Inman Mile

[Thom Van Vleck]

Inman Mile

Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder

[KCSTRONGMAN]

Good article Al. I had always wondered where this lift came from. I had no idea it was so close to home.
ET

I'm the lyrical Jesse James

[Tedd Van Vleck]

Somebody has to try that lift! Could we have a Van Vleck Mile where you do HALF your weight for a mile?

[Al Myers]

You still couldn’t do it Tedd! Especially now since you have been loading up on barbecued ribs and greasy chicken wings cooked on your Big Green Egg. haha

[Tom Ryan]

I doubt if anyone will ever conquer the Inman Mile. I recall when John Carter tried this many years ago and he didn’t get very far.

Yeah, Thom, I want to see Mark carry over 600 pounds for a mile. 🙂

I don’t know if they still do it, but years ago there were contests in Canada in which the competitors would carry a large amount of weight, like 700 pounds or so. I don’t recall the distance, but it was undoubtedly far less than a mile! They called this “packing”. I believe I have a photo somewhere of one such contestant posed with four girls sitting on a bar, which was supposed to depict him training for the competition. 🙂

I wasn’t planning to play basketball my senior year in high school as I was seriously into weight training by then, but I let a transfer from Maryland, who was a good player, talk me into coming out of retirement. I didn’t know anything about weight training for basketball (this was 1962) so I did some unusual things, including jogging up to the nearest traffic light and back with a barbell loaded to 100 pounds. (I weighed a shade over 200 then.) That distance was probably about 1/4 mile. Jogging that distance was easy, but of course the bar bounced up and down on my shoulders and did a number on them. I’m sure I could have walked a mile with that amount of weight. (Make note of that, Tedd.) 🙂

I also loaded the bar to 400 and walked around a bit with it. That was just about twice my bodyweight, so how far could I have walked with it? Probably 50 yards at most!

If anyone is to even come close to negotiating the Inman Mile, it will probably have to be someone who weighs under 150 pounds and is practically off the charts in terms of physical skills.

[Al Myers]

Last winter I was contacted by Brian Tabor of San Diego who wanted to give the Inman Mile a go. Brian is a physical stud. He won the 2010 NAS Strongman Nationals in the 175# Division. I really thought if anyone could get this conquered it would be him. I told him I would go to San Diego to judge it for him when he was ready to make it official in the USAWA. I’m still waiting!!

Here is a YouTube video of his initial training – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPOZ1Js46iw

[Thom Van Vleck]

Hmmmm, what if the mile was all slightly downhill…..Or if I jumped out of a plane with a parachute and the weight, then after a mile free fall, chucked the weight and pulled the chute!!!! haha

Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder

[Tom Ryan]

Okay, I found a video of what I was referring to, which is the flour packing competition at the Sourdough Rendezvous in Whitehorse, Canada. Check out this video.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbob_malone/3324135991/

It must be great fun to carry 800 pounds of flour on your back in the snow and over a course where the footing has got to be treacherous due to ice and snow. I’m sending Al a photo of a little guy who won the competition multiple times, winning one year by packing 850 pounds over 50 feet. That appears to be about 5 times his weight!

Joe Dube has stated elsewhere that he took a step or two backward from a rack and did sets of partial squats with up to 1,400 pounds, but undoubtedly some would question whether or not anyone, even Joe as strong as he was, could walk even a step or two with that much weight, and backwards at that!
http://goheavy.com/forums/olympic/index.cgi/noframes/read/66798 But if a little guy could walk 50 feet with 850 … 🙂

[Thom Van Vleck]

Al, you need a “Flour Packing apparatus” at your gym! haha

Thom Van Vleck
Jackson Weightlifting Club
Highland Games athlete and sometimes All-Rounder

[Al Myers]

That was an impressive video! Thanks Tom.

Also, that was a very interesting safety device that held the flour before and after the course. It appeared the real challenge was the footing (obviously ice and snow underfoot). I still say having a loaded bar on the shoulders is much more challenging than having weight in a pack, or loaded on the shoulders with a yoke. Regardless, that looked like a real challenge carrying the flour. I wonder – what was the significent of this? Is there a flour mill nearby that sponsored this competition?

[Al Myers]

That Flour Packing Competition looks pretty interesting to me! I may have to start training for it! (in which case I’ll HAVE to build a flour packing apparatus). It is part of the tradition at the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous coming up on Feb 23-26, 2012. I did a little research on this festival and it looks like quite the event! And Thom, you can come along with me – they also have a beard growing contest that you can enter. haha

[Tom Ryan]

Al,

I didn’t know much about it myself, so I also did some reading. In case anyone else is interested, here is one place to start. http://www.yukonrendezvous.com/about-us/history

Yes, it is quite a festival with various events, even a can-can dance demonstration. 🙂

The flour packing record for men is apparently 900 pounds and 664 pounds for women. Those are pretty impressive numbers considering the conditions.

The event is described as “This event showcases some of the life skills necessary to survive the Yukon at the turn of the century …” Of course they are referring to 1900.

Apparently the flour packing numbers are dropping off, as here are the results for this year. http://www.yukonrendezvous.com/events/flour-packing-contest

You can take them, Al! You have 5 months to prepare for the event.

Tom

[Abe Smith]

I used to work on walking with barbell for distance here and there and found that after a while your shoulders and arms become numb and throb. I would have thought that the back or abs would give out, or you would just get really tired but what always got me is the numb and throbbing of the shoulders and arms. I think that if someone used a safety bar, cambered bar (with added ab padding, as in towels under a tight belt)or used a harness of some kind to keep arms out of picture they could probably do it.

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