jacob wrote: ↑Tue Mar 01, 2022 11:32 am
For those who are interested, I'm generally schlepping a couple of dumbbells around in a goruck2 (I finally bought one last year. I friggin' love that thing!) when doing this:
viewtopic.php?t=12106 A useful side-effect is that it slows me down just enough to keep pace with DW. Think of weight as the walking equivalent of a golf handicap. More info in the link.
One thing I've noticed is that if I even jog with a 30lbs load for as little as 1/4 mile, my knees will remind me later for several days. I'm thinking this [slower recovery] is why soldiering is best a young person's game(?)
Since it wasn't mentioned(?), good footwear is a major asset and bad footwear is a major liability. But also .. by extension good feet, which are hardened by walking a lot, are better than bad feet, which are soft and develop blisters much faster. IOW, just jumping on amazon and BIFL'ing some boots is not enough.
I have a goruck1 which has served me well for ~10 years with virtually no signs of wear. I think it's one of the few BIFL backpacks.
The short answer is that soldiering is a young person's game for a variety of reasons. Allow me to elaborate.
In the U.S. Army, the typical infantry soldier joins when they are 18-22 (there are exceptions though). The most physically demanding jobs are generally done by the junior infantry soldier in the first ~5 years of service. Depending on competence, once a soldier hits the 3-5 year mark they will probably get promoted to sergeant, at which point they will be a team leader (some remain at the junior soldier level for longer if they aren't "leadership" material). In my opinion, the most physically demanding job is that of a team leader because they must do everything their soldiers do like shooting, clearing a room, etc along with all of the additional responsibilities that come with being a leader like talking on the radio, checking that soldiers have adequate supplies, carrying demolition and other special equipment, and serving as point man.
At the 6-8 year mark, a sergeant will typically get promoted to staff sergeant (again depending on competence). This means they are now a squad leader, so their hardest physical days are likely over. They will still physically train and march with their squad, however on the battlefield their role is now to coordinate the 2 teams in their squad, rather than to just be a trigger puller. Further promotions and serving in positions like platoon sergeant and first sergeant will pull them one further step removed from the most physically demanding door-kicker roles. Such positions will still require a lot of walking and running, but it will also involve a lot of stopping and waiting while your soldiers clear objectives. The officers start out in such leadership roles in which coordinating your subordinate elements is much more important than shooting your own weapon.
Therefore, the infantry soldiers are mostly in their late teens or early 20s, which means their bodies can handle a lot of wear and tear. The leaders of those front line soldiers are generally in their mid-late 20s. I was able to move away from that world after 5 years with only a few minor injuries, but generally people start to rack up injuries the longer they are in the game. Just like in competitive sports, you do see exceptions to the rule. There are people who demonstrate longevity, probably due to a combination of genetics, physical training, and luck. I've seen senior officers in their 50's who can still perform all the physical duties as well as a younger soldier for short periods, however I don't know if their bodies could handle the same wear and tear day in and day out like a 20 year old can.
Personally, I have logged a ton of miles rucking at a walking and running pace with no knee pain. However, I don't doubt that I was causing a lot of wear on my joints. I never trained ruck running, although I did do it many times when required. My theory is that ruck running is bad enough on my joints, so I might as well minimize total miles doing it. I found that being in decent regular running shape and decent rucking shape meant that combining the 2 activities when needed was doable without needing to specifically train it. Nearly all of the rucking I did was with packs that had external frames, which in theory distributes the weight better, allows for more adjustment, and reduces back sweat. Cinching down a pack with waist belt, chest strap, and shoulder straps becomes much more important over longer distances and especially if you are incorporating running because you don't want the pack to bounce or swing.
Having your feet conditioned to your footwear is important to minimize blisters. The next best thing is to have a lot of bandaids, moleskin, and similar to cover hot spots before they can turn into blisters. I also used darn tough socks which seemed to help prevent foot issues. If you're doing a lot of walking, you're going to run into foot problems with moisture eventually. Footwear like crocs, flip flops, or sandals that allow you to air your feet out at night is highly recommended. The soldiering approach is to have a 2nd set of boots if you are an environment where open-toed shoes aren't safe. You always want one pair of dry boots so plan accordingly because spending a few days in wet boots is a great recipe for trench foot. When patrolling for days at a time in the infantry world, you usually have a set of boots for moving and a set of boots for stopping overnight. Your overnight boots must stay dry at all costs, which may mean putting back on wet boots in the morning when it's time to move again.
Edit: Chafing can also be an issue with walking long distances. I recommend you do some training to find out if you are a person that has chafing issues and how to mitigate them with things like body glide or specific clothing before ending up in a collapse scenario that requires a ton of walking.
Russia's imports relative to GDP is 20%. The same number for the US is 15%. Thus maybe a non-immediate impact similar to the early COVID lockdowns that depends more on demand-volatility (hoarding milk, toast, and TP), which may not exist to the same degree compared to the US. Also, IIRC (haven't verified), China set up a SWIFT alternative for exactly this kind of situation and Russia could just use their system. 
