No, he cannot. What he can do, though, is to deliberately train his body, mind, and spirit to elevate his self from average to elite level and then test himself at SEALFIT Kokoro Camp.
I’ve always been delusional.
I just turned 40 and I want to believe that I have a shot at the June 2017 event. It is now September 2016. I know that the 10,000-hour rule to master anything can be shortcut with ultra focused deliberate practice. But before spending any more time on what my practice has been and will be…
What is Kokoro Camp?
In the words of Mark Divine, SEALFIT Founder and CEO, Kokoro Camp “is really the hardest training outside of any military organization in the world.” Unfortunately there is no hyperbole in his statement. I have not found much information that describes what goes on at Camp, other than Rogue Fitness’ Documentary and Ben Greenfield’s articles on his Kokoro Class 34 experience. It is modeled after the US Navy SEAL Hell Week and consists of 50 hours straight, no sleeping or napping, of constant physical and mental agony. No matter how many times I watch the videos and imagine the experience, it is not possible to internalize what really goes on in the bodies and the minds of the participants.
At the surface, there are three activities that frighten me the most:
- Night hike, 26 miles uphill. I believe this is done somewhere in the middle of the event, that is after one has already suffered through 20 or 30 hours of pain. And by the way, we’ll be carrying 45-pound backpack and a 20-something-pound “weapon” (PVC pipe filled with sand).
- Surf torture. I have no idea how to prepare to be in the cold Pacific Ocean for hours at a time without dying of hypothermia. Water consumes body temperature 20 times faster than air.
- Log PT. Lifting, carrying, doing overhead presses and many other fun stuff with a 450-pound log scares the sh*t out of me, particularly because I have a rounded back that prevents me from keeping my arms straight above my spine. My arms stop slightly in front of my body, making any overhead press extremely inefficient and challenging. I’ll have to fix my back, among so many other things!
Well, this is just the beginning and I will be posting frequently about my preparation (mental, physical, nutrition & supplementation, etc.) as a way to leave a record of progress, challenges, commitment levels. Also to see if this experiment yields any positive results in a 40-year-old, and hopefully to provide entertainment or motivation to other folks that want to achieve peak performance and join me next year.
Oh boy, there is no way out now, is it?
