What is it like during the winter time in RI? How is PT conducted? I have a hard time running in the bitter cold and I don't know what to do to become better at it if I end up in a winter class. Any experience with the cold in OCS?
The winter is cold. Standing in formation post PT in the cold sucks. If it is a certain temp, you will pt indoors, but you will stand outside for chow doing procedures freezing...
Man it would be nice if they authorized Under Armor or something. Do we get any cold weather gear at all?
Yeah, your sweatshirts and sweatpants, gloves, and watch caps. If you're still cold in that, you need to pt harder. Or else they'll probably be moving indoors presently. Don't worry about it.
I didn't go to OCS but I have lived in Newport for a year so I can offer my experience on that. Winters, they suck. I cannot emphasize how awful they are (especially after being spoiled living in Southern California 18 years out of my life). That sea breeze you come to love and enjoy during the summertime turns into a harsh wind chill a few months later. The days are short and it's cloudy a good part of the season. Of course it snows, but from what I've been told it's not as bad as compared to other areas in New England. Hopefully this helps out!
I was lucky enough to experience the freezing cold OCS (winter in Newport), along with the blistering hot OCS (Summer in Pensacola). Let me tell you friends, the level of suckage is equal. Winter in Newport was awful.... PT outside, work up a sweat under those sweatpants, etc. Your PT gear gets soaking wet from rolling around on the dewy grass... Sweat soaks it the rest of the way.... Then you stand outside of the chow hall. The layer of moisture under all of your sweats turn to supercooled water droplets (you'll learn about this in API). This makes you in turn, colder. And you have the jackoff in the front that screws up the DISCIPLINE DITY, prolonging your misery. Although the chow hall is luke warm (kept from being toasty due to the door being propped open from classes entering). You are in there just long enough to get that skin adhered moisture above freezing, and are then headed back outside..... Ahh yes, and Pensacola. Your star jumper / bear crawling precession from the PT field is now over. You are drenched with sweat, morning dew, and the good ole' Florida humidity. As you stand outside of the chow hall, it feels like you are in a sauna with a parka on. Luckily enough, there are about 65 thousand-billion (yes, google that number) knats that just woke up and have worked up quite a thirst for this excessive moisture. Oddly enough, they are mostly attracted to your eyeballs, inside of your nose, and ear canal. If you open your mouth, you'll get at least 5-10 in there as well. You stood outside of the chow hall as dozens of these tiny creatures go spelunking in every exposed orfice. Finally your 30 minute wait is over, until the guy in the front screws up the DISCIPLINE dity. It's hard to not flinch or look like a chinaman with these things landing in your eyes... It itches like crazy... Feels like you are being torturously tickled with dozens of feathers... But you can't move/flinch or else the class will pay.... Good times.... Point is, OCS is OCS. There is no comfortable time to go through.
I checked in 11 JAN 09. Up until week 5 we did not do one PT session or have one beating outside... nor did any other class. But, the day after RLP we got destroyed... no joke we got beat about 5-7 times over the course of a few hours along with some mini-beatings at drill. The difference between the beatings being outside is that the DIs can get more creative when you're outside. For example... you can expect your DI to have you fill your pockets (all of them) with sand and then the DI will have you empty them in your p-way in Nimitz. Or, they will make you do things that there may not be enough space for in the kill zone indoors... whenever we were in the sandpit (rose garden) we would be given the order to "roll around like a burrito". There is also a lot more room to do bunny hops outside... and I'd say they suck the most of any exercise. If you're inside all they can do (in addition to the beatings) is have you pull the sheets off your rack or have everybody in class unlace all their shoes and put all the laces together in a pile in the middle of the p-way (our DI called this making spaghetti and meatballs)... among other activities to mess with your crap. Honestly, the cold sucks, but being outside was a 'nice' change at first. After experiencing both, I'd say the beatings inside are harder, but the beatings outside are more of a hassel b/c you are having to clean up sand from the p-way and more than likely wash your uniform every night to keep the cheif happy... and of course the cold makes things that much more enjoyable. Either way it sucks...
"So we don't want to drill?? Put that crap on your body and we're going to take a little tour." The quote from our CDI on that very day in the garden. It was glamorous! Honestly..don't worry about the cold here. You're going to get what you're going to get and just doing your best to get in shape prior to getting here is your best bet. The CDI will push your body further than you can imagine...as long as you don't quit! I thought I worked myself hard before coming here...I was WAY wrong! But hey, you're getting paid to work out with the best physical trainer around. And yes, waiting in formation for chow sucks, but you just have to suck it up and get it right...then you get into chow faster.
I'll take freezing cold over gnats anyday of the weeks. I loathe the existence of such vile little creatures.
I'm an post modern AOCS'er but consider this- No matter what the particular days weather, no matter what the physical enviroment, it wil be difficult and challenging at best. That's the way the system is designed. Perspective- IF it was dramatically different -winter vs. summer, Don't you think the gouge would reflect such changes? Just do your best and let the cards fall where they may. You can so over think this period in your life that you'll unknowingly torpedo yourself before you even get started if you overthink it. I realize the nay-sayers will disagree but the big picture in the NAV will almost always supercede "today's" picture. CAMike
You'll remember that in Newport we went and changed after PT (usually) before going to chow. Didn't want us to be all nasty in the chow hall with all the other people in there. So, not sure why you're saying you'd still be all sweaty from PT during breakfast.
I graduated right when it started getting cold so I know the drill from both sides... During the winter, it largely depends on your CDI. Morning PT, having 4+ classes in the gym at once is impossible. Most of the CDIs move you to the kill zones and you do running throughout all the pways, use your desk chair for dips and raised leg pushups. You do the usual 6-90s with pushups and side straddle hops. My CDI never had us do 8 count body builders but others did. Standing watch and watching other CDIs, they all do the same. In my opinion, doing indoor PT is a lot easier than outside. You wont have one CDI tell you to lunge from one side of the PT field to the other and back, you dont have to move the PT table, etc. If it's cold enough, they don't make you do chow hall enterence procedures. You just "walk" in. As candi-o's, the CDIs told us if any class does enterence procedures we'd get killed. The CDIs don't want to be in the cold any more than you do. We were dropped on our face when our section leader didn't give the correct greating of the day and the CDI, who normally would spend the whole 20 mins killing you, kept walking and told us to get up once they were in the building. We didn't push once. Also watching the junior class do rifle drill as you're a candi-o, the CDI told them to get inside and asked us if we were cold. We said yeah and even though the CDI didn't look like he was, he said, "my balls are frozen." The moral of the story, cold = easier as far as PT and beatings.
You didn't have time to shower or anything in between, and I recall this only being when classes started. The first few weeks, we definitely did not change in between PT and chow.
You're out of your mind. It is in no way shape or form any easier inside than out. It is just different. I came just before winter this year and got to PT outside to begin with and then moved inside up to the week before candio phase. The CDIs will find creative ways to make you hurt unless you have a DI who treats you like an ODS class. Coyer and Martinez know how to make pain no matter where you're at. Being in the kill zone down in DI country is perfect for sprinting competition after 90 mins of calisthenics. The rule is: 20 degrees or less, with the wind chill, is a black flag and there will be no PT outside. Also if there is left over snow or ice on the roads, but the temp isn't cold enough to meet the rule, you will still PT inside becuase of the hazard of the road condition. Most of the experience that I have seen people having is that it is harder to PT inside becuase of the run. You can't get to a full speed having to turn so often and the floors are hard enough that pounding your heels down on them jacks up your legs/joints/etc. TK
I liked the pt indoors. We did more circuit training. It felt like we were working out rather than being beat into the dirt. I don't remember changing before breakfast that much
I've spent four years in college here in Chicago . . . where I play outdoor ice hockey in the Winter. Compare to winter in Newport. Similar?
I think we all (OCSers) know who came up with the spag and meatballs bit. Had to be the same CDI that gave us the idea to have the indoc class draw self portraits. The same guy that made his class build a snowman in the hallway, lol. And the same guy that made his class dig out fox holes in the snow to get beat in!
A lot of CDIs were pretty new when I was there (IIRC, 3 were brand new, ours was on his 3rd class) so I'm still curious who this was.
