to So, you know, you take a story from someone who passed away from that particular thing that you're memorializing. And I just thought just the way all that tied together was was just, you know, it's like, Okay, that's it. I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'm completely sold. So.

Ryan Burns: 11:46

So that was a lot of fun. And and have you done? So? You've done some events since then. Because today, we're talking about the eventually talking about the the Battle of the Bulge event that you did the tough. Have you done events after the extortion?

Blake Matthews: 12:06

Yes, so so what I did is, let's say extortion. 17. Now they had had three events and actually had four events in South Florida. So I went from extortion, 17, which was in August, that was in Fort Lauderdale, Miami area, and then the Mogadishu mile, it was October. And that one, that one was brutal.

Ryan Burns: 12:26

It was a light, you did that it was still

Blake Matthews: 12:28

still brutal. So I did three lights. After that, chronologically, there was a constellation and it was I think they were kind of calling it a constellation beta. So it was a new format. But we did that. And that was, you know, completely different, you know, than the rucking part. But that was a really incredible event. They actually did it at the Miami Dade Fire Rescue, like training center. So I mean, it was a really, really cool event there. And, I mean, it's, it's just something you like to come into work, you know, on Monday and say, you know, what you do this weekend? Well, I, I tied a fire hose around my waist and jumped out of a four storey building. I mean, you know, it's like, Okay, what do you do?

Ryan Burns: 13:05

And then you made a, you made a gas mask out of a two liter coke. And that's

Blake Matthews: 13:11

absolutely. And, and thankfully, I'd have to say I did, I did a good job. Those that, that that did, and I really felt for there were some people there's, you know, make sure that thing seals. But that was a great event too. And then that led into the, in December, Pearl Harbor, which I was on the fence about a light are tough, they're already registered for the light. And, you know, I kind of had a little bit of lagging pain, I think the Mogadishu mile, I think someone's favorite thing was to have rocks or something overhead a lot of the time. And so I kind of was kind of feeling some pain with a shoulder and I said, This is me kind of getting into all of this. So. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna stick with the light for Pearl Harbor. And, but that was a great event as well.

Ryan Burns: 13:58

Okay, so you did, you've done a few lights, and the constellation. And so now like, like, What makes you say, you know what, I'm ready. I'm ready for a tough What makes you say you're ready for that tough and why in particular, this tough Battle of the Bulge.

Blake Matthews: 14:24

So probably a best best way to summarize would be positive peer pressure. Definitely, when you're in a group, you know, they're like, hey, okay, you did that now do this. I had one. It was technically called a tough it was in between it was the GRT reunion, which I think I think they can kind of refer to that later on. It is really like a cloverleaf beta. So that was in the middle, but then, you know, that was definitely something that was designed around. What can we do during COVID as well, so it was, you know it, it was different than a normal tough in that you weren't doing things So much as a team, we're doing things together, but not so much team. So, so the Battle of the Bulge, you know, part of its proximity Orlando's, just a few hour drive away. So this was a good one to, to jump into. And again, a lot of people from Vice City records said, you know, they were going to so it's always good to go with, you know, kind of, again, positive peer pressure there. So, so jumped into that sign signed up for that, and, and was like, Okay, let's, let's give this a try. And, and it was a great event as well. You know, challenging in different ways. It was nice, just number one that time of year and being overnight, you weren't dealing with the heat. So So in that respect, it was like a, there were some elements going for you versus the lights that I had done in the summer.

Ryan Burns: 15:51

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Like, I was just about to ask, you know, what I was gonna ask, What stood out to you is different in the events between the lights that you've done, but I mean, that's a great point, like lights. And in the middle of the day, in the summer in South Florida, like that's, that's super brutal. Like I've, I did a light in Richmond here, maybe a couple years ago. And, you know, it was over the summer. And it was the I mean, it was, you know, 97 degrees, or whatever it was, and 1,000,000% humidity and the folks that came out for the light, just, I mean, they were not ready for that heat and humidity. I mean, that was the biggest challenge that we faced. And so I think that's interesting to look at going from a light in the middle of the day in the heat of South Florida to, like, much cooler or more temperate temperatures. And been overnight like that's, in some ways like it, I guess it takes away that particular challenge. And it replaces it with others, right. Oh,

Blake Matthews: 16:55

yeah, definitely. Especially for me being you know, the first tough there were definitely some different challenges. But yeah, the, the heat, it just takes a lot out of you. And, and and it's kind of weird to like, you know, the idea of like, you know, it's the Battle of the Bulge and the course synonymous with that. And even on the patch, you see the snow and you know, you read the stories about what, what the soldiers went through there and that cold weather and, and here we are doing it in Orlando, and it's like, you know, 60s, it's like, perfect weather for us. And you see everybody else's pictures up and they're freezing,

Ryan Burns: 17:24

which I did live outside of Orlando for a little while. And and I mean, when it hits 60 down there, y'all y'all start breaking out some some pretty hefty jackets.

Blake Matthews: 17:34

That's true. That's true.

Ryan Burns: 17:37

So talk me through some of those things like like looking at, you know, this being your first tough like, was, was it harder than you expected? Easier than you expected? How does it compare with the lights? Like what what was that experience like for you? Yeah, so that's free roquan.com website that I mentioned at the top of the show, that's just another website put out by the rucking collective. We've got a number of websites all devoted the sport of Raquel roquan calm is our attempt to provide a daily ruck based workout for the rucking community. There's no charge, and there's a new workout that we post every day. Use it, change it, share it with your friends, or people that you hate. Whatever you do, at least check it out. That's roquan.com are you see kwod.com? With that, let's get back to talking to Blake.

Blake Matthews: 18:39

I think the lightspeed a good background, at least to what kind of the format of the event would be like I mean, you kind of knew what sort of things would be expected. So you weren't like in total, like, shock mode of things. Obviously, the duration certainly made it more challenging. I think probably the one of the toughest things about this one was just the, you know, the amount of constant PT. And I know that that's kind of an GORUCK theme this year is you know, seeking pain. And so I don't know, if it's a little bit of the combination of the Sikh pain, we're going to do more PT, which is always a big part of it. Or if it's, you know, also it allowed for a little bit more social distancing. I mean, you know, some people have different comfort levels of where, you know, again, we kind of came as a group, so we all knew each other pretty well. But I can see where that might have been a factor as well, but it was really the PT and this one was just it felt like it was never ending. And of course, part of it was was the Robbie Miller workout. So okay, with which, you know, that that'll crush you and we did these things, and I believe someone called them prison burpees I hadn't heard of them before. Okay.

Ryan Burns: 19:56

Really, as to what that is.

Blake Matthews: 19:58

Yeah. If Well, I'll explain what we did, I might have the naming wrong, but okay. So this is kind of the latter part of the morning. So you know, you've already gone we've done a bunch of things. And this was kind of like, Okay, this is this is just gonna beat you down. So we went to a park and we kind of mapped out what would be like three, three bases, if you will, that you go between. and you got a groups of three. And every group had 100 100 plus sound sandbag, you know, it's 80 pound sandbag, but when it's completely full with wet sand, I don't know what it weighs.

Ryan Burns: 20:35

It weighs a lot,

Blake Matthews: 20:36

you know, the little ad is on there to make you feel good, but whatever it was. So you have that that you have to carry to each one of these points. And so what you did is you started out and as you move to each one of these bases, so you're at let's, let's call them, base 123. So at base one, you do one ruck burpee

Ryan Burns: 20:55

mm hmm,

Blake Matthews: 20:56

no problem based to one ruck burpee base three, one ruck burpee, then you come around to base one, and now you do two, then you go two and two, and you keep building up. So we did up to 18. And we must have had a mathematician in the group or something. But I think they had some formula and figured out something like 513 of these ruck burpees as you move around. And

Ryan Burns: 21:19

that sounds like fun.

Blake Matthews: 21:21

You know, yo, yeah, it was, you know, I don't know at what number, but there is definitely for me a number that what I was doing was no longer probably recognizable as a burpee, but you somehow stood up, maybe did a little jump and fell to the ground and backup or something. But that was brutal. I think that was about four hours. And it just, and the psychological impact of you know, at the time not having any clue how many you're doing. I mean, I don't know that you told me to do one through 18 and build and then three times, I mean, you know, that's I'm not in the mood for that kind of math that like, whatever, two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning, whatever it was. And so you're just like, you know, and then you get there, and you're like getting up to nine, and you're like, Wait a second, that's not anywhere near halfway done. They just seem to never, never ending there.

Ryan Burns: 22:14

So how do you how did you deal with that adversity? Like, I'm always interested to hear about, like how people push through those mean, just, I mean, that is that sounds like a horrible grind. It's just never gonna end. And you're just gonna keep going and do more reps. So like, how do you? How did you push through that?

Blake Matthews: 22:38

I think that, and I don't know, this could be part of the plan. But the idea of grouping us in, in the groups of three. So you know, so you're there with two other people. And, you know, sometimes it's not good to look to your left and your right, you just want to keep doing something, but but this was something good. And you know, you cheer each other on you push each other. So I think I think having the groups there together, made that more doable. I think if somebody sent me out to a field and said, go do this, you know, there might be a quitting point there, you're just like, this isn't happening. But you start looking to your left and your right, and you're like, No, I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep going. And they're going and

Ryan Burns: 23:20

so so was it more like? Like, they're doing it? I can do it? Or is it? Or was it more like, they were, you know, cheering you on and saying, Come on, and spurring each other on or like, what what about that person to the right and left was was really helping you? Well, I

Blake Matthews: 23:42

would, I would definitely view the the two people that I was paired up with as probably, you know, being way ahead of me, as far as in the in the fitness area. So, you know, it wasn't like, Oh, yeah, it's easy for them. I could do it. But it was, you know, I think it's definitely Hayward. It's kind of that we're all in this together thing. And then, you know, some of the best advice scores. Yeah, I find a lot of the advice you get fits perfectly on a bumper sticker, or patch in this case. But, you know, it's just the idea of, you know, just think about the next round. The next the next thing you know, you know, we're not doing however many we're doing, we're just at this time right now. We're doing 12 burpees. Okay, we're done with that one. Hey, all we're doing is walking over there with the sandbag, you know, another 12 burpees. Yeah, and just breaking it down piece by piece. But

Ryan Burns: 24:29

yeah, cuz if you get if you get to down the road, you're like, yeah, I mean, it's just Alright, what's next? Alright, walk over there. Good. All right, I guess we're doing burpees. Again, here we go. So I'm gonna throw this one out there and I'll kind of let you interpret it however you want, and we'll see where it goes. But what from this event just impacted you the most

Blake Matthews: 24:55

biggest impact Well, I have a post Didn't one but I mean, we think about the during event,

Ryan Burns: 25:03

you can you can, you can throw a post event, I take whatever you got.

Blake Matthews: 25:06

So I'll throw the the post event one. And is really, the tie into the event was the the Robbie Miller workout. So so that's part of the event. And basically, and I didn't know this beforehand, but but some of the people who had been in that area before did which was really cool. So you know, so you, you get through the event you survive, you know, of course, you're looking for a place, okay, all right, we're gonna go, we're gonna go eat something. And, you know, someone brought up the thing, he says, you know, I'm Ronnie Miller's gravesite is only a couple miles from here. And I didn't realize that. And so we took a side trip. And again, this is after the event. And, you know, again, somebody had been there before, so they were able to guide us and, and, you know, it was just something, you know, a lot of times we get caught up in the workout to the memorials and things like that, and, you know, you have the name, and maybe you know, a little bit of story of what happened. And it just really, you know, made that experience kind of full circle. I mean, you do a workout and honor someone, you're remembering their name, you're doing all that, and that's great. But it was just to do that, you know, just hours before put all that in. And then you know, something about a grave site, you're, you're just standing there, of course, you know, they've got Medal of Honor recipient and all the things and but at least in my mind, you know, again, you think of the hero status, you think of all of those things, but being at that grave site just made me think about, you know, like, it's family. I mean, you know, what, you know, we're distance from it, but but right here at this site, you know, that the loss they felt, and all the things like that. So it was kind of a sobering moment, but it was, but I mean, just a really, you know, that that's something that's something that you don't get at every event. And like I said, it wasn't directly part of this event. But But afterwards, that that's something that'll, you know, that sticks with you and make sense.

Ryan Burns: 27:01

Yeah. And, you know, I love, I love what you said, like, if we do these things, even even the Battle of the Bulge event itself, you know, I know that y'all were probably carrying names of folks that had fallen or whatever, in Battle of the Bulge. And those those have impact. Like, I'm still impacted by Lieutenant Commander, David Williams, who I carried at the 911 heavy, and that was like three or four years ago. So those things but but, you know, the Robbie Miller wad and, and like to have that experience, and to go after the event, and to be at that graveside, and like, like you said, like, the reality of something that was just part of an event, like, like, the rubber hits the road more. Oh, absolutely. That's, that's, that's really phenomenal. And like you said, that's, that's not something that a lot of people get, like, like, I think, for me, like, you know, with with that 911, heavy, like, we ended at the Pentagon Memorial. And so everybody that was lost to the Pentagon has their own little bench with their name on it, and like to be able to go and sit on his bench. And and, I mean, like, what you said just resonated with me, like thinking about his family. Yeah. And and the loss that they suffered. Like, man, that's, that's super impactful, man. I can't that's really cool to hear like the y'all were able to go and actually be at his his gravesite and, and have that moment, after all that work he'll put in that's pretty awesome.

Blake Matthews: 29:00

Yeah, that was, like I said, it's one of those things that, you know, and this is not to, in any way, downplay any other workouts, but I just know that next time I do the Robbie Miller workout that it's going to bring all that back, you know, even though Yeah,

Ryan Burns: 29:13

yeah, absolutely. Having having done some lights, now, this is your first tough this is, you know, you've you've made the transition. You You You took that next step. Any any like advice for somebody who's like, you know, their, their thing, they've done a couple lights, or maybe they've done one light and you know, they've got some good friends, just like you've got good friends that are like, Alright, come on, it's time to do a tough like, like, what words of advice might you have for those folks?

Blake Matthews: 29:50

I'd say it was worth it. You know, I think I mean, you have to know yourself. I mean, if, you know, I was kind of hanging out in in light territory, you know, especially That that Pearl Harbor one, you know, it's kind of toying with it. And, you know, I mean, I might have been fine shoulder maybe was, who knows, maybe that was an excuse or something. And, you know, if that isn't one of reregister whatever, I don't know, but but I would say, you know, if you're constantly doing things and and again, that's the thing, once I got it started with this, I mean, pretty much out at least every weekend with the rock club, and then a couple times a week, just doing something, you know, it made it made the tough something that you could do. You know, obviously, somebody's doing nothing to jump into a tub. But, but if you're progressing, I would strongly encourage someone to, you know, to take the next step, to go up to the next one. Now, I'm going to say that and I don't know, like, in six months or a year, someone's going to try to talk me into a heavy

Ryan Burns: 30:49

and say you got a next step. Yeah, I

Blake Matthews: 30:51

was gonna say there's always a next step. So, so I gotta be careful what I say here. Someone's going to use it on me. But,

Ryan Burns: 30:59

but I will Yeah, by city by city. You heard it here. Yep. What? Blake's Blake's ready for that next

Blake Matthews: 31:05

day, they're gonna keep it for the sound clip and play it back to me sometime I can see it, but um, you know, it is, is there's always something something else out there. And it's just interesting, you know, they, you know, not to get too cliche here, but people always say that, you know, if you look at the people that you hang around, that's kind of who you become or whatever. And I look at some of the people that that I hang around and I'm like, the they're they're very inspirational and some of the stuff the workouts that they do and the craziness you know, it's like yeah, if I if I stay here and you know, my I'd be the slowest guy in this pack, but this pack is pretty, pretty tough. So you know, and you do then you start to look for Okay, what's the next challenge? What's the next thing you know, so GORUCK kind of makes it natural you know, you go from light or now basic to a tough and you know, I definitely feel like I probably need a few toughs under my belt, but but there there, it could be a heavy in the future. I should say more definitive, there will be this, see.

Ryan Burns: 32:08

Well, that's, that's awesome, man. I wish you all the best in that journey. Get a couple more of those toughs under your belt and I look forward to having you back on when we talk about you. completing your first heavy that'll be a fun episode.

Unknown: 32:23

There you go.

Ryan Burns: 32:25

Awesome. Well, again, man, thanks for your time today. And we'll see you out there Under The Log.

Unknown: 32:31

Alright, sounds good. Thanks.

Ryan Burns: 32:38

I absolutely love that Blake's introduction to rucking involves being told to roll around and some dirt and water. And he's like, I'm totally coming back next week. He's our kind of people, y'all. With that. Thanks for listening to this episode of Under The Log with Blake Matthews. If you'd like to see shownotes transcript for the episode or links to stuff that we talked about, visit us at Under The log.com. And while you're there, you can find links to our social media profiles. We'd absolutely love to connect online. And if you haven't already, you know, subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. If you are enjoying the content that we're putting out, we'd be really appreciated if you left us a positive rating. And you know, that's it for me. I guess we'll see you next time. Under The Log.