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