A Humbling Week

Motivation

"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it."

- Marcus Aurelius

My Path

I can't take credit for the title of this post. This was a phrase said by many students throughout the week. I don't believe there is a statement that can more accurately describe last week. The two main events of the week, the E-Course and Night Land Navigation, were both on Tuesday, which made for an extremely long day. It was nice to have a three day weekend with the Labor Day holiday, but I think it led many Marines to rest become complacent. And anyone who has been in or around the Marines Corps has heard the phrase, "Complacency kills." I cannot speak for other students, but this is the assumption I am making from what I heard. Many spent the weekend with friends and family and not worrying about what they ate or their personal PT. The week prior was stressful due exams and a large volume of information being thrown our way. This is to be expected when you're told that the six months of TBS is the equivalent to three college semesters, but it is no reason to take a break. While taking some time off may have been the downfall of many Marines, I don't believe it was mine.

Over the holiday I spent time reading and PTing, just as I had stated in my last post I anticipated on doing. But perhaps I trained a little too hard. It has been a while since I have trained at high volume, which is what I was used to before reporting to TBS. While it was good training leading into TBS, when you're schedule does not allow you to continue your previous training habits you have to ease yourself back into it as you ramp up the volume. This is definitely something I need to learn how to do. Thankfully I have a couple training partners here that keep me in check. But I cannot and will not make the excuse that I pushed myself too hard in the days leading up to the E-Course, which led to my failing score. Only a mile into the five miles of running and negotiating obstacles under a, what I would consider, light combat load I mentally gave up on myself. I succumbed to fatigue in my legs and stress on my respiratory system. This wasn't the first time I had run the E-Course, granted I hadn't run it with a Plate Carrier before, but I knew I was physically strong enough to accomplish the task. I failed myself in not being mentally tough that day.

Other factors that may have attributed to our company performing poorly on the E-Course may have been the heat and humidity. We received a good amount of rain over the long weekend and Tuesday was a clear day, rising into the high 80's by mid morning. The thick vegetation surrounding the course is not conducive to air circulation either. This most likely caused the two heat casualties in our company during the event, one of which was a Lt from my platoon who went down about twenty meters from the finish about 56 minutes into the course. This event tired the entire company out for the rest of the day, but we still had to conduct our Land Navigation Practical Application that evening. It was still muggy in the tree line when we stepped off from our first checkpoint at 2030. Not only did the dense canopy hold in the humidity, but it also blocked any ambient light from the moon. I don't know how many times I fell over or walked into a tree. I managed to slip down a hill for about 30 meters, stopping myself just before falling into a river. The good news was that the river indicated that I had made it to the other side of the training area. Now I just had to determine which direction my checkpoint was along the river, hoping it was the correct coordinate.

Thankfully I passed the Night Land Navigation PracApp without too much of a problem. What wasn't fun was making up for all the walking I did on the E-Course by having about twenty minutes to make it out of the training area and back to the classroom to have my card graded. It was about a mile and a half to get back, but I made it with just a couple minutes to spare. But that wasn't the end of our night. We didn't secure until about 0200 the next training day. Due to the long day and casualties sustained during both of the previous day's events, our Company Commander made the decision to cancel the morning Combat Conditioning. We were briefed on the events of the E-Course and how we were only the second company to run it with Plate Carriers. The results proved that the new equipment was hindering students and actually being a detriment to training, therefore we will be running the E-Course with the more breathable Load Bearing Vests. I'm glad that we are training smarter than at OCS. It was explained to us that it is because they are no longer "screening" us, but actually training us.

Just when I began talking about having been successful in so many physical events, sure enough, I fall on my face. Quite literally a couple times during the E-Course and Night Land Nav. I guess that we all need a lesson in being humble from time to time. Now, bear with me on this one, but I think it's a good quote even if it's from Batman Begins. "And why do we fall...? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

WODs

20120902

Application Train Run

2 Miles Out - 13:32

2 Miles Back - 13:25

20120903

"Tabata Something Else"

8 Rounds of 20 Seconds of Max Effort, 10 Seconds Rest per Exercise

Pullups - 18/17/16/9/6/7/8/7 = 88 Reps

Pushups - 24/25/15/12/11/9/11/11 = 118 Reps

Situps - 15/14/13/13/12/12/12/12 = 103 Reps

Squats - 20/20/19/19/18/19/19/19 = 153 Reps

Total Reps - 462

20120904

TBS Endurance Course

1:22:20 (Failing)

Passing Range 1:00:00 - 1:20:00

20120908

Weighted Pullups

5 Reps @ 44#, 3 @ 79#, 10 @ 44#, 1 @ 100#, 5 @ 44#

Clean & Split Jerk Work

3 @ 95#, 3 @ 135#, 1 @ 185#, 1 @ 195#, 2 Failed Attempts @ 205#

5 Rounds for Time - 2:51

3 Thrusters @ 135# (From the Ground)

5 Ring Dips

20120910

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 1 (65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5 or More)

Deadlift: 225#, 295#, 335# (5 Reps)

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 1 (65%x5, 75%x5, 85%x5 or More)
Bench Press: 165#, 195#, 215# (10 Reps)

Tabata Body Weight Deadlift & Burpees (Alternating Exercises)
Deadlift @ 175# (Rounded Up) - 10/10/9/10/7/7/7/11
Burpees - 9/9/9/8/8/8/8/8

Land Nav, Double O, End of Phase I

Motivation

"The general who wins battles makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand."

- Sun Tzu

My Path

It's only been about a month and a half of training and we're done with Phase I. It's kind of crazy to think about. Quarter of the way through! Time has been flying, to be honest. I don't know if it's from having a blast, getting to know new people, or just always being busy. Just a short recap of what we've done: MCMAP, Rifle and Pistol Qual, Endurance Course, Double Obstacle Course, Land Navigation, Classes that run the gamete from USMC Organization and Customs and Courtesies to Law of War/Rules of Engagement and Tactical Fundamentals. Phase I is meant to teach and build the individual skills and organizational understandings an Officer must have in order to be competent, but a very bare-bones competency. Just like anywhere else in the Marine Corps, TBS adheres to the crawl-walk-run training mentality. While I have no doubt that the majority of the Marines here could perform well with a quicker training regiment, the tempo allows the student to become confident as they become more competent in each skill.

This last week we were introduced to Land Navigation and the Double Obstacle Course. I've run the O-Course before, only at OCS, but never back to back. I'll go into that later in the WODs section. I was also introduced to Land Nav at OCS, but not like this. At OCS we started at a point, typically an ammo can on a stick, given an azimuth for direction, and a distance which we converted to a pace count. Pace count wasn't a big deal as long as you could walk in a straight line because the points were on opposite sides of the training area. At TBS we were actually given a map. This made it much easier for me as I was able to hone my skills in terrain association. It's a pretty cool feeling being able to look at a map and have a good idea where you are based on elevation and terrain features. I hope I can perform just as well during the night course this coming week and in final Land Nav, which is in a training area about six times larger than this week.

So far my plan of coming into TBS at the peak of my physical condition has paid off. My thought was that if I came in physically prepared it would be one less thing to worry about when I was here and I could utilize my time to focus on studies and mentally preparing for billet responsibilities. I can say it's worked so far as I have been able to max each of the graded/evaluated physical events so far, but that's not to say that everything has come easily because that has not been the case whatsoever. I don't say this to boast as I am very grateful for my abilities, especially after sustaining a pretty serious injury a couple months prior to reporting, and I hope that my performance is able to motivate others in my platoon. I know I'm in a competitive environment, but I honestly want everyone here to do well and I'm here to give whatever assistance I can to whoever wants it. I know I'll need help in certain areas and hope there will be someone there willing to assist me.

This weekend has been kind of dead as far as activities. With the extra day of Labor Day most of the Marines have gone home or are out visiting friends. Many made a trip back to the Naval Academy. I opted to stay here in hopes of PTing and working on belting up in MCMAP. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to train with either of our platoon's Martial Arts Instructors (MAIs), but the weekend is still young. Something tells me I'll be doing more running for PT or maybe another fartlek as the gym is closed, but it's nice to switch it up a bit. And the time to unwind and take my mind off of TBS training is nice. Maybe I'll finish On Infantry and start another book for my personal professional development reading.

I don't know what it is, whether it's the end of Phase I or maybe receiving some feedback from my peers, but I am very thankful for being here and having the opportunity of working with the staff and students. I think I'm realizing what an amazing chapter of my life I'm in currently. And all of the support I've received from my friends and family has made it that much more of a blessing. Thank you to everyone for reading my posts and following me through this awesome journey I'm embarking in. I hope that I can repay each of you in some way. It means the world to me.

WODs

20120827

Uniform: Boots and Utes

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 4 Deload (40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5)

Bench Press: 100#, 125#, 145# (Extra Set: 225# x 8 Reps)

2 Rounds for Reps (Max Effort for 1 Minute/Exercise) - 169 Reps

135# Power Clean - 15/9

20# Wallball Shots - 20/15

Pullups - 30/25

Ring Dips - 30/20

20120828

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 4 Deload (40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5)

Back Squat: 125#, 155#, 185#

Overhead Squat and Flexibility/Range of Motion Work

20120831
USMC Double-O Course - 2:38 (3:00 is Maxing)
The link above shows the TBS O-Course being run once. We would run to the end of the second O-Course on the other side of the ropes and do it all over again. Techniques to negotiate obstacles varied.

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 4 Deload (40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5)

Military Press: 60#, 80#, 95#

Wendler 5-3-1 Strength: Week 4 Deload (40%x5, 50%x5, 60%x5)

Deadlift: 160#, 200#, 240#

7 Rounds for Time - 5:34
10 95# Sumo Deadlift High Pull
10 Ring Dips

20120901
(Gym Closed)
Functional Fitness Full Body Work in "Strong Man" Area