Spring PT Test

I took my Spring physical fitness test yesterday. 

I have always been a bit worried about my push up score. Actually, I've ALWAYS been worried about my run score, but lately its been more about the push up score. 

Let me clarify, I am NEVER worried about passing. I could pass any day of the year someone asked me to take a PT test. However, I prefer to study for any test I take. And a few weeks before the scheduled bi-annual PT test, I amp up my push up and sit up performance to make sure I am ready. I work on the run at all times. 

Even though I truly enjoy running... apparently I enjoy running slow!

So my Spring scores are as follows:

What did I just see? Was that at least a 90% in all 3 events? Are you freaking kidding me!?!? That is the first time in my entire career I've done that! 90-90-90 qualifies you for the Physical Fitness Badge. You sew it on you PT uniform. 

I was hoping for a better run time, but I burned myself out doing sit ups (and it was raining, so I love to blame the weather). My push ups were more than I expected so I was really happy with that count. 

One of my Soldiers earned his PT Badge yesterday too. We joked that we are PT Patch Buddies now. The real joke is that only douchebags wear the patch on their uniform. Sorry if I offend anyone, but seriously, you know its stupid. This patch is like a giant neon sign that screams, "EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM ME!" No thanks, I'll pass on that. 

But earning it for the first time after 10 years of service was still a nice milestone to meet. 

Wasp Trap

The weather suddenly became summer this weekend. Spring was approximately a week long, in usual Tennessee fashion. Along with summer came the majority of the bugs that I hate. I already had a june bug attack my head and those disgusting feathery centipedes are coming out the drains in my house. Although those two are gross, they don't pose a threat. The real threat comes in the form of the red wasp. And they are out in droves.

I bought a wasp trap. Its a glass "cage" that has a hole in the bottom. The idea is the wasps crawl up from the bottom to get inside and drink the Dr Pepper that I poured inside. Then they are stupid and can't get out. Or they get drunk off the Dr Pepper and chose to stay forever until they die. Either way, this wasp trap sounded like a great idea.

I put the wasp trap out this morning. I filled the bottom with delicious Dr Pepper. Then I went for a run. When I came back, the first thing I did was check the wasp trap to see if I had caught any. 

Nothing.

A few hours later, I had caught several wasps in my home. They love the kitchen window screen. The window sill is a wasp graveyard (not pictured because it's full of dirt and corpses and I didn't want to advertise how poor of a housekeeper I can be). 

Maybe the wasp trap had caught some?!

Nope. Still nothing. For a second I thought maybe my bait was bad. Perhaps wasps don't like Dr Pepper. But that's crazy talk because everyone likes Dr Pepper. Maybe the placement of the trap is poor. I guess I'll keep checking my trap throughout the day. I know there is NOT a shortage of wasps. Hopefully I'll start catching some soon so fewer of them will end up on my kitchen window screen. 

Cuteness Update

Just a little photo update on how adorable my french bulldogs are.

I'm a really proud dog-mom.

Profile

So I really needed to go to sick call. But I don't do that. I made an appointment at the clinic instead because I would rather miss work than PT. At my appointment... I was put on profile. *gasp* I have not been on a physical limitations profile since I had surgery in 2012. 

Worst of all, I'm on a no running profile. More worst of all, the half marathon is in 1 month. 

I am having very bad bilateral foot pain. I believe its been a long time coming, but running so much over the past couple months aggravated it. But you know what started the aggravation?

A freaking dog toy. 

Gertie with the weapon.

Here you can see the pointy end she gnawed into the bone.

A haphazardly lain dog toy that I didn't see on the floor. One of Gertie's favorites. I jumped up off the couch in a hurry to break up a brutal french bulldog dog fight and stepped on this stupid toy. Its a hard bone that Gertie had widdled into a shank. And really hurt my right foot. Like, I was on the floor writhing in pain Peter Griffin style. That acute injury caused me to compensate, now the other foot hurts too... blah blah blah.

Both my feet hurt so bad. So I had no choice but to go to the doctor.

I convinced my PA that I really only needed 2 weeks of rest. She understood that the half marathon is important to me but also cautioned me not to seriously injure myself in the process. She gave me a 2 week no running profile, prescribed Motrin and sent me to get my feet x-rayed. After the half marathon at the end of April I am to come back so she can set me up for a bone scan.

I've made it nearly 10 years in the Army without a major injury. I've recently gloated about that. Now this happens. 

Thanks, Gertie. 

Earned It

Look what finally came in the mail today:

I completed my Associates in Health Sciences degree in February. But I had to wait until today to actually hold the degree in my hands. 

I accomplished something that most 20 year old kids have! I may have completed this degree a little later in life than I should have, but at least I did it. And I'm not stopping here. I am already enrolled in another degree program. 

I am working towards a Bachelors in Public Health now. Being active duty doesn't leave me a whole lot of extra time to work on college courses but I'm going to plug away at it and maybe before I'm 40 I will earn the next degree (I hope so!).

In the mean time, it's cool to see this posted on my ERB (Enlisted Record Brief) instead of my high school graduation information! 

Too Long Run

I decided it was time for another long run in preparation for the half marathon in April. So I picked a random spot in the back 40 of Ft Campbell to run. On my way to my chosen spot, I noticed a lot of Soldiers out training. One of the 101st Brigades is in the middle of a big field problem and it is running through the weekend. I didn't think it would be a problem, but as I was running along Jordan Springs Road, LMTVs kept speeding past me. In an effort to not die, I made the command decision to find a side road and change my route.

The first side road I came to was called Hellcat Road. I'm familiar with Hellcat Road because it was a land nav boundary road for one of my many EFMB attempts. I had forgotten how hilly it was, though. And it's a dirt and gravel road. Basically, Hellcat started to kick my ass. Hellcat turned into Oriental Road. And then into Destiny Trail. I almost met my destiny on that trail because the hills only got steeper. Destiny kicked my ass. By that point I was at 6 miles at lost in the woods. 

Eventually I saw a stop sign glimmer on the horizon. Civilization at last! Or, at least, a road sign so I could try to get my bearings on where I was. Palmyra Road? I'm familiar with it but nothing looked familiar. So I kept running. Running. Running. I was tired from the all the hills I had just trudged up. After a while I came to another intersection. It was Jordan Springs Road! Now I had a better idea of my location. But I ran into the problem of the LMTVs speeding past me again. Opting out of certain death, I ducked down another side road. This one was unnamed. I should have known better. 

I ran along this dirt and gravel road until I crested a hill and saw a rather large creek in my path. I had no choice but to take my socks and shoes off and wade across to the other side. The water was super cold. As I was putting my socks and shoes back on on the other side, I was thinking about how ridiculous this all was and finally checked my Run Keeper app to see my distance. 8.5 miles. And I had no idea how far from my car I was. I started to scour the GPS map on the app: searching for my start point in relation to my current location. Eventually I was able to trace my path back to my car. Although I couldn't tell exactly how far away I was, at least I had a known route to take to get back. 

I didn't have it in me to run anymore. 8.5 miles of hills was enough for me. So I started walking. Walking. Walking. I walked past a few really old cemeteries. That was pretty neat. I kept walking down this side road (that turned out to be named Ghost Corps Trail) and a stupid LMTV still barreled past me. What crappy luck! No place is safe when 101st is in the field!

Long story short, I ran 8.5 miles of hills today, walked an additional 3 miles of hills and almost got ran over multiple times by LMTVs. Great Saturday on Fort Campbell. 

Cats and Selfies

I was pretty hung over this morning, but I managed to drag my ass out of the house to go run. 6 miles. 6 pretty slow miles. But 6 miles non the less.

While I was on the way back to my car, a cat crossed my path. Except it wasn't just any cat. It was a BIG cat. Like, a 40 lb cat. It wasn't until it registered that it didn't have a tail that I realized I had just seen a bobcat. 

The bobcat had seen me too. Once it crossed the path and was in the cover of the trees again, it stopped, sat down and looked at me. 

Do you see him?

Look closer.

So I stopped and took a picture of it. Then I took a selfie because, like the rest of my generation, I'm a narcissist. A couple of dudes crested the hill as I was taking the selfie and I got really self conscious that they caught me taking a selfie. I started running again and didn't warn them that there was a really cool cat just a few feet away. 

Bad selfie. Don't care!

That was the first bobcat I've ever seen. But not the first time I've been busted taking a selfie. 

Little Jerk

Every morning I am attacked at work. Assaulted. It is quite the hostile work environment. Because of this asshole:

I get it. I know what you're thinking. He's just a bird. A little song bird. What could possibly be so bad about this little cardinal?

Well, for starters, he's a punk. He attacks my vehicle every morning. He lands all over my car. He searches for weak points and tries to make entry. I can tell he's talking shit the whole time. He fluffs up and pecks at the glass. He's a huge bully.

And he's there every morning carrying on like this.

It's not just me. This bird has it out for all the employees at the MSTC. He's become quite the topic of conversation at work. He has yet to attack anyone's person. He sticks strictly to vehicular attacks. I sometimes wonder what his plans exactly are if he were to ever get into my car. 

Just what is this little jerk capable of?? I hope I never find out. 

Friend of the Year

I've been walking my good friend Tracy's dogs for her while she is in Drill Sergeant School. Every Sunday I go over to her house and pick them up from her mom and take them on a 4 mile walk through the back wooded area of Fort Campbell. My job is to wear them out. 

The dogs are two giant and beautiful German Shepherds. One thing I didn't know about this particular breed is that they are very vocal. And when I say vocal, I mean these dogs howl. They are so excited to go on these walks with me that they just scream in the car the whole ride out there. Yodeling and barking, and jumping from the front seat to the back seat. Paws on the dashboard. Accidentally rolling down windows and shifting the car into neutral while I'm driving. Barking right in my ear. I literally drive with my a finger in my right ear to try to protect my eardrum from these dogs.

They are so excited. And it's flattering. But I really feel like I should be winning Friend of the Year for doing this for 10 weeks! Thank God I'm not transporting these dogs in my own car. Tracy's mom lets me borrow her Jeep.

Once we actually get out onto the trails they are wonderful. They mind me. They don't run off. They don't need to be on a leash. I love them. On the way home, they sit quietly and look out the window. It's just the ride there... its a three ring circus. 

Today's walk was in the snow. It was so beautiful. I took the dogs back onto a range I've never personally been on. Special Forces train back there, and since it's President's Day weekend, I figured no one would be training. I was right. It's a nice MOUT site. I liked the change of scenery, and I think the dogs actually did too. 

Only a few more weeks walking the dogs until Tracy comes home. I'm going to miss the walks. 

But not the drive. 

8 Miles

I set a goal to run 8 miles this morning. 

You see, the bigger goal is to run the Nashville Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in April. So I'm going to train for it. Train better than I did for the last half marathon that I did in Egypt. To train for that, I ran 4 miles a lot of times and complained a lot. The experience of the actual 13.1 miles was miserable, to say the least. Because I wasn't really prepared. And it's so damn hot in Egypt. But mostly, I wasn't prepared.

So as I was driving out to the area I was going to begin my run, I started to talk myself down. The usual, well maybe I'll just do 6. Or if I just do 4 that's better than nothing. I do that because I hate the feeling of failure, and if I set my sites low, then I can't be too disappointed. I think the Army has trained me to never get my hopes up high and to aim low. Isn't that terrible?

I started running out in the back 40 of Fort Campbell with the plan of 8 miles, but the bail out option of 6. I figured I'd see how I felt at 3 miles and make a decision then.

Well 3 miles went by and I felt fantastic! So I ran 4 and turned around for a total of 8. I killed those 8 miles, too. NO WALKING. And no complaining. There wasn't any complaining because I was alone, but I didn't even do any mental complaining. 

My average time was around 9 and a half minutes a mile. My two fastest miles were 5 and 6. I ran those in around 8 and a half minutes per mile. It felt so good! I actually felt like I could have gone further. I am confident I will destroy the half marathon in April.

Goal (unaltered) complete.