Some anxiety has recently been relieved from my life now that I have my dream job in the Navy and I know exactly when I’ll be leaving for boot camp. On June 19, 2012 I’ll fly to Great Lakes, IL to go through 8 weeks of basic training. Following graduation I’ll head to Fort Meade, MD for 7 months of schooling to become a Mass Communication specialist. Until then I have to contain my excitement and eagerness to get that part of my life started, and instead focus my energy on studying and exercising while maintaining my 40 hour/week job. Both the studying and exercising are incredibly specific. Sure, all aerobic activity will be to my benefit, but at the end of boot camp I will ultimately be tested on three areas of fitness: running, push-ups, and curl-ups.
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For my age and gender my bare minimum requirements are as follows:
1.5 Mile Run in 15:15
50 curl ups in 2 minutes
17 push ups in 2 minutes (allowed to rest in up position only)
Obviously I don’t want to risk only passing with the bare minimum so here is the full chart:
FEMALES: AGE 20 to 24 YEARS
PERFORMANCE CURL PUSH 1.5-MILE
CATEGORY UPS UPS RUN
OUTSTANDING HIGH 105 48 9:47
OUTSTANDING MEDIUM 103 47 11:15
OUTSTANDING LOW 98 44 11:30
EXCELLENT HIGH 94 43 12:15
EXCELLENT MEDIUM 90 40 12:45
EXCELLENT LOW 87 39 13:15
GOOD HIGH 78 33 13:30
GOOD MEDIUM 66 28 13:45
GOOD LOW 58 21 14:15
SATISFACTORY HIGH 54 20 15:00
SATISFACTORY MEDIUM 50 17 15:15
PROBATIONARY 46 16 15:30
PERFORMANCE CURL PUSH 1.5-MILE
CATEGORY UPS UPS RUN
OUTSTANDING HIGH 105 48 9:47
OUTSTANDING MEDIUM 103 47 11:15
OUTSTANDING LOW 98 44 11:30
EXCELLENT HIGH 94 43 12:15
EXCELLENT MEDIUM 90 40 12:45
EXCELLENT LOW 87 39 13:15
GOOD HIGH 78 33 13:30
GOOD MEDIUM 66 28 13:45
GOOD LOW 58 21 14:15
SATISFACTORY HIGH 54 20 15:00
SATISFACTORY MEDIUM 50 17 15:15
PROBATIONARY 46 16 15:30
I’m thinking of setting a goal for myself. I’d like to be able to go to boot camp in the “Excellent High” category and graduate boot camp in the “Outstanding Low” category. It certainly won’t be an easy task considering my current push-up max is 17, and to be honest I don’t even know if they would count. It’s like my elbows get to a 90 degree angle and turn into JELLO. It’s a problem.
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| If that's a push-up then I completely take back the fact that I can do 17. Source |
As far as the run goes, you’d think I’d be fine, but it turns out running 13 miles at a 10+ minute pace doesn’t help you at all when you’re trying to run 1.5 miles quickly. Last week at the gym I forced myself to run 1.5 miles in 12:57. At the end I went from sprinting immediately to walking and gasping for air with the sweatiest, most bright red face you’ve ever seen. Because I have wonderful luck, this is the exact moment that a cute trainer at the gym walked in and looked my direction which caused me to stumble. I dropped my towel and it went flying off the back of the treadmill. He came over and handed it to my while trying to restrain his laughter at the girl who apparently isn’t coordinated enough to walk on a treadmill. Awesome. Obviously it will be much harder to complete the 1.5 miles without a treadmill forcing me to run a certain pace and replacing cute, smiling trainers with screaming boot camp instructors, but hey, I’m up for a challenge.
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On a side note, I’m headed to Florida next week on a little vacation to visit the ’rents and soak up some sunshine with my college friends. Which is good because it is currently 34 degrees and about to sleet in Washington, DC. I’m pretty sure Satan invented sleet. The weather channel cannot fool me when they call it a “wintry mix.” More like a mix of evil.
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| This face says I need to get out of this office and soak up some Florida sunshine quick. |
So what are your favorite speed workouts? Any tips on getting faster?
Happy Running,
