Quickdraw Faces The Test

[Quickdraw]

I have a physical fitness test coming up sometime probably in March.  My pullups and run time have slipped of late, and it's time to get that turned around.  I'm so busy it's difficult to fit my schedule to anyone else locally for accountability, so I've come to rejoin this community for some external accountability.  Plus I'm a huge nerd, and the gamification works for me.

 

Main Quest

Score a 250 (of 300) on my upcoming PFT.

 

Subquests

Goal 1 - Improve Run Time

I have a run training plan developed by one of my juniors, who ran XC and track.  I'm eyeballing an approximate 3 mile time of 24:00 as acceptable, given I ran about a 25:30 or so last year.  The plan comes in 3x and 4x/week versions.  I am going to swing at the 4x version, but 3x/week is a bare minimum.

 

Goal 2 - Get My Pullups Back

I was doing 20 pullups at 182#, so it's completely unacceptable that I now weigh 20# less but do about 9-11 pullups.  Fortunately, pullups are easier to regain than they are to achieve the first time.  I will use my lunch breaks to walk to the nearby pullup bars and bust out a pullup workout.  Probably going to use the Armstrong method, or some combination of pullup-building exercises I used to recommend when I took this seriously.

 

Goal 3 - Enhance Core Strength

I'm in a pretty good place here, but I want to be better and codify what I've been doing sporadically already.  I will do 5m worth of planks at a bare minimum, daily.  100 crunches is the max score.

 

If I hit all of my goals here, I'm actually at a 264/300.  I could drop three pullups or run two and a half minutes slower and still meet my goal.  But I'd rather hit all three goals.

 

Tracking Method

I'm a very tech-oriented guy for productivity and planning, but for this I need something physical.  I'm going to make a 3x5 card with weekly checkboxes for all of these goals (the 3~4x runs, 6x pullup-focused workouts, 6x core, Fridays off because we wear dress uniforms) and check the boxes as I go.  Every two unchecked boxes (at all, across all subquests) will reduce my final grade on this challenge by a degree (A+ > A > A- ).

 

Every day's post, I'll sketch the plan for the next day, because visualizing helps me make it happen.  And if I don't plan it out, the incredible demands of my job will snow me under and fitness will fall by the wayside, just as it has for the past year+.

 

Next Step

Tomorrow I'm driving 6 hours back home from LA.  I'll try to do a run when I get home, and get some upper body (maybe pushups and dips, though) and core in on the road during rest stops.

[german]

Sounds like you've got a pretty solid plan going on, stay with it and you'll reach those goals for sure!

[Quickdraw]

Thanks!

 

Day 0

We had a long weekend and visited family.  The drive back home happened at "baby speed" and I accomplished nothing as a result, although we did make sure we got over 10k steps.  This just burns up my "flex" day for the week.  I'll plank and pullup tomorrow (Tuesday).

[Quickdraw]

Day 1

 

Run Subquest: FAIL. Work ran super late and it was impossible to squeeze in a run around dinner.  This means I owe myself the run Wed/Thu/Fri, no excuses.

Pullups Subquest: WIN.  Walked to the pullup bars during lunch and busted out a set.  Got 10.  Worked a few negatives.  Need to go do this at the beginning of lunch, not the end.  Today was feeling out new routines, and it worked, but casually busting out a max set once a day will not improve my total.

Core Subquest: WIN. Front planks of 90s, 90s, and 2m.

 

Google Docs doesn't support 3x5 card-sized pages, so printing my tracker is going to be difficult.  I will just pen-and-paper it, and have laid out a card to take to work tomorrow.

 

Bonus incentive: If I complete this week's stage of the quest successfully, I can open and assemble my newly acquired Lego TIE Bomber this weekend.  If I fail, the TIE waits until at LEAST the following weekend.

[Quickdraw]

Day 2

 

Run Subquest: WIN. Came home from work, changed, jogged 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.  I'm still at the very beginning of my ramp-up; the first 4 weeks of the run program are just re-acclimating myself.

 

Pullups Subquest: WIN. Did some work on the indoor bar at home right after my run.  Minimal, but met standards.  After tomorrow's test in class, I will pull up a proper pullup program and make that the new standard.

 

Core Subquest: WIN. 2*2m, 1m.

 

Did up my progress card by hand with a pen.  Progress is now staring me in the face.  Legos-wise, I've also identified my Republic Assault Ship as the reward for Week 4, and the A Wing my best friend just got me for Christmas as the overall Challenge prize.  Just cuz I have the Legos doesn't mean I'm entitled to play with them yet.

[german]

Woot! triple win!

 

And awesome legos! I love building stuff with them (and so does my kid) but I am not very good at following instructions, so I just build whatever I feel like, although I do love the results people get when they DO follow instructions!

[Raevn]

Nice, simple goals. I can identify with wanting to score well on a fitness test!

 

For the pullups, pyramid sets helped me out a TON with improving my max reps. What I did was set the top reps to be one or two less than my max, and do that for about a week and then try out my max again. That, and doing progressively heavier weighted pullups and weighted pyramid sets, brought me up from a max of 5 sloppy ones to 17 solid ones in a couple months. It's not exactly a fast process, but it definitely worked!

 

As for core, I've heard that turkish get-ups are killer if you've got access to kettlebells. But you're already getting a good bit of work in on your core with all you're doing already, so you should be in good shape there!

[Quickdraw]

 

Day 3

 

Run: DRAW I got home from work so late that running would have interfered with sleep.  I don't do that.  I can run Friday and Sunday and still hit 3x for the week, which is my minimum.

 

Pullups: WIN 1>5>1 pyramid (with *1pushup and *5s rest per pullup) and later 2>4>1.  Got a lot of negatives in there.

 

Core: WIN 2*1m front, 1m each side, 1m back.  Tomorrow I'll do squats or something; my abs are shot.

 

Today really proved the importance of getting what I can throughout the day.  I didn't know I'd be at work past 6pm until after 4pm.  It screwed my run, but at least I did my pullups and core before/during lunch.  I may need to start working my run into lunch or something...  Or at least taking pains to get it in earlier on Thursdays.

 

Also, thanks for the feedback guys, it's nice not operating in a vacuum here.  We nerds must stick together, yes?

 

Woot! triple win!

 

And awesome legos! I love building stuff with them (and so does my kid) but I am not very good at following instructions, so I just build whatever I feel like, although I do love the results people get when they DO follow instructions!

 

I have big ol' suitcases of Castle and Space Legos from my childhood that I'm gonna bust out and play with, someday...  The Quickdrawling ("Additional," we called her in-utero) is too little for it yet, but that day will come.

 

Nice, simple goals. I can identify with wanting to score well on a fitness test!

 

For the pullups, pyramid sets helped me out a TON with improving my max reps. What I did was set the top reps to be one or two less than my max, and do that for about a week and then try out my max again. That, and doing progressively heavier weighted pullups and weighted pyramid sets, brought me up from a max of 5 sloppy ones to 17 solid ones in a couple months. It's not exactly a fast process, but it definitely worked!

 

As for core, I've heard that turkish get-ups are killer if you've got access to kettlebells. But you're already getting a good bit of work in on your core with all you're doing already, so you should be in good shape there!

 

Pyramids were how I got up to 20+ in the first place, so they're definitely how I'll get BACK there.  Thanks for the reminder.  The gym does have kettlebells, but I have very little control over my schedule and can't build a proper gym habit if I expect to hit all my major responsibilities.  Might have to just BUY a kettlebell; I've been considering doing so for a while now.

[Quickdraw]

• Run: WIN.  Did an inversion of yesterday's 3 mile course in 3 fewer minutes.  Just knocking the rust off is helping a lot.
• Pullups: WIN.  Did a pyramid before the run, same as yesterday's 1>5>1.  MUCH easier.
• Core: WIN.  1m, 1m, 30s front planks and 2x45s side planks, 2x25 crunches.

Just having this thread to post in every evening is really helping me keep on track.  All two or three of you who are reading this...  Thanks.  Seriously.

[Raevn]

Hey, no problem. That's what we're here for!

 

Great work with the running and pullups, make that progress.

 

One thing for core I forgot to mention that you probably already know, but I'm gonna say it anyways! :

 

I can easily push out the max number of crunches for my tests (only 58, air force standards ) without doing any crunches between tests. But the thing that made it much easier come test time was doing the max reps a few times leading up to the test so that doing that many crunches wasn't a shock to the system (I learned that the hard way with my pushups!  ).

 

So maybe think of doing your 100 crunches a time or two long enough before the test to fully recover, but still be used to doing that many at one time.

[german]

• Run: WIN. Did an inversion of yesterday's 3 mile course in 3 fewer minutes. Just knocking the rust off is helping a lot.
• Pullups: WIN. Did a pyramid before the run, same as yesterday's 1>5>1. MUCH easier.
• Core: WIN. 1m, 1m, 30s front planks and 2x45s side planks, 2x25 crunches.

Just having this thread to post in every evening is really helping me keep on track. All two or three of you who are reading this... Thanks. Seriously.

Another triple win! Cool.

Don't worry about not getting too much attention, first time rebels guild is HUGE and so e threads don't get a lot of attention, for the next challenge you can join another guild, usually a lot more active posters, with common specific interest. Of course the coolest one is the Scouts (endurance sports, mostly runners!).

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Quickdraw]

 

Hey, no problem. That's what we're here for!

 

Great work with the running and pullups, make that progress.

 

One thing for core I forgot to mention that you probably already know, but I'm gonna say it anyways! :

 

I can easily push out the max number of crunches for my tests (only 58, air force standards  ) without doing any crunches between tests. But the thing that made it much easier come test time was doing the max reps a few times leading up to the test so that doing that many crunches wasn't a shock to the system (I learned that the hard way with my pushups!   ).

 

So maybe think of doing your 100 crunches a time or two long enough before the test to fully recover, but still be used to doing that many at one time.

 

 

Honestly I've been out of the PT loop for so long, that had not occurred to me.  Thanks!

 

Another triple win! Cool.

Don't worry about not getting too much attention, first time rebels guild is HUGE and so e threads don't get a lot of attention, for the next challenge you can join another guild, usually a lot more active posters, with common specific interest. Of course the coolest one is the Scouts (endurance sports, mostly runners!).


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

It's not that I necessarily NEED the attention.  I'm finding that writing this stuff out is its own reward/motivation.  I'm just glad I'm not entirely talking to myself in here.

 

I may multiclass in Scouts after a while.  Rangers suit me pretty perfectly, but I see myself doing some stuff on challenges that fits the Scouts and Druids better, over time.  I'm not gonna hit that run time goal in a single challenge.

 

Day 5 (Saturday)

• Run: DRAW.  Was on 24-hour-watch duty yesterday and literally had no chance to run.
• Pullups: WIN.  Had a pullup bar out back, did sets of negatives throughout the day.
• Core: DRAW. Tried some planks and found that I was completely burnt out from going every day.  Called it a day off.

[Raevn]

Glad to be of some help!

 

Tough luck with the running, but good job working pullups throughout the day... that definitely helps.

[T2sarahconnor]

Nice, simple goals. I can identify with wanting to score well on a fitness test!

 

For the pullups, pyramid sets helped me out a TON with improving my max reps. What I did was set the top reps to be one or two less than my max, and do that for about a week and then try out my max again. That, and doing progressively heavier weighted pullups and weighted pyramid sets, brought me up from a max of 5 sloppy ones to 17 solid ones in a couple months. It's not exactly a fast process, but it definitely worked!

 

Question QuickDraw or Raevn. Can you explain pyramids to me? Sorry so novice with the terms but really looking to improve strength.

[Quickdraw]

Nice, simple goals. I can identify with wanting to score well on a fitness test!

 

For the pullups, pyramid sets helped me out a TON with improving my max reps. What I did was set the top reps to be one or two less than my max, and do that for about a week and then try out my max again. That, and doing progressively heavier weighted pullups and weighted pyramid sets, brought me up from a max of 5 sloppy ones to 17 solid ones in a couple months. It's not exactly a fast process, but it definitely worked!

 

Question QuickDraw or Raevn. Can you explain pyramids to me? Sorry so novice with the terms but really looking to improve strength.

 

A pyramid is where you start at a small number of reps, a small break, and repeat the exercise several sets increasing the number of reps until you reach a maximum, after which you go back down to the starting number.  For instance, 1 pullup, 5 second rest, 2 pullups, 10 second rest, 3 pullups, 15 second rest, etc.  They're useful for many, many different forms of exercise where high reps are a good way to build capacity (pushups, pullups, crunches, squats).  They keep you at a state of exerting-while-burnt-out for longer than simply doing one maximum set, which is a great way to increase your max.

[Quickdraw]

Woops, I totally skipped posting yesterday.  Here's two at once:

 

Day 6 (Sunday)

• Run: WIN-ish.  Felt blah from sleep deprivation.  Got a few sprints in while walking around town playing Ingress, and cleared 14k steps on my Fitbit.  Called it good enough.
• Pullups: WIN.  Did a few negative sets on my doorway bar.
• Core: WIN. 5m worth planks, the exact breakdown escapes me.

Overall Week 1 Outcome: 2/3 run, 6/6 pullups, 6/6 core.  I get to build my Lego TIE Bomber...  Eventually.  I have guard duty twice more in the coming week, a presentation due, etc...  But at least I EARNED the reward.

 

Week 2 Day 1

• Run: WIN.  SUPER-late day at the office, got home and immediately did a high-pace 2.5 miles.
• Pullups: WIN.  Several sets of negatives over lunch.
• Core: WIN.  Planks 2x1:15, 3x1m.

Off to a good start.  Tomorrow I should again be able to run right after I get home, which is definitely the only way to actually fit it in.  I also have a date slated for my fitness test, which should be after NEXT challenge; plenty of time to get in gear.  I can achieve my Main Quest goal score by then.

[T2sarahconnor]

You should be thrilled with your week one! Good start to week two also. Thanks for the explanation. I knew the general idea. I am going to start doing push ups that way.

[german]

You are doing great! so much WIN!!

[Quickdraw]

Thanks guys!  It's been a real challenge going from "I have no damn motivation to exercise" to "I hit 14/15 goals for the week" and you guys have been great encouragement.

 

W2D2

• Run: WIN.  4.5 hilly miles in 39 minutes.
• Pullups: WIN.  Several sets of negatives right now before bed.
• Core: WIN.  2m, 1.5m, 1.5m

Now that I have a definite set date for the fitness test, I'm picturing stretching this current routine into the next challenge, which SHOULD end right when we test.  After that, I'll probably pull some serious changes to prepare for the fall's fitness test (which is very different).  Drop the running-running to 1-2x/week, work in 2-3 fast-walk weighted hikes to increase short-distance endurance under load, and practice lifting something heavier than the fitness test's weight.

 

But that's the middle future.  Right NOW I want to earn my A-Wing set, and Level 2, so I can pick up a class.

 

Everyone keep up the good fight in your own challenges!  Halfway there!

[Quickdraw]

No added stress or anything, but I was just told that achieving my Main Quest goal on the test (after the next challenge) will mean I get the follow-on assignment I want.

 

I'm adjusting Subquest 2 (Pullups) to 5x/week.  I will be using the http://manlypat.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/armstrong-pull-up-program/'>Armstrong Pullup Program, which calls for weekends off.  It also calls for 3 max-effort sets of pushups every morning, so that's a required component of a "Win" day for that subquest.

[Raevn]

Wow, that's pretty good news! I'm sure you can get it

 

Just be careful with the max sets of pushups every day, especially if you aren't used to doing that many regularly. It can put quite a lot of stress on your elbows, especially with the pullup work you're putting in. I got some mild tendonitis a few years ago in my elbows doing a large amount of pushups each day, and didn't let them recover enough before I started working on my pullups.

 

That said, best of luck to you! I'll be rooting for you.

[Quickdraw]

Yeah, I'll definitely be listening to my body on that.  The "less" choice assignment I'd get otherwise certainly has its advantages, so it's not like "achieve your quest or your career is over", but I REALLY want (and have already been working towards) this first choice.

 

I mean I was already turning things around pretty hard with this Challenge, now I just have WAY more incentive to do so.  Up until now the follow-on assignment was kinda nebulous.

[Raevn]

Awesome. Keep up the hard work and you'll get it no problem.

[T2sarahconnor]

Keep it up! I like seeing your WIN. It would be a nice reward to get the assignment you want. You can do it! When is your test?

[Quickdraw]

Keep it up! I like seeing your WIN. It would be a nice reward to get the assignment you want. You can do it! When is your test?

 

April, almost exactly after the next Challenge by my count.  Pullups are worth the most points (5pts per pullup vs 5 pts per minute faster on the 3 mile run; a huge difference in training exertion), then the run, then crunches (everyone maxes that one, and I'm not particularly worried on this front).  So beyond the Armstrong pullup program, I'm kicking the run program into a higher gear with my junior Marine (the run coach) as well, cutting out a few weeks of build-up jogging in favor of speed work sooner (next week or two).

 

The senior boss here, who said I can stay if I improve my fitness test, he literally said the exact score as my Main Quest goal.  "You can stay as long as you do better on your next test.  I'd LIKE to see a 250." So I was all, "That's exactly my own goal for myself, senior boss."

 

W2D3 (Wednesday)

• Run: DRAW.  On guard duty, no chance to run.  Again.
• Pullups: DRAW.  Didn't do anything, but my schedule has 1x/week of slack built in.
• Core: WIN.  2m, 1.5m, 1.5m.

W2D4 (Thursday)

• Run: DRAW.  Run plan calls for 4x/week, was very tired after getting home.  I still have class after guard duty, so I'm completely exhausted.
• Pullups: WIN.  Thursday's Armstrong: 7x "training" sets of 4 pullups, with 60s rest between.
• Core: WIN.  1.5, 1.5, 1, 1.

 

So far, I'm not off-track for the week so much as I've used up my cushion on the run and pullups.