Rucking has become the dominant form of exercise in my life.

I’ve been doing it off and on for a while, because I like to be alone on a trail and listen to my audiobooks.

I started off with my trusty ol’ Coleman backpack that I bought from Walmart nearly twenty years ago, but have since upgraded to an Eberlestock Operator.

What’s that you say? Now you want to know what I carry in my Eberlestock G4 Operator? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Initially, I had it a little pared down to hit that 35# weight, but once I hit that goal, I put the rest of my goodies in (because I’m a glutton for punishment) and it now weighs in around 45-50#, depending on how much water I’m carrying.

And yes—that extra 15# hurts. My mile times went from 12:45-13:00 to an abysmal 15:00, but I’m slowly working my speed back up.

Why not carry less shit, you ask? Because then I wouldn’t be prepared for all of the various situations that my overactive imagination conjures up.

Don’t you worry about it—they’re my knees, I’ll wreck ‘em if I want to. Sheesh.

Anyways, realism be damned, here’s my loadout:

Main dry bag containing Yee Ole Modular Sleep System (just the outer Goretex shell and the thicker, black sleeping bag, because it’s winter and I don’t like the cold), a change of clothes (lots of extra socks), a towel, and an electronics bag that holds 1) spare batteries for my doodads, 2) small battery bank for my rechargeable doodads, and 3) cables for said rechargeable doodads (not just my phone, but also my rifle and pistol lights are both rechargeable).

Food I carry in my left outer pouch—I carry 10k calories worth of a dry, powdered meal substitute of my own design (basically oat and peanut butter powder, with various spices to make it taste like different things. I keep them in little sealed 500 calorie baggies—open it up, put a bit of water in, reseal it, mush it around until it’s a paste, then tear off a corner and suck it like a Go-Gurt. Protein and carbs. Poc fuel.

My right outer pouch carries my 3L water bladder, and my super-badass Cold Steel Chaos Tanto (Google it—you’ll see how awesome it is) which is probably the most impractical knife I own, but I just can’t stop loving it.

Then there are two more outer pouches in the center of the pack—the top one contains two full mags for rifle and two full mags for pistol (you know, just in case my imaginary firefight gets heavy), and the bottom one contains a sniper’s rag with some ghillie/netting for concealment, because you never know when you just gotta fade into the bushes, bro.

At the bottom of the pack there’s a little quick-access compartment that contains a weapon cleaning kit and a smaller day pack—for when I need to drop my main pack and stay extra mobile for…strategic…apocalypse reasons.

And at the top of the pack is my detachable MultiLid™ which contains a poncho, first aid kit, fire starter, compass, water purifier, and tactical snackery (Liquid IV pouches and energy bars).

And while I hit my 2025 goal of 12 miles in 2 hrs 33 mins (that’s an average pace of 12:47). I did some more googling and discovered that a competitive pace among SF is to be able to maintain 12:30 min/mile…indefinitely.

Sonofabitch. Guess I got my 2026 resolution.