I have mentioned before that I want to get into the National Guard Reserves this year, though I’ve not said why.

I want to get into the Guard for networking, training that I can’t get anywhere else, a little bit of extra money, and a sense of pride because I’m giving back to this country.

Fair enough, right? I think so. It’s all a pretty good plan, though the problem is getting myself physically ready for bootcamp. I have heard from other people that have been there that you need to aim high on their minimum requirement charts to get in with a good standing and decent opportunities. Since I’m not a person to aim low anyway, I’m aiming to do the same things a man my age would have to do to get an 80% on their exam. This gets me in the low 90 percentile for all my tests which means that I can definitely pass and do what I whatever I can do the best.

Goal

To achieve this I must do the following things:

• Run 2 miles in 15 minutes or less
• 60+ pushups in 2 minutes
• 65+ situps in 2 minutes
• Weigh no more than 155 lbs.

I more or less need a miracle to pull this off before August when basic rolls around. I need to be 80% of the way there so basic doesn’t feel like torture, but rather an intensive to push me past the bare minimum and into this realm of elite for my age/gender category.

Aside:

I really don’t believe in the gender division. In my mind if a job needs to be done, it should be able to be done by anyone that can physically and mentally do it, regardless of age, gender, or any other defining factor. I aim to be the best I can be, which is why I aim for the same standards as a man my age would have to meet to get the job — any job — done. There is a physical difference, yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to let society’s views of my gender define my limitations. I let my physical limitations define them.

Progress

As of today I can do 15 situps in 50 seconds, though I slow down after that and can only get in 27 in 2 minutes. I can’t do any full body pushups, but I can do 7 modified pushups (on the knees). I haven’t been to a gym in a while to test my running abilities because of the snow — we’ll get to this in the pitfalls section. My weight fluctuates between a pathetic 223 and 226 lbs depending on the day of the week.  Such a long way to go…

Limitations

There is only one, combined, limitation I want to discuss/rant about today: not having a car and having plantar fasciitis. For those of you that don’t know, I don’t own a car. So, when there isn’t snow on the ground I was happily riding my bike the 1 mile to the YMCA, running, then riding my back home. It’s actually a great ride along a great path. Now, however, with over a foot of snow on the ground and the roads treacherous, I can’t ride my bike — I tried. I got it stuck in a snow drift, then nearly broke my leg when I hit a patch of ice, then a car nearly hit me because they weren’t paying attention.

So, I tried what I could do: walk to the gym. Well, that only works when you don’t have plantar fasciitis which makes it impossible for you to truly walk anywhere day after day. Hell, I couldn’t even pull it off twice in a week without a lot of close calls of ODing on Ibuprofen. So, apparently walking is out too.

I tried my apartment complexes gym, too. I should take a picture of it some time so all of you can laugh. It’s a tiny, squashed room that’s more suitable for storage than a gym. It has 4 cardio machines, a selection of handweights, a body building machine, and a yoga ball. Of these things, the only things that work (as of two weeks ago) were things that do not have mechanical parts. So, yeah, free weights and a yoga ball which I have at home.

My workaround

Knowing how important cardio is at this time, I know I need to find a workaround. I’ve been doing the Daily HIIT workout in a fashion. Well, I have done several of their videos, but then put together my own routine that I do by default when I need to just go and don’t have time to think. It’s essentially this routine with a few modifications:

The modifications I add are after the donkey pushup I add in 50 seconds of situps. As in, real situps — military style. At the end I also jog in place for 50 seconds.

I like this workaround because it’s brainless, yet not boring because I can rock out to whatever music I want for 20 minutes while I run through the set 3 times. I also like the fact that jogging in place for 50 seconds doesn’t hurt my feet, but if it starts to, I can simply just do high knees instead. I also really like the fact that I’m seeing real results in the situps and pushup area — as in I can tell they are getting easier.

But….

I’m ready to change it up a little, so this weekend and probably for the next couple weeks I’m going to use the second video in this routine:

Except I’ll add the full situps after the leg lifts because I’m down on the ground anyway, and tack on jogging in place on the end.

Final thoughts

I can’t wait till the snow clears up and I have the freedom to get to the gym on my own again. I can’t count on any rides, so the motivation and getting there is all on me.

If you guys have any comments, suggestions, cheers, or anything else, bring it on!