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sTUPID qUESTIONS aBOUT ocs

MGoBrew11

Well-Known Member
pilot
Didn't see an edit button so had to reply again.
Almost forgot the most important question.
At IFS/API, I'll need a personal apartment in Pensacola correct, does that mean I can bring my pet with me?

Lions, tigers and bears are not allowed in Pensacola.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I've been lurking here a few weeks and just got my account approved.
I'm 26 and was selected from the March board for NFO. I feel very fortunate.

I have several questions, I'll just throw them all out here.

My initial letter said July 14. A few days after I swore in, it got changed to April 21. I talked to my recruiter and he said the change was due to budget issues and if I chose to put in the paperwork to keep the july date, it's possible there won't be funding for that date (sequester). I'll take either date, but preferred July so I could be at 100%. Physically I feel I'm at only 50-60% of my potential. I can run a 11 min 1.5, but longer runs are tough for me.
Any thoughts or advice about that date getting canceled, and whether I should take April/ ask for July?

Would it be bad/weird if I had zero guests at the Hi-moms? Or will there be others?

At IFS, I fully expect to get motion sick. I have heard they have a contraption (SPAD?) they will put you in until you get over it. Is this true? Or do you just wash out if you get motion sick? I'll do whatever it takes and give 100% to overcome that.

Thanks for the insight.

Rob
Take the bird in the hand.. Work out until a few days before you ship, but show up rested. Only way to get better at running, is to run more, and stretch properly.

I'm 6'4" 280#, and I can run probably a 12:30 PRT right now (lazy reservist, haven't done one in over a year) but stretching makes all the difference.
Things I would do-
2-3 times a week, do a "baseline" run, where you run 3-4 miles at whatever pace you can keep up. If you are getting slow near the end, sprint the best you can for 1-3 phone pole distance on a road a couple times to pick up the pace.The important part.. Keep moving, no matter what.
1-2 times a week, incorporate "sprints" into your workout.. I never did this pre-OCS, and it would have made my life much MUCH easier. Phone pole length at a jogging pace. Phone pole length as fast as you can, jog to next phone pole. Then when you can't keep sprinting the whole distance, walk between poles, but keep the sprints as fast as you can.
Once a week.. Do a mock PRT. On a track. After doing some calisthenics followed by max PU and SU. No more than 2 minutes between PU, SU and Run.

The only way to get better at distance, is to do the distance.. The only way to really get your speed up for the PRT is to do sprints. All running 4-5 miles at a 8m/mi pace 3 times a week did was make it so I could run a 12:00 PRT hungover, and dehydrated and be OK.
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
Do a mock PRT. On a track.
I agree with everything you said except this. You will never run on the track at OCS. You run on a road that is relatively flat but has slight inclines and many many potholes. Also a nice sea breeze that you run with on the 1st half and against on the 2nd half. So what's the point of doing it to prepare? Oh, and if it's incliment weather you run some absurd amount of laps around the gym, like 25 or something. Never had to do it but probably sucks.

11 min 1.5 mile is fine as far as passing the PRT goes, and you can make it through the program (I ran a 12:15 on my in-prt and 10:20 on my out). Pushups and situps will be more important as that is what the DIs inflict on you when they 'beat' candidates. You only ever run 'long' distance 3x a week, possibly 4. You are broken up into groups by ability, so you don't have to keep up with that dude who ran an 8:30 on his in-prt. You start out doing 1.5 mile runs for the first month during morning PT and 'graduate' to 2.2 mile runs after that, with rare 5k's on Saturdays thrown in. These runs aren't always done just by running it, too....sometimes you stop to do calisthenics, sometimes you do the thing as an Indian run, sometimes you sprint up and down a hill a few times before moving on. Everything else is sprint here, bear crawl there, starjump over there, hold the down pushup position for 2 minutes, on your back legs off the ground 6" for 2 minutes, etc.

On the other hand, I showed up able to do 60-70 legitimate pushups and graduated able to do 95 and hold a pushup position for a loooong time. Lots of time spent on all fours there.

OCS is not the maurauding physical fitness test people make it out to be. Most of the "beating" sessions last like 5-10 minutes, sometimes less. Batallion 'beating' as candio and we had watches on...lasted 3 whopping minutes, but you could see the faces on the jr classes looking like they just ran a half marathon as we were trying to hold back laughing. It just feels longer because you hold uncomfortable positions and you don't have a watch on, or it's your 10th time this week doing 8-count body builders and you're just sick of the repetition.

It makes life a lot easier if you are in shape, but you are not doomed to failure for showing up as something other than a varsity athlete.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
I thought they were using a track in Newport.. I was a Pensacola guy in 2001. My bad. .

OTOH, if you are doing it on a road, make sure you are doing a legit 1.5 then. How I would measure runs before the days of google earth, was to drive the route in my truck, which I knew to have an accurate to within 1% odometer. Since I ran facing traffic, the mileages would be pretty damn close.
 

Rob McCurdy

New Member
Thanks for the input guys. Well right now I'm stuck on a treadmill since it's still winter here in PA. Fortunately, speed is something I have a lot of (sprinter in HS), I just have to work on the distance. I'm around 45 pushups and 50 situps. Not bad, just not quite my personal expectations yet.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
Another one I have found that works good for PU and SU..

Do 20 with good form. 30 second break. Repeat until you cannot do 20 with good form.
10 with good form. 30 second break. Repeat until you can't do 10 with good form.
5 with good form. Until you can't do 5 with good form.

Do this 2-3 times a day.. It's a good way to build a base, and small enough numbers that you can make sure your form is correct.

Bad form will still get you killed at OCS.
 

Sonog

Well-Known Member
pilot
What? Since when?

While I was at OCS in summer of 2012, we did every PRT on the track. When I was a candio, the classes did their PRT on the road because NAPS was in full swing and using the track. So probably depends a lot on time of year.
 

USAF_WX2USN

Active Member
I know we get the chance to shoot the M9, but is it also for qualification or marksmanship ribbon? Or is it just for familiarization?
 

MGoBrew11

Well-Known Member
pilot
Actually most running is done on the track now. At least it was about 4 months ago.



You must not have made it to the Florabama yet.


I haven't seen many lions, tigers or bears at the Florabama. Mostly dogs, pigs and elephants.


And I can second that we did ALL running on the track at OCS. We never ran off of it, unless we were running indoors.
 
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Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
Gave outdated info I guess. All running while I was there was on the road or in the gym. I actually have never done a PRT on a track period -- usually on a road but sometimes on a trail. I also hear they banned bear crawling because responses on the safety survey indicated that goos poop is not part of a nutritional diet and too many people were getting knee pains from crashing into each other.
 

MGoBrew11

Well-Known Member
pilot
They're still bear crawling...we bear crawled to every station during PT. They might not bear crawl the same way they used to, but it is still used.

The reason the runs have been on the track lately is construction on the Newport base and a serious mishap occurred on a run before I checked in. Although, the mishap occurred on the track, our DI said that they didn't want us running off of the track anymore in case something like that happened on the road.

When the construction is finished on the base they might move some of the running off the track.
 

LET73

Well-Known Member
Thank God they're still bear crawling. It's easy once you figure out the trick, and was an integral part of OCS for my class (and I'm sure for many others).

I'm guessing they can't afford the ammo to have everyone actually qual on the M9, but I wouldn't know. The only "weapon" we touched was the M1, so that's cool if they brought shooting back.
 
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