Learning Your Physical Capabilities

Once again, it is that time of year that I need to prepare for my APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test). The Army has a battery of three successive tasks to participate in that need to be completed to a specific standard to pass. The standards are established based on age and sex. In each event the standards correlate to a specific score. Each individual is to pass the test with a minimum score of 180 points in which each event must be passed with a minimum of 60 points. Just because you score more than 180 and one or two events are below 60 points, you will still fail. The score charts go to 100 points per event. However, it is possible to score above 300, although, you will be required to exceed 100 points in all three events, not just one. The score card can be found here. The three events are push-ups (PU), sit-ups (SU), and the 2-mile run.

I've heard of people scoring 259 points and still fail. This 259 represented two 100 point events and a 59 point event. In this example, the 59 point event was the 2-mile run. This has to be one of the worst ways to fail the test IMO. From what I recall, this was a 5 second difference that meant the difference between pass and fail.

I have experienced similar failures but my failures were never toeing the line to the extended scale. It has only been within the recent years that I have been able to consistently score above 200 after three events. The endurance required to completed each of these events to any exceptional level has never be something I've focused on. Granted, promotion points are gained by scoring higher on your PT test, but even then the points have not been motivation to do better since I was unable earn a promotion.

Anyway, I've started training for my 2-mile run just last week. Since December (and my back incident I have not worked out with the P90X program for multiple reasons). Anyway, since the P90X program I would have expected to have less preparation to complete. I have yet to test myself on the PU or SU portion of the test, but the 2-mile run is my greatest bane that I need to prepare for. Also, since P90X, I have a new training aid with which I can prepare with. The heart rate monitor.

I ran track in high school and have usually been able to bounce back into running condition pretty quickly. For the past few years, my running preparation has also started out with utter failure. Times above 20 minutes for 2-miles because of a walking requirement. For the first time I can understand why with a quantifiable reason.

Today was the second time that I've run for this training bout. The first run was in excess of 24 minutes and I had to walk 4 times. Today's run was less than 19 minutes and only walked once. I don't know exactly how long because I accidentally reset my timer. I saw 3:XX on my watch when I reset it and was at 14:31 when I finished. That could mean that I was at 17:31 thru 18:30. Well, I have figured out what is prompting the walking. Each walking bout has been matched with excessively high heart rates. By excessively high I am meaning 195 bpm or higher. During the first run I recorded a max bpm of 199. Today's run maxed out at 201 bpm before I had to walk.

You might be saying to yourself, OMG, if my heart rate was that high it would want to explode. You might be surprised. My issue was not my heart. Obviously my heart rate was accelerated, but I wasn't having any chest related pains. My issue was in my vision. I thought I was about to pass out. That high of a heart rate requires much more oxygen to keep your body happy. Well, mine wasn't very happy with me. I was starting to get light headed and seeing my peripheral vision turning black. I felt that it would be a bad thing for me to pass out in the middle of my route so I dropped to a walk and recovered to a more comfortable 17X heart rate before picking back up to a run. If I were to pickup my breath rate to accommodate my heart rate, I would likely have begun hyperventilating. I highly doubt that hyperventilating and running would have had good results.

Anyway, once I am able to complete a 2-mile run without stopping I will be able to establish what my target heart rate needs to be and set my watch threshold to accommodate that. The watch is setup to beep fast when over your training heart rate and beep slow when your heart rate is too slow. Well, right now I have the beep disabled because otherwise it would beep the entire time. During my P90X workout, it was approximated that my max training heart rate was to be approximately 180. During any of these training events my heart rate would spike above that number for some period of time. However, it did let me know how hard I was pushing. Now that I'm running and have a distinct standard that I am trying to accomplish, stopping or slowing down is not an option. Therefore, I will have to adjust my watch to the run requirements. Then, once I determine what the ideal max should be, I will know how hard to push or not to push once the test comes about.

However, for the first time, I think I will be able to train according to some variable distance with personal justification. Once I tackle the 2-mile run without peaking over the watch I will have a tracking device to let me know where/when I should stop running that will continue the conditioning that I've abandoned in the past. Historically, my training has been limited to 2 miles or just over that. My goal was to improve the 2 mile time but I never pushed myself to go further. Using the watch, I should be able to continue running after 2 miles and based on heart rate, know when I've hit my new distance threshold should be and strive to meet the standard at that distance. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Therefore, my 2-mile time should be drastically improved and above the standard than just meeting it.

The only question is: how long will this process take? I don't know. I will be running every other day (weekends optional) until June. Is two months adequate to excel that much, I don't know, but this new biofeedback utility should provide interesting results.

As for the other two events in the test, I plan to follow a regimen on the alternate day (weekends optional) of push-ups. Not sure if I'll do either a free-form routine or utilizing the P90X program that requires the most push-ups and then the P90X Ab Ripper 15 minute sit-up routine. I don't like doing straight sit-ups. I don't have the resources to hold my feet comfortably and I know that the Ab Ripper kicks my ass as it is. We'll see how well this works out.

I doubt that I'll bring up my APFT training progress until after the official test, so I wouldn't expect any unless such a time that I might want to share with you a new bpm max.