PFT

Ran a 290 on my PFT today. This is up 13 points from my last one (277). Really happy about the progress, I went from 18 to 20 pull-ups, and dropped my run time from 20:04 to 19:32. I'm hoping over the next month or 2 I can drop another 30 seconds off the run, and hopefully get into the 18:xx range. All in all I'm happy with the score, and it shows me what I need to work on if I want to get one of the slots for OCC-205

Rest Day

Legs are kind of sore from Helen yesterday. I've got my contracting PFT for OCS tomorrow so I don't want to be dead.

I'm pretty confident I'll get the 20 pull-ups and 100 crunches, so that's 100 points. I just want to get my run time as close as possible to 18:00, so we'll see how it goes

Thanksgiving

Ended up running in a 5k Thanksgiving morning. I wasn't registered or anything so I stopped short of the finish, estimated about 3 miles total run. Time was 22:07 (7:32, 6:49, 7:45). The first mile was slow because there were at least 1000+ people in the race, so the start and first 1/4 mile I was weaving in and out of people trying to get going. I'm going to use this time to calculate my baseline PFT, combined with the 20 pull-ups I can do now and 100 crunches, this gives me a score of 275 (lower than I got last time...definitely need to shape up on the run).

This time gives me an idea of how much work I have to do. The course was pretty hilly, and I think I suffered there, so that's something I'm going to concentrate on. Also, my kneecap has been bothering me, not sure if it's from hitting it or what...but it's been pretty sore, and usually it gets worse after running. I'm going to take the next couple weeks off from running while I work on Starting Strength, hopefully giving the knee a chance to heal up a bit.

I was sore after the run as well...but I foam-rolled my legs when I got home, and they felt 100x better. This foam rolling thing is no joke, I can definitely notice a big difference in my muscle recovery between when I do and don't roll them

First Day

My training plan thus far has consisted mainly of bodyweight exercises, varying from Crossfit-type metcons to structured PT at RSS Wilmington. As of December 1, I'm going to be changing over to a Starting Strength/CFWF type program (still debating as to which one), along with a GOMAD diet. I'm planning on keeping this up for ~2 months in an effort to build some strength and maybe put on some mass if possible.

This week I'm going to do some tests on myself to establish baseline fitness levels, allowing me to better track progress during my strength phase.

Basically, I'm going to run a regulation Marine PFT: consisting of max rep pull-ups, max crunches (2 minutes), and a 3 mile run. I'm assuming this score will suffer over the course of my strength phase, because it's likely I won't be running as much. As of October 17, when I reported to MEPS, my PFT was a 277 (18 pull-ups, 100 crunches, 20:04 run)

Additionally, I'm going to test my Crossfit Total: consisting of max effort attempts on Squat, Press, and Deadlift. As of September 7, the last time I tested this, my total was 655 (245 Squat, 115 Press, 295 Deadlift). I doubt I'm going to duplicate this on my test, because I haven't done much weight training in the past couple months, but we'll see.