Running is all about sucking

That's how my brother put it when he told me to keep running even when my legs felt completely dead. Keep running even when you don't think you can take another step. Keep running, even though it sucks. Probably you have never tried to run like this before, but if you want to be a better, faster runner then this is very important. This blog is going to be about my PT, and how much I have progressed. There is a 5k (roughly 3 mile) outdoor track a few minutes from my house that I have been running on for about 2 weeks now. The first time I ran it, it took my 50 minutes. Yes, I know, that's awful. The reason it took me so long though, is I kept stopping when it was uncomfortable to run. As soon as I got back, started talking to my brother about it, and he told me that I need to keep running, even though it hurts. I thought he was crazy, but I did it anyway two days later. When I finished the run and looked at my watch, I was shocked, it said just over 36 minutes! ...He was right. Since then, I've been trying to push myself when I'm running and I've seen some improvement every time I've run except today.

The reason I was a little slower today, was I tried to imitate the format of the PT tests I will have to take. So before I went running, I did as many pushups and situps as I could in 2 minutes each. Now, if you haven't tried to do any situps for a few years, get out of the chair or off the couch, and do 5 or 6. You'll probably realize that you're using a lot of leg muscles as well as your abs. Now try to do situps for 2 minutes straight and you'll see why I had so much trouble running today. Overall, I was happy with my run, since I finished in about 35 min, which is my second fasted time yet, only by about 20 secs. Not too bad. For the PT test, I only have to run 2 miles, and for my age group, to pass with the bare minimum, i need to finish in about 16 1/2 minutes. Obviously I have a long way to go, but one thing to note is I don't really know how far I'm running on this track. the signs are not exactly reliable, so my guess is that I'm running somewhere around 3 1/2 miles. So I think I'm pretty close to being able to pass the test.

Today was the first time in a week or two that I tested myself on pushups or situps too, and i was surprised when I looked at the number I needed to pass. 40 pushups in 2 minutes, and 50 situps in 2 minutes. I thought for sure it would be more than that. So i did my exercises, and after about a minute, my arms were pretty much dead, so i quit doing pushups at 35. Not that great, but better than I had done before. Recently I've hit a plateau in my pushups, so it was nice to see some improvement. My situps started great, I pounded out 20 in the first 25 seconds or so, and then I slowed down significantly. I still finished with 45 though, which again isn't anything great, but it's close. So with just over a month until I go to basic, I feel very confident that my pushups and situps will be up to par, especially since I'm going to get smoked (when the Drill Sergeants make us do pushups or just stay in the pushup position for a while) a ton during basic, and I don't have to pass the PT test until close to the end of basic. My running should also be good enough by then. I mean, it has to be, because I don't plan on failing anything.

One thing that I keep telling myself is that the more I do it, the easier it will get. So when i feel like quitting because it hurts to take another step, I just tell myself that today is an anomaly, and it won't usually hurt this bad, so just keep going. I also know that if I quit, it doesn't help me at all, I may as well have slept in and done nothing all day if I'm not going to push my limits each time.

So that's what I'm putting myself through before I even get to basic! I'm sure most of you reading think I'm crazy, and that's probably true, but that's what makes it fun!