March 26, 2021 • 33 mins
In this episode of Under The Log we talk with Blake Matthews about completing the 2021 GORUCK Battle of the Bulge Tough in Orlando. This was Blake's first Tough and he shares his thoughts on what it was like to do a Tough after having completed a few GORUCK Lights (now Basic).
Be sure to connect with Blake on IG.
If you're looking for that sweet, free, Ruck WOD website, visit RuckWod.com. New ruck based workouts posted every day.
If you're feeling inspired to do a GORUCK event, you can find upcoming events right here.
Finally, we didn't talk about it in this episode, but if you'd like help training for a GORUCK event, check out these GORUCK Training Guides and our Ruck WOD website.
The Under The Log Podcast is part of The Rucking Collective, a collection of websites devoted to the sport of rucking.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ryan Burns (00:11):
Hey gang. Welcome to Under The Log the podcast where
we talk to men and women whorecently completed GORUCK
events. Today we talk to BlakeMatthews about his recent Battle
of the Bulge tough. Blake'sfirst exposure to GORUCK was at
his local ruck club, what's upVice City, where they made him
get covered in dirt, dirt thatsome guy bought from Home Depot.
(00:34):
And Blake still stuck around.
Clearly Blake is one of us.
Free.
Sorry, I just wanted to grabyour attention because you
probably thought I was going totell you to visit
RuckingChallenges.com dot combut nope, not today. Today I
(00:55):
want to tell you about a freewebsite. Ruckwod.com that's ruck
w o d.com. Every day we post anew ruck based workout. Nothing
fancy just a daily dose of ruckbased exercise. No fees, no
commitments, just work. Check itout at ruckwod.com. With that,
(01:17):
let's catch up with Blake.
All right, Blake, man, thanksfor coming on the podcast.
Obviously, I am looking forwardto talking with you. All things
go wrong, and your experienceyour recent event, your history
and GORUCK and all those allthose fun stories. But before we
(01:41):
jump into that, take a minuteand just tell tell us about
yourself. Your life outside ofGORUCK you know, like? Like who
is Blake Matthews?
Blake Matthews (01:51):
Gonna start with a deep question there. So, Blake
Matthews I live in FortLauderdale, Florida. And what I
do when I'm not rocking is spendtime with family I have three
daughters and a son. So that canthat can keep me pretty busy
there. Definitely a motivationfor staying fit to keep up with
them. And I work at a privateschool in the area and I do
(02:15):
their marketing and anenrollment. So so I kind of work
with families on helping themyou know, find a school, see if
they're a fit for our school andtrying to recruit them into the
school.
Ryan Burns (02:27):
Awesome, man. So how old are the kids?
Blake Matthews (02:30):
It's a K through 12 or my kids or the school?
Ryan Burns (02:32):
Yeah, yours.
Unknown (02:33):
like is that I have quite a look. I
Ryan Burns (02:35):
Look at you. You're already like marketing like I
got a place for your kids. Thereyou go. Yeah,
Blake Matthews (02:40):
Just a short drive down 95 for you. Well, my
kids, my kids range from sevento 26. We even I have four
children that are all about six,six to seven years apart. With
my youngest like that he'sseven, I have a 13 year old
daughter, I have a 20 year olddaughter and I have a 26 year
(03:01):
old daughter, too.
Ryan Burns (03:04):
So like I'm like picking my jaw up off the
ground. For Kids all six yearsapart. That's,
Blake Matthews (03:13):
that's that's impressive. It's great. It's
exciting. It's It's It's almostlike parenting through two
different generations. So it's ait's a fun ride.
Ryan Burns (03:22):
Absolutely, man.
That's, that's, that's reallycool. It makes me have to just
ask, like who have you suckeredinto the older kids into doing
any GORUCK and things with you.
Blake Matthews (03:34):
I am constantly trying actually the the one I
can sucker in the easiest is myson who's seven. Right? Now if
there's a doughnut rock, or thepumpkin rock or something like
that, he's all in especially ifhe knows other kids are going to
be there. So he's the easiestone to get involved. I have
gotten everyone but my oldestdaughter and she keeps kind of
(03:58):
saying it, but there's alwayssomething that comes up. So it's
always got that kind of prebuilt excuse somewhere, but I
think I think we'll get her outthere soon too. But yeah, I've
even I've even gotten my mysister 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 eitherroll their eyes or say yes or or
(04:19):
come up with something else thatthey had to do that they don't
even know when we're going yetso
Ryan Burns (04:27):
that's awesome. So obviously you're you know, you
you threw out some of the therocks that you've been doing
like the that are common withlike rock clubs, so the donut
rocks and the pumpkin rocks andall that stuff. So I'm I am
assuming that you're a part of arock club there and in South
Florida.
Blake Matthews (04:47):
Yes, part of a I would say it's pretty active
rock club. We do something atleast once a week. You know
COVID put a damper on that for awhile but you know, once we
figured out a way to do it, youknow socially distance and all
that stuff. We got kind of backup and running. pretty quickly.
And they really range the gamut.
Some of them are very familyfriendly kind of first time,
hey, come out and try this out.
(05:08):
There's some other ones that arejust absolute beat downs. In
fact, there was someone that Ithink adapted a, I don't know
the whole history of it, but Ithink they adapted a CrossFit
workout and now it's kind ofbecome our annual thing.
Sometime in December, we dosomething called The Nightmare
Before Christmas. And it is itis a nightmare. So it's been
(05:31):
between two and three hours ofjust constant constant PT and
then something going on. Sodude, and Wayne really,
Ryan Burns (05:39):
what's the what's the real club?
Blake Matthews (05:41):
Vice city ruckers?
Ryan Burns (05:43):
There you go Vice City, what's up Vice City,
Blake Matthews (05:46):
Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. So
Ryan Burns (05:49):
so so you're you're currently actively involved in
this, this rock club? So howlong? Like when did you get into
rucking slash? GORUCK? Like,like, tell us that story? Like,
how did this How did this evenbegin? Sure. So
Blake Matthews (06:05):
um, it was actually July of 2019, I guess
you would say would probably bemore of an official entry. about
maybe six months before that. Ithink I came across, I think it
was a website, I think was theArt of Manliness or something.
And somehow I got ontosomething. And it was kind of
like, you know, cardio forpeople who hated running and
that kind of thing. And, and Iwas like, Okay, I probably
(06:27):
should do something, you know,my job's not a super active job.
So, you know, trying to findthat thing that keeps you active
and stuff like that. And so Ikind of heard about working
there and I was like, Okay, thatsounds interesting. I got a
backpack, I'll throw you know,barbell or something in there
and tried it a few times. Andyou know, this is gonna sound
(06:47):
like a salesperson here. But thepack 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'treally do anything for a while.
And I kept looking into it, andthings kept popping up. And
then, you know, the timing, justkind of everything came
together. And it's like, Okay, Ineed to do something and then
you start seeing stuff, youknow, that time had no idea what
(07:08):
it was, but you know, what, thisChristmas in July sale or
whatever, so, looked into thatand 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 forsomething, it was actually a
club call out. It was a mudrock. So I thought, this sounds
(07:32):
interesting. I'm like, Okay, I'mup for it. Gonna give it a try.
Let's go for this. Now theinteresting thing in in South
Florida and course, after I'veseen pictures of other mud
rocks, is South Florida's moresand. So. So the first thing is
I get there, and you know, Ishow up a little bit early and
stuff like that. And you're kindof like, okay, so where are
these people going to be? Whoare they going to look like, of
course, first thing you see is abig American flag. You're like,
(07:54):
Hey, this is cool. And you'rekinda like, are you with? Yeah,
you know, and so you make theconnection. And so here's the
funny thing, we actually didthis down at a beach that has a
kind of a little creek that kindof 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'sgot his stuff in his trunk of
(08:16):
his car, and he's pulling outsome buckets. Okay, I've seen
people carry buckets, I figuredthat's gonna be part of it. And
he had stopped by Home Depot andgot a couple of bags of topsoil.
Yeah. So. So we basically rockedto the creek and did our best to
make mud. And, you know, here weare making it and then we're
like, okay, you know, we're,we're gonna get ready to do
(08:36):
photos. And you have to lookmuddy. I mean, if you did a mud
rock, and you're clean looking,and so we're literally like,
crawling through the mud, liketrying to cake it onto us. And I
still think if you see thepicture, you'd be like, did you
guys do anything muddy? But, youknow, brilliant. That was a, you
know, like I said, you do haveto work out some things in South
Florida. But that was a that wasthat was creative. And I was
(08:59):
like, you know, once I did that,I think, you know, almost
constantly started coming backcoming back. And, you know, they
had all the different call outsand stuff. And All right, so
Ryan Burns (09:10):
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 abackpack. That sounds cool. You
know, I've seen that article ithas, it has links to go rock.
And so maybe you go to thatsite, and you check it out. And
you're like, Alright, so you goyou, you bust up your backpack,
and you're like, man, whatever.
So then you get some marketingemail, probably from GORUCK
(09:32):
about the the sale and you'relike, you know what, I'm getting
one of these fancy backpacks.
You get one of those you stumbleacross by city. And the very
first thing you go to a bunch ofa bunch of folks are like, hey,
roll around in this brackishwater, and we're gonna like,
throw some dirt on you. Like,I'm totally coming back next
(09:56):
week. Oh, yeah.
Blake Matthews (09:57):
Yeah. And that's it. And that's it. And of
course, You know, this is all inJuly, which of course in South
Florida, it's like a sauna. Soit's like, I'm kind of glad I
started with a when I did, Istarted nice, you know,
something easy and cool weatherand then it kept getting harder.
And I don't know, maybe it'd bedifferent, 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, yourGORUCK material here. At what
point do you kind of like, hearabout events? And, and like, do
your first event like, how'sthat rollout?
Blake Matthews (10:33):
So so it didn't take too long. So that was that
was July 2019. So first eventwas, let's see, July, we got
August. Yeah, first event wasAugust. That was an extortion
17. And I, you know, signed upfor light. And, again, I think
this was kind of probably at theprodding a little bit of like,
(10:54):
you know, hey, you should do anevent with us. There's, you
know, and all these things. Andso you do that, and you're like,
Okay, light, okay, let's givethis a try. And, and the one
thing that I, you know, inhindsight of everything, I still
gotta tell you, I think thelights in the daytime in South
Florida in the heat. There'sdefinitely an added, you know,
(11:16):
just pain factor there, if youwill, but I'm sure, but yeah, it
was, you know, so did the firstevent, extortion 17. You know,
just loved the whole, the wholeconcept of, you know, the event,
the working out the, you know,of course, that was like one of
their Memorial events to So, youknow, you take a story from
someone who passed away fromthat particular thing that
(11:36):
you're memorializing. And I justthought just the way all that
tied together was was just, youknow, it's like, Okay, that's
it. I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'mcompletely sold. So.
Ryan Burns (11:46):
So that was a lot of fun. And and have you done? So?
You've done some events sincethen. Because today, we're
talking about the eventuallytalking about the the Battle of
the Bulge event that you did thetough. 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 threeevents and actually had four
events in South Florida. So Iwent from extortion, 17, which
was in August, that was in FortLauderdale, Miami area, and then
the Mogadishu mile, it wasOctober. 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 aconstellation and it was I think
they were kind of calling it aconstellation beta. So it was a
new format. But we did that. Andthat was, you know, completely
different, you know, than therucking part. But that was a
really incredible event. Theyactually did it at the Miami
Dade Fire Rescue, like trainingcenter. So I mean, it was a
(12:50):
really, really cool event there.
And, I mean, it's, it's justsomething you like to come into
work, you know, on Monday andsay, you know, what you do this
weekend? Well, I, I tied a firehose around my waist and jumped
out of a four storey building. Imean, 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. Thosethat, that that did, and I
really felt for there were somepeople there's, you know, make
sure that thing seals. But thatwas a great event too. And then
that led into the, in December,Pearl Harbor, which I was on the
(13:32):
fence about a light are tough,they're already registered for
the light. And, you know, I kindof had a little bit of lagging
pain, I think the Mogadishumile, I think someone's favorite
thing was to have rocks orsomething overhead a lot of the
time. And so I kind of was kindof feeling some pain with a
shoulder and I said, This is mekind of getting into all of
this. So. So I was like, Okay,I'm gonna stick with the light
(13:54):
for Pearl Harbor. And, but thatwas a great event as well.
Ryan Burns (13:58):
Okay, so you did, you've done a few lights, and
the constellation. And so nowlike, like, What makes you say,
you know what, I'm ready. I'mready for a tough What makes you
say you're ready for that toughand why in particular, this
(14:20):
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 agroup, you know, they're like,
hey, okay, you did that now dothis. I had one. It was
technically called a tough itwas in between it was the GRT
reunion, which I think I thinkthey can kind of refer to that
later on. It is really like acloverleaf beta. So that was in
(14:45):
the middle, but then, you know,that was definitely something
that was designed around. Whatcan we do during COVID as well,
so it was, you know it, it wasdifferent than a normal tough in
that you weren't doing things Somuch as a team, we're doing
things together, but not so muchteam. So, so the Battle of the
Bulge, you know, part of itsproximity Orlando's, just a few
(15:08):
hour drive away. So this was agood one to, to jump into. And
again, a lot of people from ViceCity records said, you know,
they were going to so it'salways good to go with, you
know, kind of, again, positivepeer pressure there. So, so
jumped into that sign signed upfor that, and, and was like,
Okay, let's, let's give this atry. And, and it was a great
(15:30):
event as well. You know,challenging in different ways.
It was nice, just number onethat time of year and being
overnight, you weren't dealingwith the heat. So So in that
respect, it was like a, therewere some elements going for you
versus the lights that I haddone in the summer.
Ryan Burns (15:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Like, I was just
about to ask, you know, what Iwas gonna ask, What stood out to
you is different in the eventsbetween the lights that you've
done, but I mean, that's a greatpoint, like lights. And in the
middle of the day, in the summerin South Florida, like that's,
that's super brutal. Like I've,I did a light in Richmond here,
(16:12):
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, thatwas the biggest challenge that
we faced. And so I think that'sinteresting to look at going
(16:36):
from a light in the middle ofthe day in the heat of South
Florida to, like, much cooler ormore temperate temperatures. And
been overnight like that's, insome ways like it, I guess it
takes away that particularchallenge. And it replaces it
with others, right. Oh,
Blake Matthews (16:55):
yeah, definitely. Especially for me
being you know, the first toughthere were definitely some
different challenges. But yeah,the, the heat, it just takes a
lot out of you. And, and andit's kind of weird to like, you
know, the idea of like, youknow, it's the Battle of the
Bulge and the course synonymouswith that. And even on the
patch, you see the snow and youknow, you read the stories about
what, what the soldiers wentthrough there and that cold
weather and, and here we aredoing it in Orlando, and it's
(17:18):
like, you know, 60s, it's like,perfect weather for us. And you
see everybody else's pictures upand they're freezing,
Ryan Burns (17:24):
which I did live outside of Orlando for a little
while. And and I mean, when ithits 60 down there, y'all y'all
start breaking out some somepretty 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 beingyour first tough like, was, was
it harder than you expected?
Easier than you expected? Howdoes it compare with the lights?
Like what what was thatexperience like for you? Yeah,
so that's free roquan.comwebsite that I mentioned at the
(18:01):
top of the show, that's justanother website put out by the
rucking collective. We've got anumber of websites all devoted
the sport of Raquel roquan calmis our attempt to provide a
daily ruck based workout for therucking community. There's no
charge, and there's a newworkout that we post every day.
Use it, change it, share it withyour friends, or people that you
(18:23):
hate. Whatever you do, at leastcheck 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 formatof the event would be like I
mean, you kind of knew what sortof things would be expected. So
you weren't like in total, like,shock mode of things. Obviously,
the duration certainly made itmore challenging. I think
(19:00):
probably the one of the toughestthings about this one was just
the, you know, the amount ofconstant PT. And I know that
that's kind of an GORUCK themethis year is you know, seeking
pain. And so I don't know, ifit'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. Orif it's, you know, also it
(19:21):
allowed for a little bit moresocial distancing. I mean, you
know, some people have differentcomfort levels of where, you
know, again, we kind of came asa group, so we all knew each
other pretty well. But I can seewhere that might have been a
factor as well, but it wasreally the PT and this one was
just it felt like it was neverending. And of course, part of
(19:42):
it was was the Robbie Millerworkout. So okay, with which,
you know, that that'll crush youand we did these things, and I
believe someone called themprison 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, butokay. So this is kind of the
latter part of the morning. Soyou 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 parkand we kind of mapped out what
would be like three, threebases, if you will, that you go
(20:20):
between. and you got a groups ofthree. And every group had
100 100 plus sound sandbag, youknow, it's 80 pound sandbag, but
when it's completely full withwet 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 itwas. So you have that that you
have to carry to each one ofthese points. And so what you
did is you started out and asyou move to each one of these
bases, so you're at let's, let'scall 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 comearound 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 havehad a mathematician in the group
or something. But I think theyhad some formula and figured out
something like 513 of these ruckburpees 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 thereis definitely for me a number
that what I was doing was nolonger probably recognizable as
a burpee, but you somehow stoodup, maybe did a little jump and
fell to the ground and backup orsomething. But that was brutal.
I think that was about fourhours. And it just, and the
(21:45):
psychological impact of youknow, at the time not having any
clue how many you're doing. Imean, I don't know that you told
me to do one through 18 andbuild and then three times, I
mean, you know, that's I'm notin the mood for that kind of
math that like, whatever, twoo'clock, three o'clock, four
o'clock in the morning, whateverit was. And so you're just like,
you know, and then you getthere, and you're like getting
(22:06):
up to nine, and you're like,Wait a second, that's not
anywhere near halfway done. Theyjust seem to never, never ending
there.
Ryan Burns (22:14):
So how do you how did you deal with that
adversity? Like, I'm alwaysinterested to hear about, like
how people push through thosemean, just, I mean, that is that
sounds like a horrible grind.
It's just never gonna end. Andyou're just gonna keep going and
do more reps. So like, how doyou? 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 ideaof grouping us in, in the groups
of three. So you know, so you'rethere with two other people.
And, you know, sometimes it'snot good to look to your left
and your right, you just want tokeep doing something, but but
this was something good. And youknow, you cheer each other on
you push each other. So I thinkI think having the groups there
(23:02):
together, made that more doable.
I think if somebody sent me outto a field and said, go do this,
you know, there might be aquitting point there, you're
just like, this isn't happening.
But you start looking to yourleft 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 itmore like, they were, you know,
cheering you on and saying, Comeon, and spurring each other on
or like, what what about thatperson 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 withas probably, you know, being way
ahead of me, as far as in the inthe fitness area. So, you know,
it wasn't like, Oh, yeah, it'seasy for them. I could do it.
But it was, you know, I thinkit's definitely Hayward. It's
kind of that we're all in thistogether thing. And then, you
know, some of the best advicescores. Yeah, I find a lot of
(24:02):
the advice you get fitsperfectly on a bumper sticker,
or patch in this case. But, youknow, it's just the idea of, you
know, just think about the nextround. The next the next thing
you know, you know, we're notdoing however many we're doing,
we're just at this time rightnow. We're doing 12 burpees.
Okay, we're done with that one.
Hey, all we're doing is walkingover there with the sandbag, you
know, another 12 burpees. Yeah,and just breaking it down piece
(24:26):
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'sjust Alright, what's next?
Alright, walk over there. Good.
All right, I guess we're doingburpees. Again, here we go. So
I'm gonna throw this one outthere and I'll kind of let you
interpret it however you want,and we'll see where it goes. But
what from this event justimpacted you the most
Blake Matthews (24:55):
biggest impact Well, I have a post Didn't one
but I mean, we think about theduring 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 eventwas the the Robbie Miller
workout. So so that's part ofthe event. And basically, and I
didn't know this beforehand, butbut some of the people who had
been in that area before didwhich was really cool. So you
know, so you, you get throughthe event you survive, you know,
(25:28):
of course, you're looking for aplace, okay, all right, we're
gonna go, we're gonna go eatsomething. And, you know,
someone brought up the thing, hesays, you know, I'm Ronnie
Miller's gravesite is only acouple miles from here. And I
didn't realize that. And so wetook a side trip. And again,
this is after the event. And,you know, again, somebody had
(25:49):
been there before, so they wereable to guide us and, and, you
know, it was just something, youknow, a lot of times we get
caught up in the workout to thememorials and things like that,
and, you know, you have thename, and maybe you know, a
little bit of story of whathappened. And it just really,
you know, made that experiencekind of full circle. I mean, you
do a workout and honor someone,you're remembering their name,
(26:10):
you're doing all that, andthat's great. But it was just to
do that, you know, just hoursbefore put all that in. And then
you know, something about agrave site, you're, you're just
standing there, of course, youknow, they've got Medal of Honor
recipient and all the things andbut at least in my mind, you
know, again, you think of thehero status, you think of all of
those things, but being at thatgrave site just made me think
(26:31):
about, you know, like, it'sfamily. I mean, you know, what,
you know, we're distance fromit, but but right here at this
site, you know, that the lossthey felt, and all the things
like that. So it was kind of asobering moment, but it was, but
I mean, just a really, you know,that that's something that's
(26:52):
something that you don't get atevery event. And like I said, it
wasn't directly part of thisevent. But But afterwards, that
that's something that'll, youknow, 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, Iknow that y'all were probably
carrying names of folks that hadfallen or whatever, in Battle of
(27:22):
the Bulge. And those those haveimpact. Like, I'm still impacted
by Lieutenant Commander, DavidWilliams, who I carried at the
911 heavy, and that was likethree 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
(27:45):
to be at that graveside, andlike, like you said, like, the
reality of something that wasjust part of an event, like,
like, the rubber hits the roadmore. Oh, absolutely. That's,
that's, that's reallyphenomenal. And like you said,
that's, that's not somethingthat a lot of people get, like,
(28:07):
like, I think, for me, like, youknow, with with that 911, heavy,
like, we ended at the PentagonMemorial. And so everybody that
was lost to the Pentagon hastheir own little bench with
their name on it, and like to beable to go and sit on his bench.
(28:30):
And and, I mean, like, what yousaid just resonated with me,
like thinking about his family.
Yeah. And and the loss that theysuffered. Like, man, that's,
that's super impactful, man. Ican't that's really cool to hear
like the y'all were able to goand actually be at his his
(28:52):
gravesite and, and have thatmoment, after all that work
he'll put in that's prettyawesome.
Blake Matthews (29:00):
Yeah, that was, like I said, it's one of those
things that, you know, and thisis not to, in any way, downplay
any other workouts, but I justknow that next time I do the
Robbie Miller workout that it'sgoing 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'vemade the transition. You You You
took that next step. Any anylike advice for somebody who's
like, you know, their, theirthing, they've done a couple
(29:36):
lights, or maybe they've doneone light and you know, they've
got some good friends, just likeyou've got good friends that are
like, Alright, come on, it'stime to do a tough like, like,
what words of advice might youhave 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 kindof hanging out in in light
territory, you know, especiallyThat that Pearl Harbor one, you
know, it's kind of toying withit. And, you know, I mean, I
might have been fine shouldermaybe was, who knows, maybe that
was an excuse or something. And,you know, if that isn't one of
(30:10):
reregister whatever, I don'tknow, but but I would say, you
know, if you're constantly doingthings and and again, that's the
thing, once I got it startedwith this, I mean, pretty much
out at least every weekend withthe rock club, and then a couple
times a week, just doingsomething, you know, it made it
made the tough something thatyou could do. You know,
(30:32):
obviously, somebody's doingnothing to jump into a tub. But,
but if you're progressing, Iwould strongly encourage someone
to, you know, to take the nextstep, to go up to the next one.
Now, I'm going to say that and Idon't know, like, in six months
or a year, someone's going totry 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 sayhere. 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 readyfor that next
Blake Matthews (31:05):
day, they're gonna keep it for the sound clip
and play it back to me sometimeI can see it, but um, you know,
it is, is there's alwayssomething something else out
there. And it's justinteresting, you know, they, you
know, not to get too clichehere, but people always say
that, you know, if you look atthe people that you hang around,
that's kind of who you become orwhatever. And I look at some of
the people that that I hangaround and I'm like, the they're
(31:26):
they're very inspirational andsome of the stuff the workouts
that they do and the crazinessyou know, it's like yeah, if I
if I stay here and you know, myI'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 lookfor Okay, what's the next
challenge? What's the next thingyou know, so GORUCK kind of
(31:49):
makes it natural you know, yougo from light or now basic to a
tough and you know, I definitelyfeel like I probably need a few
toughs under my belt, but butthere there, it could be a heavy
in the future. I should say moredefinitive, 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 acouple more of those toughs
under your belt and I lookforward to having you back on
when we talk about you.
completing your first heavythat'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 outthere 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 toroll around and some dirt and
water. And he's like, I'mtotally coming back next week.
He's our kind of people, y'all.
With that. Thanks for listeningto this episode of Under The Log
with Blake Matthews. If you'dlike to see shownotes transcript
for the episode or links tostuff that we talked about,
(33:00):
visit us at Under The log.com.
And while you're there, you canfind links to our social media
profiles. We'd absolutely loveto connect online. And if you
haven't already, you know,subscribe to the podcast
wherever you get your podcastsfrom. If you are enjoying the
content that we're putting out,we'd be really appreciated if
(33:20):
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.
Hey gang. Welcome to Under The Log the podcast where
we talk to men and women whorecently completed GORUCK
events. Today we talk to BlakeMatthews about his recent Battle
of the Bulge tough. Blake'sfirst exposure to GORUCK was at
his local ruck club, what's upVice City, where they made him
get covered in dirt, dirt thatsome guy bought from Home Depot.
(00:34):
And Blake still stuck around.
Clearly Blake is one of us.
Free.
Sorry, I just wanted to grabyour attention because you
probably thought I was going totell you to visit
RuckingChallenges.com dot combut nope, not today. Today I
(00:55):
want to tell you about a freewebsite. Ruckwod.com that's ruck
w o d.com. Every day we post anew ruck based workout. Nothing
fancy just a daily dose of ruckbased exercise. No fees, no
commitments, just work. Check itout at ruckwod.com. With that,
(01:17):
let's catch up with Blake.
All right, Blake, man, thanksfor coming on the podcast.
Obviously, I am looking forwardto talking with you. All things
go wrong, and your experienceyour recent event, your history
and GORUCK and all those allthose fun stories. But before we
(01:41):
jump into that, take a minuteand just tell tell us about
yourself. Your life outside ofGORUCK you know, like? Like who
is Blake Matthews?
Blake Matthews (01:51):
Gonna start with a deep question there. So, Blake
Matthews I live in FortLauderdale, Florida. And what I
do when I'm not rocking is spendtime with family I have three
daughters and a son. So that canthat can keep me pretty busy
there. Definitely a motivationfor staying fit to keep up with
them. And I work at a privateschool in the area and I do
(02:15):
their marketing and anenrollment. So so I kind of work
with families on helping themyou know, find a school, see if
they're a fit for our school andtrying to recruit them into the
school.
Ryan Burns (02:27):
Awesome, man. So how old are the kids?
Blake Matthews (02:30):
It's a K through 12 or my kids or the school?
Ryan Burns (02:32):
Yeah, yours.
Unknown (02:33):
like is that I have quite a look. I
Ryan Burns (02:35):
Look at you. You're already like marketing like I
got a place for your kids. Thereyou go. Yeah,
Blake Matthews (02:40):
Just a short drive down 95 for you. Well, my
kids, my kids range from sevento 26. We even I have four
children that are all about six,six to seven years apart. With
my youngest like that he'sseven, I have a 13 year old
daughter, I have a 20 year olddaughter and I have a 26 year
(03:01):
old daughter, too.
Ryan Burns (03:04):
So like I'm like picking my jaw up off the
ground. For Kids all six yearsapart. That's,
Blake Matthews (03:13):
that's that's impressive. It's great. It's
exciting. It's It's It's almostlike parenting through two
different generations. So it's ait's a fun ride.
Ryan Burns (03:22):
Absolutely, man.
That's, that's, that's reallycool. It makes me have to just
ask, like who have you suckeredinto the older kids into doing
any GORUCK and things with you.
Blake Matthews (03:34):
I am constantly trying actually the the one I
can sucker in the easiest is myson who's seven. Right? Now if
there's a doughnut rock, or thepumpkin rock or something like
that, he's all in especially ifhe knows other kids are going to
be there. So he's the easiestone to get involved. I have
gotten everyone but my oldestdaughter and she keeps kind of
(03:58):
saying it, but there's alwayssomething that comes up. So it's
always got that kind of prebuilt excuse somewhere, but I
think I think we'll get her outthere soon too. But yeah, I've
even I've even gotten my mysister 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 eitherroll their eyes or say yes or or
(04:19):
come up with something else thatthey had to do that they don't
even know when we're going yetso
Ryan Burns (04:27):
that's awesome. So obviously you're you know, you
you threw out some of the therocks that you've been doing
like the that are common withlike rock clubs, so the donut
rocks and the pumpkin rocks andall that stuff. So I'm I am
assuming that you're a part of arock club there and in South
Florida.
Blake Matthews (04:47):
Yes, part of a I would say it's pretty active
rock club. We do something atleast once a week. You know
COVID put a damper on that for awhile but you know, once we
figured out a way to do it, youknow socially distance and all
that stuff. We got kind of backup and running. pretty quickly.
And they really range the gamut.
Some of them are very familyfriendly kind of first time,
hey, come out and try this out.
(05:08):
There's some other ones that arejust absolute beat downs. In
fact, there was someone that Ithink adapted a, I don't know
the whole history of it, but Ithink they adapted a CrossFit
workout and now it's kind ofbecome our annual thing.
Sometime in December, we dosomething called The Nightmare
Before Christmas. And it is itis a nightmare. So it's been
(05:31):
between two and three hours ofjust constant constant PT and
then something going on. Sodude, and Wayne really,
Ryan Burns (05:39):
what's the what's the real club?
Blake Matthews (05:41):
Vice city ruckers?
Ryan Burns (05:43):
There you go Vice City, what's up Vice City,
Blake Matthews (05:46):
Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. So
Ryan Burns (05:49):
so so you're you're currently actively involved in
this, this rock club? So howlong? Like when did you get into
rucking slash? GORUCK? Like,like, tell us that story? Like,
how did this How did this evenbegin? Sure. So
Blake Matthews (06:05):
um, it was actually July of 2019, I guess
you would say would probably bemore of an official entry. about
maybe six months before that. Ithink I came across, I think it
was a website, I think was theArt of Manliness or something.
And somehow I got ontosomething. And it was kind of
like, you know, cardio forpeople who hated running and
that kind of thing. And, and Iwas like, Okay, I probably
(06:27):
should do something, you know,my job's not a super active job.
So, you know, trying to findthat thing that keeps you active
and stuff like that. And so Ikind of heard about working
there and I was like, Okay, thatsounds interesting. I got a
backpack, I'll throw you know,barbell or something in there
and tried it a few times. Andyou know, this is gonna sound
(06:47):
like a salesperson here. But thepack 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'treally do anything for a while.
And I kept looking into it, andthings kept popping up. And
then, you know, the timing, justkind of everything came
together. And it's like, Okay, Ineed to do something and then
you start seeing stuff, youknow, that time had no idea what
(07:08):
it was, but you know, what, thisChristmas in July sale or
whatever, so, looked into thatand 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 forsomething, it was actually a
club call out. It was a mudrock. So I thought, this sounds
(07:32):
interesting. I'm like, Okay, I'mup for it. Gonna give it a try.
Let's go for this. Now theinteresting thing in in South
Florida and course, after I'veseen pictures of other mud
rocks, is South Florida's moresand. So. So the first thing is
I get there, and you know, Ishow up a little bit early and
stuff like that. And you're kindof like, okay, so where are
these people going to be? Whoare they going to look like, of
course, first thing you see is abig American flag. You're like,
(07:54):
Hey, this is cool. And you'rekinda like, are you with? Yeah,
you know, and so you make theconnection. And so here's the
funny thing, we actually didthis down at a beach that has a
kind of a little creek that kindof 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'sgot his stuff in his trunk of
(08:16):
his car, and he's pulling outsome buckets. Okay, I've seen
people carry buckets, I figuredthat's gonna be part of it. And
he had stopped by Home Depot andgot a couple of bags of topsoil.
Yeah. So. So we basically rockedto the creek and did our best to
make mud. And, you know, here weare making it and then we're
like, okay, you know, we're,we're gonna get ready to do
(08:36):
photos. And you have to lookmuddy. I mean, if you did a mud
rock, and you're clean looking,and so we're literally like,
crawling through the mud, liketrying to cake it onto us. And I
still think if you see thepicture, you'd be like, did you
guys do anything muddy? But, youknow, brilliant. That was a, you
know, like I said, you do haveto work out some things in South
Florida. But that was a that wasthat was creative. And I was
(08:59):
like, you know, once I did that,I think, you know, almost
constantly started coming backcoming back. And, you know, they
had all the different call outsand stuff. And All right, so
Ryan Burns (09:10):
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 abackpack. That sounds cool. You
know, I've seen that article ithas, it has links to go rock.
And so maybe you go to thatsite, and you check it out. And
you're like, Alright, so you goyou, you bust up your backpack,
and you're like, man, whatever.
So then you get some marketingemail, probably from GORUCK
(09:32):
about the the sale and you'relike, you know what, I'm getting
one of these fancy backpacks.
You get one of those you stumbleacross by city. And the very
first thing you go to a bunch ofa bunch of folks are like, hey,
roll around in this brackishwater, and we're gonna like,
throw some dirt on you. Like,I'm totally coming back next
(09:56):
week. Oh, yeah.
Blake Matthews (09:57):
Yeah. And that's it. And that's it. And of
course, You know, this is all inJuly, which of course in South
Florida, it's like a sauna. Soit's like, I'm kind of glad I
started with a when I did, Istarted nice, you know,
something easy and cool weatherand then it kept getting harder.
And I don't know, maybe it'd bedifferent, 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, yourGORUCK material here. At what
point do you kind of like, hearabout events? And, and like, do
your first event like, how'sthat rollout?
Blake Matthews (10:33):
So so it didn't take too long. So that was that
was July 2019. So first eventwas, let's see, July, we got
August. Yeah, first event wasAugust. That was an extortion
17. And I, you know, signed upfor light. And, again, I think
this was kind of probably at theprodding a little bit of like,
(10:54):
you know, hey, you should do anevent with us. There's, you
know, and all these things. Andso you do that, and you're like,
Okay, light, okay, let's givethis a try. And, and the one
thing that I, you know, inhindsight of everything, I still
gotta tell you, I think thelights in the daytime in South
Florida in the heat. There'sdefinitely an added, you know,
(11:16):
just pain factor there, if youwill, but I'm sure, but yeah, it
was, you know, so did the firstevent, extortion 17. You know,
just loved the whole, the wholeconcept of, you know, the event,
the working out the, you know,of course, that was like one of
their Memorial events to So, youknow, you take a story from
someone who passed away fromthat particular thing that
(11:36):
you're memorializing. And I justthought just the way all that
tied together was was just, youknow, it's like, Okay, that's
it. I'm, I'm, I'm in, I'mcompletely sold. So.
Ryan Burns (11:46):
So that was a lot of fun. And and have you done? So?
You've done some events sincethen. Because today, we're
talking about the eventuallytalking about the the Battle of
the Bulge event that you did thetough. 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 threeevents and actually had four
events in South Florida. So Iwent from extortion, 17, which
was in August, that was in FortLauderdale, Miami area, and then
the Mogadishu mile, it wasOctober. 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 aconstellation and it was I think
they were kind of calling it aconstellation beta. So it was a
new format. But we did that. Andthat was, you know, completely
different, you know, than therucking part. But that was a
really incredible event. Theyactually did it at the Miami
Dade Fire Rescue, like trainingcenter. So I mean, it was a
(12:50):
really, really cool event there.
And, I mean, it's, it's justsomething you like to come into
work, you know, on Monday andsay, you know, what you do this
weekend? Well, I, I tied a firehose around my waist and jumped
out of a four storey building. Imean, 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. Thosethat, that that did, and I
really felt for there were somepeople there's, you know, make
sure that thing seals. But thatwas a great event too. And then
that led into the, in December,Pearl Harbor, which I was on the
(13:32):
fence about a light are tough,they're already registered for
the light. And, you know, I kindof had a little bit of lagging
pain, I think the Mogadishumile, I think someone's favorite
thing was to have rocks orsomething overhead a lot of the
time. And so I kind of was kindof feeling some pain with a
shoulder and I said, This is mekind of getting into all of
this. So. So I was like, Okay,I'm gonna stick with the light
(13:54):
for Pearl Harbor. And, but thatwas a great event as well.
Ryan Burns (13:58):
Okay, so you did, you've done a few lights, and
the constellation. And so nowlike, like, What makes you say,
you know what, I'm ready. I'mready for a tough What makes you
say you're ready for that toughand why in particular, this
(14:20):
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 agroup, you know, they're like,
hey, okay, you did that now dothis. I had one. It was
technically called a tough itwas in between it was the GRT
reunion, which I think I thinkthey can kind of refer to that
later on. It is really like acloverleaf beta. So that was in
(14:45):
the middle, but then, you know,that was definitely something
that was designed around. Whatcan we do during COVID as well,
so it was, you know it, it wasdifferent than a normal tough in
that you weren't doing things Somuch as a team, we're doing
things together, but not so muchteam. So, so the Battle of the
Bulge, you know, part of itsproximity Orlando's, just a few
(15:08):
hour drive away. So this was agood one to, to jump into. And
again, a lot of people from ViceCity records said, you know,
they were going to so it'salways good to go with, you
know, kind of, again, positivepeer pressure there. So, so
jumped into that sign signed upfor that, and, and was like,
Okay, let's, let's give this atry. And, and it was a great
(15:30):
event as well. You know,challenging in different ways.
It was nice, just number onethat time of year and being
overnight, you weren't dealingwith the heat. So So in that
respect, it was like a, therewere some elements going for you
versus the lights that I haddone in the summer.
Ryan Burns (15:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Like, I was just
about to ask, you know, what Iwas gonna ask, What stood out to
you is different in the eventsbetween the lights that you've
done, but I mean, that's a greatpoint, like lights. And in the
middle of the day, in the summerin South Florida, like that's,
that's super brutal. Like I've,I did a light in Richmond here,
(16:12):
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, thatwas the biggest challenge that
we faced. And so I think that'sinteresting to look at going
(16:36):
from a light in the middle ofthe day in the heat of South
Florida to, like, much cooler ormore temperate temperatures. And
been overnight like that's, insome ways like it, I guess it
takes away that particularchallenge. And it replaces it
with others, right. Oh,
Blake Matthews (16:55):
yeah, definitely. Especially for me
being you know, the first toughthere were definitely some
different challenges. But yeah,the, the heat, it just takes a
lot out of you. And, and andit's kind of weird to like, you
know, the idea of like, youknow, it's the Battle of the
Bulge and the course synonymouswith that. And even on the
patch, you see the snow and youknow, you read the stories about
what, what the soldiers wentthrough there and that cold
weather and, and here we aredoing it in Orlando, and it's
(17:18):
like, you know, 60s, it's like,perfect weather for us. And you
see everybody else's pictures upand they're freezing,
Ryan Burns (17:24):
which I did live outside of Orlando for a little
while. And and I mean, when ithits 60 down there, y'all y'all
start breaking out some somepretty 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 beingyour first tough like, was, was
it harder than you expected?
Easier than you expected? Howdoes it compare with the lights?
Like what what was thatexperience like for you? Yeah,
so that's free roquan.comwebsite that I mentioned at the
(18:01):
top of the show, that's justanother website put out by the
rucking collective. We've got anumber of websites all devoted
the sport of Raquel roquan calmis our attempt to provide a
daily ruck based workout for therucking community. There's no
charge, and there's a newworkout that we post every day.
Use it, change it, share it withyour friends, or people that you
(18:23):
hate. Whatever you do, at leastcheck 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 formatof the event would be like I
mean, you kind of knew what sortof things would be expected. So
you weren't like in total, like,shock mode of things. Obviously,
the duration certainly made itmore challenging. I think
(19:00):
probably the one of the toughestthings about this one was just
the, you know, the amount ofconstant PT. And I know that
that's kind of an GORUCK themethis year is you know, seeking
pain. And so I don't know, ifit'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. Orif it's, you know, also it
(19:21):
allowed for a little bit moresocial distancing. I mean, you
know, some people have differentcomfort levels of where, you
know, again, we kind of came asa group, so we all knew each
other pretty well. But I can seewhere that might have been a
factor as well, but it wasreally the PT and this one was
just it felt like it was neverending. And of course, part of
(19:42):
it was was the Robbie Millerworkout. So okay, with which,
you know, that that'll crush youand we did these things, and I
believe someone called themprison 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, butokay. So this is kind of the
latter part of the morning. Soyou 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 parkand we kind of mapped out what
would be like three, threebases, if you will, that you go
(20:20):
between. and you got a groups ofthree. And every group had
100 100 plus sound sandbag, youknow, it's 80 pound sandbag, but
when it's completely full withwet 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 itwas. So you have that that you
have to carry to each one ofthese points. And so what you
did is you started out and asyou move to each one of these
bases, so you're at let's, let'scall 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 comearound 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 havehad a mathematician in the group
or something. But I think theyhad some formula and figured out
something like 513 of these ruckburpees 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 thereis definitely for me a number
that what I was doing was nolonger probably recognizable as
a burpee, but you somehow stoodup, maybe did a little jump and
fell to the ground and backup orsomething. But that was brutal.
I think that was about fourhours. And it just, and the
(21:45):
psychological impact of youknow, at the time not having any
clue how many you're doing. Imean, I don't know that you told
me to do one through 18 andbuild and then three times, I
mean, you know, that's I'm notin the mood for that kind of
math that like, whatever, twoo'clock, three o'clock, four
o'clock in the morning, whateverit was. And so you're just like,
you know, and then you getthere, and you're like getting
(22:06):
up to nine, and you're like,Wait a second, that's not
anywhere near halfway done. Theyjust seem to never, never ending
there.
Ryan Burns (22:14):
So how do you how did you deal with that
adversity? Like, I'm alwaysinterested to hear about, like
how people push through thosemean, just, I mean, that is that
sounds like a horrible grind.
It's just never gonna end. Andyou're just gonna keep going and
do more reps. So like, how doyou? 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 ideaof grouping us in, in the groups
of three. So you know, so you'rethere with two other people.
And, you know, sometimes it'snot good to look to your left
and your right, you just want tokeep doing something, but but
this was something good. And youknow, you cheer each other on
you push each other. So I thinkI think having the groups there
(23:02):
together, made that more doable.
I think if somebody sent me outto a field and said, go do this,
you know, there might be aquitting point there, you're
just like, this isn't happening.
But you start looking to yourleft 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 itmore like, they were, you know,
cheering you on and saying, Comeon, and spurring each other on
or like, what what about thatperson 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 withas probably, you know, being way
ahead of me, as far as in the inthe fitness area. So, you know,
it wasn't like, Oh, yeah, it'seasy for them. I could do it.
But it was, you know, I thinkit's definitely Hayward. It's
kind of that we're all in thistogether thing. And then, you
know, some of the best advicescores. Yeah, I find a lot of
(24:02):
the advice you get fitsperfectly on a bumper sticker,
or patch in this case. But, youknow, it's just the idea of, you
know, just think about the nextround. The next the next thing
you know, you know, we're notdoing however many we're doing,
we're just at this time rightnow. We're doing 12 burpees.
Okay, we're done with that one.
Hey, all we're doing is walkingover there with the sandbag, you
know, another 12 burpees. Yeah,and just breaking it down piece
(24:26):
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'sjust Alright, what's next?
Alright, walk over there. Good.
All right, I guess we're doingburpees. Again, here we go. So
I'm gonna throw this one outthere and I'll kind of let you
interpret it however you want,and we'll see where it goes. But
what from this event justimpacted you the most
Blake Matthews (24:55):
biggest impact Well, I have a post Didn't one
but I mean, we think about theduring 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 eventwas the the Robbie Miller
workout. So so that's part ofthe event. And basically, and I
didn't know this beforehand, butbut some of the people who had
been in that area before didwhich was really cool. So you
know, so you, you get throughthe event you survive, you know,
(25:28):
of course, you're looking for aplace, okay, all right, we're
gonna go, we're gonna go eatsomething. And, you know,
someone brought up the thing, hesays, you know, I'm Ronnie
Miller's gravesite is only acouple miles from here. And I
didn't realize that. And so wetook a side trip. And again,
this is after the event. And,you know, again, somebody had
(25:49):
been there before, so they wereable to guide us and, and, you
know, it was just something, youknow, a lot of times we get
caught up in the workout to thememorials and things like that,
and, you know, you have thename, and maybe you know, a
little bit of story of whathappened. And it just really,
you know, made that experiencekind of full circle. I mean, you
do a workout and honor someone,you're remembering their name,
(26:10):
you're doing all that, andthat's great. But it was just to
do that, you know, just hoursbefore put all that in. And then
you know, something about agrave site, you're, you're just
standing there, of course, youknow, they've got Medal of Honor
recipient and all the things andbut at least in my mind, you
know, again, you think of thehero status, you think of all of
those things, but being at thatgrave site just made me think
(26:31):
about, you know, like, it'sfamily. I mean, you know, what,
you know, we're distance fromit, but but right here at this
site, you know, that the lossthey felt, and all the things
like that. So it was kind of asobering moment, but it was, but
I mean, just a really, you know,that that's something that's
(26:52):
something that you don't get atevery event. And like I said, it
wasn't directly part of thisevent. But But afterwards, that
that's something that'll, youknow, 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, Iknow that y'all were probably
carrying names of folks that hadfallen or whatever, in Battle of
(27:22):
the Bulge. And those those haveimpact. Like, I'm still impacted
by Lieutenant Commander, DavidWilliams, who I carried at the
911 heavy, and that was likethree 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
(27:45):
to be at that graveside, andlike, like you said, like, the
reality of something that wasjust part of an event, like,
like, the rubber hits the roadmore. Oh, absolutely. That's,
that's, that's reallyphenomenal. And like you said,
that's, that's not somethingthat a lot of people get, like,
(28:07):
like, I think, for me, like, youknow, with with that 911, heavy,
like, we ended at the PentagonMemorial. And so everybody that
was lost to the Pentagon hastheir own little bench with
their name on it, and like to beable to go and sit on his bench.
(28:30):
And and, I mean, like, what yousaid just resonated with me,
like thinking about his family.
Yeah. And and the loss that theysuffered. Like, man, that's,
that's super impactful, man. Ican't that's really cool to hear
like the y'all were able to goand actually be at his his
(28:52):
gravesite and, and have thatmoment, after all that work
he'll put in that's prettyawesome.
Blake Matthews (29:00):
Yeah, that was, like I said, it's one of those
things that, you know, and thisis not to, in any way, downplay
any other workouts, but I justknow that next time I do the
Robbie Miller workout that it'sgoing 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'vemade the transition. You You You
took that next step. Any anylike advice for somebody who's
like, you know, their, theirthing, they've done a couple
(29:36):
lights, or maybe they've doneone light and you know, they've
got some good friends, just likeyou've got good friends that are
like, Alright, come on, it'stime to do a tough like, like,
what words of advice might youhave 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 kindof hanging out in in light
territory, you know, especiallyThat that Pearl Harbor one, you
know, it's kind of toying withit. And, you know, I mean, I
might have been fine shouldermaybe was, who knows, maybe that
was an excuse or something. And,you know, if that isn't one of
(30:10):
reregister whatever, I don'tknow, but but I would say, you
know, if you're constantly doingthings and and again, that's the
thing, once I got it startedwith this, I mean, pretty much
out at least every weekend withthe rock club, and then a couple
times a week, just doingsomething, you know, it made it
made the tough something thatyou could do. You know,
(30:32):
obviously, somebody's doingnothing to jump into a tub. But,
but if you're progressing, Iwould strongly encourage someone
to, you know, to take the nextstep, to go up to the next one.
Now, I'm going to say that and Idon't know, like, in six months
or a year, someone's going totry 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 sayhere. 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 readyfor that next
Blake Matthews (31:05):
day, they're gonna keep it for the sound clip
and play it back to me sometimeI can see it, but um, you know,
it is, is there's alwayssomething something else out
there. And it's justinteresting, you know, they, you
know, not to get too clichehere, but people always say
that, you know, if you look atthe people that you hang around,
that's kind of who you become orwhatever. And I look at some of
the people that that I hangaround and I'm like, the they're
(31:26):
they're very inspirational andsome of the stuff the workouts
that they do and the crazinessyou know, it's like yeah, if I
if I stay here and you know, myI'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 lookfor Okay, what's the next
challenge? What's the next thingyou know, so GORUCK kind of
(31:49):
makes it natural you know, yougo from light or now basic to a
tough and you know, I definitelyfeel like I probably need a few
toughs under my belt, but butthere there, it could be a heavy
in the future. I should say moredefinitive, 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 acouple more of those toughs
under your belt and I lookforward to having you back on
when we talk about you.
completing your first heavythat'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 outthere 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 toroll around and some dirt and
water. And he's like, I'mtotally coming back next week.
He's our kind of people, y'all.
With that. Thanks for listeningto this episode of Under The Log
with Blake Matthews. If you'dlike to see shownotes transcript
for the episode or links tostuff that we talked about,
(33:00):
visit us at Under The log.com.
And while you're there, you canfind links to our social media
profiles. We'd absolutely loveto connect online. And if you
haven't already, you know,subscribe to the podcast
wherever you get your podcastsfrom. If you are enjoying the
content that we're putting out,we'd be really appreciated if
(33:20):
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.
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