Training:
- Find 1 rep max Back Squat
- 1 round: 20 x 65% 1 rep max Back Squat – take 2-3 full and relaxing breaths between Back Squats. Keep your back straight, your chest out and squat deep.
- 4 x 400m Sprints
SOF SELECTION PT PREP, TUESDAY(2/7/2017)
Yesterday, I squeezed in a very short two-mile ruck to walk my dog. Here, on the east coast, and particularly in D.C., it was a beautiful and warm day. Today, we’ll continue with bodyweight exercises and long distance running. But, we’ll take a break from the pavement, tomorrow, and hit the gym.
Training:
50 pullups, 100 pushups, 1oo dips.
4 miles run – 2 miles out at moderate pace. Then, 2 miles on the return: as fast a speed as you can maintain.
Then, 100 “V”ups and 200 Crunches.
SOF SELECTION FITNESS TRAINING (2/6/17)
Thanks to the guys who made it out this Sunday for the Ruck. I had a great time and appreciate it. Hopefully more and more begin showing up.
Here’s what I am going to do, today. Fitness for today, 2/6/2017 is focusing on your ability to tackle mid distance endurance and sustain a difficult effort. Mental resiliency training starts with tough efforts.
Training:
Head to the gym and do not leave until you’ve done 100 Pull-ups with good form/ 150 Dips / 100 Push-ups (20x after each dip round).
Then, Run 6 miles – the 1st, 3rd and 4th miles will be broken into 800m Strides – that means not a sprint but as hard as you can reasonably maintain.
6-mile run:
1st Mile – Stride 800m (.5 mile) then, rest of 1st mile – conversational pace, maintain your warmth and get comfortable.
2 -3: Regular pace, too fast to talk but slow enough to have your breath.
3rd mile – 800m Stride then, 800m Run.
4th mile – 800m Stride, then resume pace.
5 – 6 – same as mile 2 -3.
- When it gets tough, and you want to quit – begin playing with three-word mantras that describe how you feel and motivates you. Use the word, one at a time, at each left step.
SELECTION DC RUCK MARCH THIS SUNDAY (2/5/2017) TIME UPDATE
Sounds like you guys want 6AM @ U.S. Capitol – send an email to [email protected], when you’re there. We’ll step off at 6AM and return at 7AM.
We’ll ruck down the Mall past the Washington Monument. It will be cold, but it will be good training. There’s ample parking on a Sunday night on the street, and there are several parking garages. Meet me at the steps of the Capitol facing the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.
Please have a 35 lb – 45lb ruck. Wear boots you can ruck in and prepared to ruck at a 15:00 minutes pace. I’ll have my dog with me in case you’re allergic or have a fear of dogs. We’ll ruck 5 miles, 2.5 out and 2.5 back.
It won’t be warm so dress accordingly. DC and the national mall is beautiful at night and the earliest hours of the morning. This will be a great mini-tour of the historical monuments if you’re not a regular visitor or live in DC.
If you’re interested but have questions, comments, concerns, please write in the comments below.
Obligatory picture of my dog, Tucker, below:
Featured image courtesy of the US Army.
Summer, Spring, or Winter Selection?
Summer, Spring, or Winter Selection? If you’re trying to time your arrival to Special Forces Assessment and Selection, I’ll help. Spoiler Alert: Winter or Spring.
My neighbor’s tulips are coming out already, and it’s only the beginning of February. By that I mean, the winter selection moving’s forward are not going to be as bad as previous ones. More important, the spring selection is going to be crazy hot. I mean so hot that the entire program will go on at night. In training, when it’s dangerously hot the training schedule flips. The activities occur in the afternoon and night. But, the North Carolina heat is still intense.
Knowing what you know about the climate and the south – why on earth would you choose the summer? The same standards are going to be applied. The Spring is beautiful, it’s cool, and it’s easier to move freely without being too cold or too hot. However, the winter could host a miserable storm that ruins your day, and the summer might drain you of everything you’ve got. I went in the spring, and I’m happy I did. No one loves the cold, truly, and no one loves it when it’s so hot it’s uncomfortable just walking on pavement (in shoes).
So, the decision is easier for you – less foliage in the spring and summer to boot – you can see further at night. That’s critical to spot your next stake during the STAR course. That and your sense of health should urge you to push for the spring selection class.
Featured image courtesy of USAJFKSWCS.
SOF SELECTION FITNESS PREPARATION 2/3/2017
SOF Selection Fitness preparation program by specialoperations.com for January 3rd, 2017. We’re focusing on longer runs and will make pit stops at the gym to work on strength training. But, the focus will remain on endurance to develop a base before move inside for gym based endurance. Ironically, it might so hot that it’s more practical to get gym time in the coming summer, at least for parts of it.
Training:
Run 8 miles.
Before the end of the day complete –
300 Pushups, 100 pullups.
SOF SELECTION PT PREPARATION 2/2/2017
Training: Ruck for one hr as fast as you can WITHOUT ruck-running and record your distance.
We’re going start to toying with the idea of finding unique ways and TTPs to improve our rucking stride. Please, Ruck the hour and come here and comment about how it went and how you think you can improve @ [email protected].
SOF SELECTION PT PREP 2/1/2017
I feel tired after yesterday’s ruck, and I caught some abrasions on my shoulders and traps this morning. Feels good to be back in the swing of things!
Training:
Work up to 1 rep max Back Squat
Then,
1 round
20 x Back Squat @ 65% 1RM (take 2-3 breaths between squat, maintain good form)
Then,
200 Push-ups
100 Pull-ups
A Theory On How I Earned My Long Tab. If I Can Then You Can, Too.
How I earned my long tab? I don’t think I’ve got a clear answer. I know that if you’re fit and mentally focused – it’s likely you can accomplish the task of making to the other end in these selection processes. There’s less luck involved than other things, but it also comes down to you. Both how you’re perceived and how you perceive yourself. For the most part, the guys who went in knowing they were selected, they acted accordingly. I assumed I would make it.
It’s that reliance, not confidence, in the auspicious that earned my long tab. It wasn’t because I’m some badass. Especially taking into consideration, I was so new to the Army. No combat experience – and some life experience, but nothing like what I’d imagine the men who selected me had at that point. When I reflect over the past years in my life, I don’t see a flow of events that paint the qualitative picture. It’s a series of events. In my life, it’s like I am always cramming for the exam. Then, I fail it but, I pass the exam. Then eventually it will all tie together. Expect and approach selection and your army career the same way – focus on what’s in front of you.
It’s one a.m., right now – I’m finishing some homework and going to move on to the arduous task of studying for a finance exam I’ll be taking over lunch. After some time on active duty, I’ve enrolled in an MBA program while working full time. As usual, that’s only one of the tasks I’ve burdened unto myself. I’ve had to reschedule the exam, which won’t go well. For what it’s worth I don’t feel like anything goes well these days. But one thing is for sure, they go, and I move forward. The other day, I stayed up the entire night, no sleep, like what will probably happen today, and I studied the whole night for an exam that I took in the morning. It was operation management, and while the exam wasn’t the hardest, I’ve had, covered a good bit of information. I was out to lunch the entire ten-week course. But I crammed the whole night and knocked it out. I ended up scoring the mean of all the other students. In that, I’m lucky. This finance is not going to go well, tomorrow.
Just like the Q course you just have to pass. In the end, everything is pass/fail, not just events in the army. I feel like in the Q course, for courses I might not have done as well as I should have in – that acknowledgment of what I don’t know passed me through. The humility can help you pass because the instructors understand when a decent person comes through who isn’t a problem and will grow. I never made any calamitous mistakes, but I was young and inexperienced.
Featured image courtesy of DoD.
SOF SELECTION PT PREP 1/31/2017
Training:
Ruck Run 5 miles. Record your time. Work on this effort and work as hard as you can. If possible, try to maintain a 11:00 – 13:30-minute miles pace.