Twas the night before zer0 day
February 24, 2010
We are quickly proceeding through the first week in Charlottesville. Monday was a little inprocessing and meeting some staff in our big classroom with all the 181st getting assigned seats. Im in the back corner of the room right next to two cool guys who like to laugh and even though it will definetely be DPP (death by power point as Ive been told), its been great so far and very informative. Essentially our schedule is this: 0550 we have PT til 7. We have divided up into run groups and M/W we have either push-up or sit-up and then about 30-45 minute run. Fridays are long runs of 5+ miles. Tue/ Thurs will be air assault/ airborne at that time and for those who dont get past 0 day (or who dont try out), they have student led pt those days.
After 7 we get til 0810 to be in our seats and then have power point lectures (although so far the faculty has made it fun with videos/ funny stories) with a 10 minute break every hour. Lunch is 12:10-13:30 and then we have more lecture or seminar/practice exercises til around 1530 (3:30pm). Then its free time to do some work or whatever you like. We get allocated $51 a day for food (even if we dont use it we get it) so we have been eating out a lot.
Tue was weigh in and as predicted, I, along with 20 other people or so had to be taped. If you dont make the height weight chart they have, the army then does a measuring of your neck and navel area (girls do hips as well) and they plug it into the equation to see if you are overweight. If you are, you get to do REMEDIAL PT which is on top of your regular pt in the morning (remedial is in the afternoon at 1600). I had to be taped but was under the required ratio (almost all athletes have to be taped because of muscle weight from what I hear and a lot of the more muscular were being taped).
Today I thought they would take it easy on us since 0 day is tomorrow but NOOOOOO! Besides doing a killer ab circuit this morning, we got into our run groups and today just happened to be sprint day. My group (group 4 which is essentially a 15:40-16:10 2 mile time) jogged a mile to the track and then proceeded to do 400 meter sprints with a minute rest between each one. Other groups did sprints/ runs up a hill. As a sprinter, I know how bad most people will feel tomorrow in terms of soreness (and hopefully it wont effect me as bad). A lot of people who are trying out seem to be limping around with shin splints or bad heels from the boots. My advice is to get your DSCP boots early and break them in good!
So, Im off and the next time you here from me you will here a recap of 0 day Im sure. We have to be there, stretched and warmed up, at 4:50 am in our ACU's (army combat uniforms and boots). Let me end with this:
Twas the night before 0 day,
and all through the dorm,
not a soldier was scurrying, because we had to be up at 4:50 in the morn.
Our ACU's were laid out on the floor with care
With hope that the cadre, would be a little fair.
And I with my knee, and others with their shins
had just figured out about the S**T we were in!!!!
David Moore
Feb 25, 2010 7:39 AM