Last Thursday I had mt first PT (Physical Training) meeting. Under
normal circumstances, attending such meeting would be voluntary.
However, because my weight likes to play Indian rubber ball and bounce
around like a tethered kid on a sugar high, PT is MANDATORY voluntary
(meaning I can go if I want… to stay in the Navy). Around time for
menstruation, I seem to carry what feels to be a spare tire of water
around my middle; this messing with my numbers significantly. I’ve
talking to them about it, yet the Navy doesn’t care about water weight
(unless it’s on the ship, I guess), they just care about numbers. As if
trying to get my weight down just to get them to start processing me
wasn’t enough…
Where was I? Oh, right! PT. Going in that Thursday, I knew pretty
much what to expect: the running, the curl-ups, and the push ups. I had
been doing all those things previously to try the lose the weight
before, yet when we started running, it was then I realized I had been
going about this PT thing all wrong! Petty Officer McKinley had us warm
up and mentioned a ten minute run. I was like, “Sure, no sweat. I run
a little, walk a little. No problem.” That was then he tacked on the
word “continuous”. I never hated a word as much as I did that one at
that particular moment and as the minutes wore on, that rage… turned
into tears (Okay, so I didn’t actually cry, but I was sweating up
something nasty). I could hardly make it past the five minute mark
without wanting to punch someone in the face, yet around the seventh
minute, I settled with staggering to the starting point and stretch out
my legs.
It was at that moment, as I drowned my thirst in the ice cold nectar of
water, I asked myself, “What the hell am I doing here? I knew this
wasn’t gonna be a cake walk, but this is ridiculous! There’s no way I
can keep up with half the guys here!” (And the majority of them were
guys. Most of them strapping, football playing-types. There were only
six girls out of the 30 DEPpers that were there.) Yet, in that same
instance, I straightened up. Of course this wasn’t going to be easy,
but that’s why I was here, right? Imagine if I was going straight to
boot camp with that kind of attitude? I would hardly make it through
the first week.
I barely finished up my run when we had to do curl-up and push up. I
won’t bore you with how poorly I did on those (17 and 8, respectively),
yet it did make me realize that I had a long way to go and I had a LOT
of homework to do. It motivated my even more when he made us do another
run, this time for five minutes, and made the whole group fall behind
the slowest member in order to keep pace. Guess who was the slowest
recruit? I’m glad they weren’t jerks about it, but it was humiliating
enough.
By the next PT meeting, I’ve made it a goal for myself to run at
least seven minutes consecutively, starting at five and increasing my
time by a minute each time. As for the curl ups, I plan to do five reps
of ten, making it 50 altogether. Push-ups all push back for now until I
work on my two weakest areas. I think this is something I can
maintain. I really don’t have a choice. I don’t want to be the one to
keep pace anymore!
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