Soldier Blog Post

The Blues, APFT, and rain

March 14, 2010

This past week has seen a lot more classroom with all the focus now on Criminal law.  We are breezing our way through the UCMJ and the other 8 books we've been assigned and there is A LOT of lecture.  We've been assigned our trial memo which is supposedly going to take 10-15 hours to complete, but having done one before, and this one only being 3 pages long, I would say more like 2-3 hours (although it does count for 50% of our criminal law grade).

We started our "experiment" with run group 4 on Monday and it was WAY better than normal PT training.  We immediately went with our Colonel and did our own PT which consisted of pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups (in that order) with sets being 1  2  3 reps (in the order specified earlier this sentence),  2  4  6 reps, 3  6  9 reps,  4 8 12 reps....10, 20, 30 reps.  We used a partner and were supposed to go to muscle failure.  I luckily got paired up with a former army ranger who is in great shape and he and I made it up to the 10th set in 13 minutes and then back down to the 6 set when we were told we could stop as most of the group had reached muscle failure. 

The next day, Chief was gone so air assault met up with airborne who was supposed to run o-hill but instead did a 5.5 mile run at our own pace.  Later that day we learned that Thurs and Fri were going to take a diagnostic PT test.   We informed Colonel of this to try to get an easier Wed workout but he just laughed and said "its just a diagnostic."  Regardless, the majority of our run group didnt have to show up for the Wed workout as they were doing their test on Thurs.  The 4 of us who remained got a mixture of 400 yard sprints with 50 squats between each one and no rest. On Thurs, group 1 took their test and came back with an average of 252 (a recent JAG school record which isnt bad for 50 + lawyers ranging in age from 25-40.  My platoon went on Friday and got the luck of having to test in the rain (as it had rained all night and during the test).  I personally hit 87 push-ups and 77 sit-ups in 2 minutes, and a 15:20 two mile in (which is easily a personal best if you haven't read my earlier posts about hating distance running).  Our average was 248 which was good considering we were soaked and there are 2  90 degree turns on this track.  It was more like running a steeple chase as you were sometimes ankle deep in water.  

Later that night we had our first formal, our Blues reception.  Everyone was in their Army Service Uniforms and had to go through the meet and greet line (which was remarkably fast considering there was over 160 people in that line to meet the 2 honored guests).  The best part about it was there were tasty beverages upstairs and down.  It was a great time, til all of it was gone, and we couldnt leave for about 30 more minutes.  Although, that little break didnt stop the 181st class from basically invading a bar about an hour later with over 50 of us!     

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March 6, 2010

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March 23, 2010

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Comments

  • Alice Teh

    Mar 14, 2010 6:58 PM

    Thanks for sharing your story! It's really interesting to read about how you train and fun you all had. I think I don't think I could do 87 push ups AND 77 sit ups in 2 MINUTES! But I'm setting a target (maybe 40/20) and hope to achieve it within a month (if I train hard). :D


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  • J.

    Mar 14, 2010 11:17 PM

    Air Assault and Airborne have separate PT? I always thought they were the same. How does the division work out?


    Reply

  • CB

    Mar 17, 2010 1:44 PM

    Alice: The pushups and situps are in separate two-minute blocks. You get two minutes to do as many pushups as you can, then a break. A few minutes later, you get two minutes to do as many situps as you can. You do not need to do all the exercises in the same two minutes.


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  • Alice Teh

    Mar 17, 2010 6:49 PM

    Hi CB, thanks for the clarification.


    Reply

  • Mike

    Jul 16, 2010 3:30 PM

    Must the push-ups/sit-ups be consecutive during the two minutes for each test? For example could one do 40 push ups, rest for 45 seconds and then go to failure, totaling two minutes? Or once an individual reaches failure they are done and await the next test.

    Thanks.


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  • Bobby the Blogger

    Jul 17, 2010 5:07 PM

    @ Mike. They dont have to be consecutive in the sense that you can do 40 and get in a rest position (letting your lower body hang) or the modified rest (looks a lot like the upward dog pose in yoga) and rest for however long and then resume during the 2 minutes which keep running. If your hands or feet come up off the ground you have to stop, but you can slide them back and forth. Then you get 10 minutes before the sit-up with the only approved rest position being sitting up (not laying down on the ground) and the hands have to stay locked behind the head. Then 10 minutes and the run starts. You can find it online a lot of places for more info


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