the art of war

Oct. 22 Thurs.
So you want to be a warrior

Today's training: Rest day.

3 mile walk in the morning.

20 mile bike ride. Great weather 70 deg.

Long ago I had the opportunity to see a Foreign Legion training center when I lived in France. It most austere facility with very basic equipment, with ropes, pull up bars, an obstacle coarse that really just a trail in the woods but with very difficult terrain. It was very primitive by all standards. These professional solders used rocks as resistance and did self defence on plan ground with no padding. Once they got out of basic program, they got to use the best equipment in the business. However, if the perspective solder of the legion checked out how they hard they trained prior to signing on the dotted line, they would had a lot fewer operators.

I was told that training in this rigid environment, using austere equipment has a more realistic physical connection for combat operations then that you would see in a modern gym with all those shinny machines. It must be working as they are the fittest recruits I have ever witnessed at that time.