AhPFT

PFT #3

2009-01-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

USMCPFT score: 73/300

Pull-ups: 3
Crunches: 35
3 mile run: 24:53 (Adjusted from 25:43 5k)

So close to a passing score. I just need to squeeze in five more crunches next time. This is my last run before the KPSF5K&HMFRPBPRC on Sunday and things are looking good. I'm learning the importance of pacing myself and through the application of this learning I was able to run the entire 5k tonight without pausing. This was a first.

Status update

2009-01-24T16:51:00.001-08:00

Haven't been so good about running recently. After the last PFT, I ran a speed-mile¹ and another 5k but nothing more than that. Had a long week of late nights at work, then a couple of long nights of bar-hopping, and you know how it goes. I need to get back on the wagon this week, however, since Sunday is my first real 5k race².

I also have a new PFT-related project called the Coit Plan. In this plan, on every workday, I walk from the base of telegraph hill up to the park surrounding Coit Tower. It's about 450 steps to the top and makes my thighs pretty much want to explode. On day four, a dog came up to me in the park, tried to steal my water bottle from me, and then jumped his muddy dog-paws all over my pantlegs.

1. One of my running metrics is a one mile run as fast as I can go. As of publication, my best time is around 6:45.
2. The Kaiser-Permanente San Francisco 5k & Half Marathon Fun Run presented by PAMAKIDS Runner's Club

PFT #2

2009-01-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

USMCPFT score: 52/300

Pull-ups: 3
Crunches: 32
3 mile run: 28:25 (Adjusted from 29:22 5k)

Note that this was my first run in a few weeks and I am still recovering from a pretty nasty cold, so the fact that I even did the run should be considered a win. I managed to get 3 pull-ups done, a passing score, which is nice because it means my little dumbbell exercises are not completely useless. That sit-up score still needs some improvement, though (passing score is 40).

Setback #2

2009-01-01T13:36:00.001-08:00

Two weeks have gone by since the last post (and since anything appropriate to include here has occurred). It was way too cold¹ to run in mid-December and then when it warmed up we had to fly to STL for a two-week holiday vacation². But now that the New Year has arrived, we're going to get back into this in earnest. Expect a real update January 6th.

1. Highs in the mid-40's?? C'mon.
2. It wasn't the vacation that kept us from running but the lack of proper attire. We actually scored a free one-week guest pass to a 24-hour gym but did not want to buy shoes, shorts, etc.

New Year

2008-12-13T12:21:00.000-08:00

It's probably not completely kosher to start on a New Year's Resolution a month before the new year, but I refuse to live by your rules. My NYR for this year is to get a perfect score on the USMCPFT. This is a lofty goal, one which I realistically don't have much confidence that I'll meet, but if nothing else it will serve as tunnel-light, a signpost way off in the distance.

Normally I don't even set NYRs since I never manage to accomplish them. Last year I had planned to drink less but, as Bookowl recently tumbled out, that ended in a Tragic Failure. On the bright side, after the official project/resolution was laid to bed, its spirit was carried on throughout most of the latter half of the year.

There may also be a second PFT-related NYR coming up. Los wants to run a marathon next autumn, specifically (if I remember correctly) the Boston marathon. As a tangent from the main USMCPFT NYR, training for and running in a marathon is looking pretty good right now.

PFT #1

2008-12-11T22:45:00.000-08:00

USMCPFT score: 58/300

Pull-ups: 1
Crunches: 30
3 mile run: 25:00 (Adjusted from 25:50 5k)

A setback

2008-12-10T23:38:00.000-08:00

Things have not gone so well since the last post. Specifically, my jankle¹ kept me from running my weekly 5k tonight. In addition to this, I benchmarked the crunch portion of the USMCPFT and found that I do not meet the minimum requirements. In some ways this is bad: I am out of shape and old. In some ways this is good: there is no where to go but up. It's all about optimism, folks.

Instead of the run tonight, I drank a giant beer and followed it up with a dram or so of fine single malt scotch. I also watched an episode of Scrubs.

The ten-pound weight with which I'm training my tiny arms to achieve a pull-up is looking in my direction disappointedly.

1. jankle - portmanteau for janky ankle; for the layman, a fucked up ankle.

Introduction

2008-12-09T00:32:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I started running. This is the third or fourth time I've made such an effort in as many years. Generally I'll be very enthusiastic about it for a week or two and then slowly lose interest until I realize months have gone by since the last run. I've tried keeping performance logs and setting reasonably attainable goals but things never pan out. Enter this blog, which has been established not only to keep a record of my progress but also to provide a place to write extremely boring posts chronicling my self-improvement.

There are currently two sub-projects under the umbrella of ahook fitness. The first is a weekly 5k run (and for the time being partial walk), which is being tracked at ahook.net/prj/5k.php. Also on that project page is the second project, the weekly 1 mile sprint. The (perhaps obvious) goal of each of these projects is to complete their respective events as quickly as possible. My initial goals are a 24:00 5k and a 6:00 mile. If these are met, I'll push for 21:00 and 5:00, but seriously guys. how likely is that? (Not incredibly likely).

Finally, tonight I landed on a page about the United States Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (USMCPFT) and have decided to bundle this into the plan as well. This test has three aspects: 1) a 3 mile run, 2) two minutes of crunches, and 3) pull-ups. A perfect score is: 1) 18:00 for the 3 mile run, 2) 100 crunches in two minutes, and 3) 20 pull-ups (not timed). Each time I run the 5k (which is essentially a 3 mile run), I'll also be scoring myself on crunches (which in ahookspeak would technically be sit-ups, but we won't question the marines here (semper fi)) and pull-ups (of which I can do exactly zero right now). I will note here now that the pull-ups will be executed using the hanger-bar in my coat-closet until an adequate replacement can be found.

Once I buy a bathroom scale, I will also be weighing the fuck out of my self every morning. The Ninendo Wii called me frail and I ain't having any more of that shit.