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04-03-11, 03:48 AM #1
This Poolee Could Really Use Some Inspiration
Hello Marines
I work very closely with my recruiters every week. I have been in DEP since November, but try as I might, I cannot seem to conquer my run under pressure. My FAH and crunches are fine. I can pass my run at the gym when nobody is watching. But when I go to my poolee validations, I get extremely nervous, and the right side of my abs ALWAYS locks up and slows me down. This never ever happens to me when running on my own. On my own, I can run well under the required time to ship. I have much at stake for my family, and have a lot of pressure on me to succeed. It is extremely frustrating to me and I want to quit every week, but never do. I want to be a Marine, but I cannot quell my anxiety. I know how lucky I am to have secured the MOS that I have, but I really need some inspiration. Do you Marines have any advice to lend? Have any of you ever been nervous about physical performance when you were never an athlete to begin with?
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04-03-11, 06:02 AM #2
Picture this.... Languagelover23....even though you are female...
You are in a hotspot and come under fire.....you and your platoon return fire....then you have to run to the sidelines or wherever to take cover to return more fire.....do you care what anyone thinks or sees.....as you are running for protection.....no and neither does anyone else.... as long as you made your objective...to follow through with the mission.....and get everyone back safely....So what are you going to do?
When you are running with a group....change your mindset....the others should be paying attention to running time themselves....
If you run as a group/platoon....you are working to become a well honed machine and you are one of the gears to keep the machine going.....if you fall back......someone has to take up the slack and fall back or out to help you.
If you listen to music when you run on your own...as you cannot in IST/PFT.....group platoon run....stop and just run and keep your eyes and ears to the prize.
Good luck!
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04-03-11, 12:52 PM #3
Sorry but I don't really have any advice. Being short and stubby, I was never a decent runner myself. I never scored a perfect PFT because of my run time (I could max-out on pullups and situps but came up a couple minutes short on the 3 mile run).
Sounds like your issue is more psychological than physical. Somehow, you've got to train yourself to think about something other than what you're doing and I'm not sure how you do that.
If your problem was more physical, I would recommend you work on your speed by doing sprint work. You need to run long distances to build up your cardiovascular endurance. But, you also need to train your leg muscles to work fast. Good way to do this is go to your highschool track and run 100 yard and 220 yard sprints. To be effective, you need to really push yourself and sprint as fast as you can every set (use a stopwatch if you can and try to get faster).
For some reason, the USMC is big on running (not just a bootcamp thing). I always envied the natural-born runners; they made it look so easy but it was always a challenge for me. Running will still be a part of your life in the fleet although most of it will have to be self-motivated (depending on your unit and commanding officer; some CO's enjoy taking their unit out for motivation runs in formation regularly). The CO of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion loved to take his entire battalion on a moto run every Friday morning. We would run from the battalion area in San Onofre all the way to San Onofre beach at Camp Pendleton and back (can't remember the mileage but it was pretty grueling for me). We had a good-sized stone that was passed from person-to-person along the way just to make it more interesting. Of course, the Company officers didn't want their Company to embarrass them by having a lot of drop-outs on the battalion run, so they would take us on regular conditioning runs throughout the week...that added up to a lot of mandatory running.
Good luck...I'm sure you'll find a way to conquer your performance anxiety. Let us know how it works out.
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04-03-11, 01:16 PM #4
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04-03-11, 03:06 PM #5
LL23,I can only offer advice that I gave my son when he applied to the fire department.He took the written test and passed and then had to do the physical part and he failed about twice,he would hit a mental wall when it came to pulling the dummy for a certain length of time and he would get so far and then feel like he couldn't go on. I told him that when he hit that wall that is when he had to give it every thing he ever had for that one time for it may be the difference between life and death for someone and he may only get that one chance.He took the physical part and passed his test and has been a fireman for 5years now plus he is a certified EMT also.All this to let you know that if you put your mind to it you can do it.You have to want to overcome your fears of running. Good luck and go to it as I know you can do it. Sgt.Harris Mathis U.S.M.C. 69-75
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04-04-11, 02:47 PM #6
I'm not sure if this is what you're doing wrong, but I do have one thing to keep in mind when you're running with a group. And this comes from personal experience from running 5ks, 10ks, half marathons, marathons and yes, ISTs and PFTs. You have to realize that you're most likely going to be slower than some people and faster than others. But you can’t let the other runners dictate your pace. Especially at the beginning, it’s very easy to start off at a faster pace than you’re use to. You’ll feel like you have to keep up with everyone around you. When you're running your IST/PFT you have to know where you fit in the pack and run what you're comfortable with. If you try to keep up with the fastest person in the platoon and you’re not as fast as they are, you’re obviously going to burn out quicker than when you run by yourself. You’ll hang with them for a half mile or a mile, but then you’ll realize you pushed it too hard your tank is empty. Then you’ll end up farther back than if you’d started out at your normal pace.
Now, that is not to say you shouldn’t let your fellow recruits/poolees push you and challenge you. Sometimes running with other people will push you to do better. But use your judgment and don’t push yourself more than you’re able to.
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