Training Days

This may be the weekend, but I still need to train for this German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge.  Yesterday I swam at the Hopewell Community Center. Good news: I can use the backstroke to do the 200m in the required 7 minutes (I'm over 30). That makes two events that I know I can do.

In the afternoon, I worked on the shot put and 100m sprint. I still have to work on the sprint, but I think that with a better start I can get there. If I can't, I'll have to do the 1000m run in 4:10. That's a 7-minute mile pace, but even that's a bit beyond me at the moment. I haven't trained at that level in a long while -- most Friday company runs are an 8 to 10 minute pace.

Today there was a practice ruck march, but I opted to go to church instead. I did, however, go to the 1:00 practice for shot put and high jump. After that finished, I walked around the track with my rucksack to get some practice, so I'm really sore right now.

To qualify for the gold badge, you have to do 7.5 miles in two hours with a 33 pound ruck -- that's a 16 minute per mile pace. However, my natural pace is 18 minutes per mile, so I've still got some work to do for that.

The bad news is that this coming week is the test week; the good news is that I only have to pass one event and then I've got a year to finish all the rest. I'm good on the 200m swim and pistol shoot.  I'm iffy on the ruck march and 100m sprint. The 3 km run, shot put, and high jump are going to require a good bit more time to train up on.