First, the Arabic. I've been slacking a little lately, but not much - I've been pretty consistent with the flash cards, with occasional reading/listening exercises from the Quran in English and Arabic, and the ambition to go through my Arabic textbook and my other materials. At the moment, I'm psuedo-Leitnering with a number of flash cards that I had trouble with - not quite fifty a day, but I've basically recommitted them to memory, and can move back into doing a different fifty each day within the next few days. Also, I'm not sure that I've posted since I found it, but I Googled something along the lines of "Arabic vocabulary" and came up with this a few weeks ago - I about soiled myself with joy. So, I once again have a disgustingly massive surplus of learning material, a good amount of motivation, and it's generating enough accomplishment to keep me thirsting for more at the moment.
The big thing that I've been trying to focus a lot of effort and discipline on lately has been physical training. Since before I began my brief stint as a Navy midshipman in 2000, I've been wanting to start and finish the BUD/S Warning Order Workout. I've come close a couple of times. Beyond the obvious issue of the sheer discipline required to stick with the program for the full nine weeks, most of what's stopped me in prior attempts has been time management. For example, when you work ten hours a day out in the middle of nowhere and commute an hour each way to get there and back, it doesn't leave much time to hit the gym. I haven't had the same issues in my current job and digs, but it's still tough to find the time when the gym is one place, you work in another, place, and you live in another place altogether. Another factor is the running: I hate running, I'm not a good runner, and as a result, I don't do it.
Based upon discussions with various officers and a great deal of reading, I've come to the conclusion that the way that all four branches of the military conduct physical training is seriously flawed. The following are the physical fitness testing procedures of the four DoD uniformed services.
Now, I can understand the need to have objective standards and metrics with which to score personnel in physical fitness. That having been said, it seems reasonable that these standards should reflect the actual work that one expects to do. For example, running is great exercise, but as American forces fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, how often do they find themselves doing life or death push-ups and sit-ups? Are three mile runs in running shoes, athletic shorts, and a T-shirt a frequent requirement when fighting against the Taliban? I can understand Marine Corps pull-ups a bit more, given their history of boarding and evacuating their landing craft by climbing up cargo nets and ropes in full kit. Now, let's compare all of this to the Navy SEAL Physical Fitness Test.
The Navy SEAL workout places more emphasis on the actual level and type of fitness that one would desire in a combat situation. I'm still not as impressed with the emphasis on push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups, but I can see more combat utility to running in boots and trousers and swimming than I can in the combat power of New Balance trainers and running shorts.
So, I want to train for a possible return to the military (or a related field), and get in generally excellent shape regardless, but given that I'm not actually in the military at the moment, I have more leeway to build my body the way I want it built. So, the first week of the BUD/S Warning Order Workout looks like this:
As I mentioned earlier, I'm in lousy shape to run, and I don't enjoy it, and, oh yeah, I'm not convinced of the combat utility of running in shoes and shorts. I am, on the other hand, a fantastic swimmer, and fifteen minutes is a bit light. Since I'm starting off in fairly lousy shape, and since I have my own idea of what constitutes good combat physical training, my modified first week looks like this:
So, I actually accomplished all of that last week. My week went like this:
My program lasts for nine weeks, and like the BUD/S Warning Order from which it's derived, it's a progressive workout that gets more ambitious and time-consuming with each passing week. My hope is to do the actual BUD/S Warning Order Workout once I've finished my "pre-phase", but I may just reformulate once again. So, during the coming week (starting tomorrow), the schedule is as follows:
We'll see how I do. So, from now on, I'll be blogging (hopefully not as sporadically) on both my Arabic studies, and on my physical training regimen. My sincere hope is that Chops will be goading me just as hard about working out as he has about the Arabic. So, tomorrow I'm back in the pool, and back to the push-ups and sit-ups in my flat. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...
