The Beat Goes On

So, last weekend I may have mentioned was a Drill Weekend. Not a whole lot happened except for a couple of drill sergeant stories that amused me to no end (I'm taking notes) and a PT (physical training) test that I did, well, abysmally at.

I passed my pushups and situps just fine (though my pushups could use some sprucing up and smoothing out, yikes!), it's my run that got me.

I don't know what is going on, becuase I feel like I'm running and giving it my all and I never remember running being this hard. I hate growing old and being short because my pace is not the pace I need it to be to really pull out a strong run time on my PT test.

So in order to combat this, I've been running every day this week to improve my run time, and yesterday I ran two miles (give or take, it was on a high school running track so the mileage is off by a little) and I found that I shaved a good minute and a half of my run time by running every day. However I have to shave another thirty seconds off of it before I hit Fort Leonard Wood to get a solid 70 points in that event. My goal is to get 70 in each even when I get there, at the very least. 70 won't be great, but it would be better then just barely passing, which is what I don't want to do.

Fortunately, I do have a few things going for me.

When I do run the PT test for DSS, I will be running with other soldiers and if I'm lucky, there will be another female there who can help me get a good pace. Pacing helps me a lot. Just as long as she's not slower then me. I just hope I don't slow her down!

Leonard Wood is a lot closer to sea level then home is. The Elevation does impact your breathing when running, and right now my breathing is my biggest concern for the run.

My motivation should be in full gear at that point.

I don't know when I will be doing my initial PT test, but I intend to run on Monday to give myself an idea of where I'm at and how well I run the course. I fully expect to run into a Drill Sergeant and get treated like a private when I first get there, and get barked at by asking who my drill sergeants are, what unit I'm with and where the hell is my battle buddy.

Should be fun.

Meanwhile, back on the homefront, I'm trying to get everything in order so that I'm ready to high tail it to training and I won't have to worry about anything back home. This includes my car, my bills, my stuff, my rent, my fish, so on and so forth. However, my First Sergeant has told me to bring my Laptop along, so I am somewhat confident that I will have a little more freedom then I did when I initially went to Basic Training some seven years ago.

I haven't been to Fort Leonard Wood in seven years. Before it was as a E-nothing brand spankin' new to the US Army private. This time it is as a slightly more matured buck sergeant hoping to earn an extra shiny for my uniform (as I don't have near enough).

I should be getting promoted at some point through training. We'll see how that goes.