i need some serious guidance before this competition destroys me...

[ramsay]

heyyy everyone. so my unit has some slots open for a three day competition for the german armed forces proficiency badge. and, well, i want it. 

it's pretty cool looking, and i would earn the title of bad-ass. 

but, i have NO idea how to get ready for it (in the most efficient way possible). 

 

here is what i know about this three day ass-kicking:

 

200 meter swim in 7 minutes

100 meter sprint in 16 seconds

75 meter sprint in 12.4 seconds

1000 meter sprint in 5:30 minutes

100 meter swim in 2:10 minutes

3000 meter run in 18:30 minutes

1000 meter swim in 28 minutes

12k ruckmarch in 120 minutes with 35 lbs.

aaand some kind of weight lifting equivalent to your body weight (so either bench pressing, squating, or dead-lifting 160lbs. i'm assuming bench pressing). 

plus pistol shooting (6 shots on target at 25meters).

 

i know what to do for the last two, but the rest?! especially the swimming. i swam as a kid, but only splashing around. i CAN swim, just not very well. 

 

so, shoot! what do i do to prepare for this?

also, i have NO idea when it is... let's just say it's in august. 

[fengor]

For swimming i have heard good things about the total immersion program but havent tried it myself. For the running i would see if there are running programs available that you can adapt. maybe the follow up form c25k?

 

In gerneal after what i have read sprint training is awesome for getting faster over longer distances as well.

[Wolfhorde]

Who're you with? Army? Navy? Air Force? Feldjäger?

 

First  piece of advice I'd give you is trying to find some advice from fellow soldiers (from what I gather not necessarily the lazy Huns at the Streitkräftebasis), someone who has already done something like this - maybe someone who's been successful and how they prepared. Maybe Feldjäger, maybe KSK or something alike if there are any possible connections into that direction. (obviously also depending on your station as they tend to vary quite a bit from what I hear)

 

You could go for the "sprint exercises" (low distance, fast time) by doing HIIT and timing it. 3km in ~20 minutes shouldn't be too hard, I'd say for that you can do some "regular" endurance running exercises like a quick but comfortable pace jogging.

As for the march, get some weights and do farmer's walks focussed on endurance or just y'know, grab your gear, march 12km and time it.

 

That being said, no idea what kind of person you are but you may find it easier to stick with a propram and actually pull through if you see more in it than just a cool looking badge and a shiny (proverbial) title or as one of the popular motivational videos on here says:"But you don't really want it, you just kinda want it [..] When you want to be succesful as hard you wanna breathe, then you will be succesful!"

Not to be presumptuous, just some food for thought.

[Evicious]

The swim is what tends to kick everyone's ass. You're going to have to bite the bullet and just get in the water and start practicing. It's not just about being able to drag your body through the water; coordinated movements between your limbs is essential if you're going to pick up any kind of speed and endurance at it. And the only way to gain that coordination is by practicing. Start slow and practice getting into the rhthym of it, then start increasing your distance and duration in the water.

 

Really, just weightlifting? Whatever happened to the shotput?! Damn this current day and age, and all it's pussified downgrading of perfectly challenging challenges. The whole point of the GAFPB was that you did things well that you normally never did.... grrrrr.... but I digress.

 

The ruckmarch is going to be a piece of cake if you do any kind of consistent rucking with your SQD/PLT (mandatory on Thursday for Ft Polk) since they lowered the distance and increased the time limit allowed. If rucking isn't already a normal part of your routine though, I suggest getting out there and practicing that too. Some people - myself included in this - just don't take naturally to it, and practice is the only way we get better at doing it.

 

Same thing goes for the pistol competition: if you don't normally qualify with one on the range (officers/medical personnel) or it's just been a while since you qualified, your best bet is to find someone who already owns one and start going out to the range on your weekends. This is definitely the easiest part of the GAFPB, but it's also the easiest to overestimate your ability on. A lot of people go in thinking they'll nail it because "I already shoot Expert" and then fail because all they've ever practiced with is the M4/M16. It's too easy and just too much damn fun to practice for this, so why the hell wouldn't you?

 

That being said, either go in for the win or don't bother signing up at all, pls: I know a lot of people who just go in because it gets them out of their normal work day. That's just rude.

[cline]

You need to work on swimming intervals and sprints and same for running. You can start small and work up to the distances. You can even tabata your intervals.

Can you already lift your body weight?

[I-Jo]

how much time do you have to train??  that's really the more important question to see if you can realistically do this. 

 

are you in Germany?  where?

 

my friend rucks all the time- she can probably help you with that stuff (not the swimming- she's not a swimmer)- she's done several of the memorial ones- including the 100 mile one I think.  

[ramsay]

thank you all for the feedback! here's some more info:

 

it's been confirmed that the competition IS in august. 

 

i'm with the army, here in hawaii. so far i'm ... ehhh physical fitness wise (my run really could be better) but i'm working on it with interval and hill training. 

as far as asking fellow soldiers, i have done that. as far as i know, no one has done it. i even went to an army website and was like 'hey what should i expect' and someone just told me to google it, and that's it. so i'm pretty much in the dark here (and of course my squad leader was out today, so i couldn't ask him about it). 

 

but there is shotput and high/long jumping i believe! i just read so many different things when i googled it that i didn't know for sure. long jumping i can do, i did it in highschool. high jumping, i'm not the best at. and i don't even know where to begin with shotput. 

and to be honest, i have never tried lifting my body weight, so i have no idea. 

i'm the most worried about the swimming. i swam as a kid, but it really was just splashing around in a pool. nothing like this.

i've shot a pistol maybe a handful of times, and never in the military. it's definitely something i was planning on looking into though already.

for the ruckmarches, we don't do them that often. the last one we did was back in early april, and it was somewhere around... 5 miles in an hour and a half i believe? most of our group fell out because, well, we're MI and a lot of 'us' don't think we need to be real soldiers. but that's an entirely different rant...

 

i know i'm pretty over my head here, and under prepared, but besides the shiny badge (which you know, who doesn't love shiny things?) i really am in it for the physical challenge of it. most of the requirements i've never really immersed myself in, and really pushed my limits. with this i really want to, but i don't want to either not do the right things and ultimately injure myself, or not be prepared. as i said, i don't want to set myself up for failure. i understand that there's an aspect of 'yeah you got something out of the competition just by trying' but really... just trying isn't good enough for me. if i'm going to enter myself into a physical competition i want some kind of score, reward, or at least have some remaining pride by the end of it.