Passed!?!

This weekend was my Navy Physical Readiness test. To call it good fortune is one thing, humbling is another, cautionary tale might be more like it.

I was not over my cough and chest congestion and now had wheezing to deal with. Saturday was my measurement for bodyfat. Weight was still 234, I was measured at a height of 5 ft 9.5 in, 1/2 inch less than last which could have broken me on the measurement table but I still made it at a borderline 22%. I fugured that in April, I aerobicised myself to death and that's why I lost an inch on the neck (see my last blog entry on the Navy PRT, and you'll be able to follow it). In May, I aerobicised less and switched programs to one designed to give me more hypertrohy. I got my inch back (18 inch neck) and dropped to a 39.5 inch waist. That done, I also went to test on a 185 lbs bench press and could now triple what was a single when this cycle began. Bitchin!!!

Since this was the last month for PRT, I could not schedule it out for my makeup drill in two weeks. And I didn't want a medical waiver, either, because my package to go active hangs in the balance. So Sunday comes, I took some nose spray to keep my sinuses open for 12 hours. At lunch, I took some couch medicine with a chest decongestant. At 2PM, I took some Allegra and 2 shots of Albuterol, a strong inhaler for asthmatics. Chest now clear, PRT was on for 3 PM.

I did 38 pushups, good enough to pass but not what I wanted. I'll probably just do them this way from now on to build them up. With my feet up, I think my delts have the advantage. When I did the 38 my chest, biceps, and triceps had a crazy pump going on. I also did 60 situps.

I had the run mapped out in my head. The course is mapped out per quarter mile, so I figured (in 2 minute 9 second increments) when I should hit each marker for a slightly under 13 minute 1.5 mile. I knew I was in for it when after the first quarter mile, I was panting hard. I made half the course in 6 minutes, and that's when the walking started. I could not catch my breath. So I alternated running and walking (a lot), still had trouble catching my breath, was feeling woozy, then after the 1 and a 1/4 mile marker, I started sprinting as fast as I could (not very, this day, but I wasn't gonna fail) and crossed the finish line in 13 minutes and 58 seconds, 1 minute worse than my last two runs. I could barely breathe, and 10 minutes of walking it off wasn't helping. I took two puffs of inhaler and it barely helped. That night, I took some cough medicine and more inhaler. Nothing helped, and my wheezing was so bad I sounded like a smoker.

So, I went to the doctor today, and she said that I had Bronchitis. Gave me some Zithromax (A very powerful antibiotic, 3 pills have 10 days worth of effect) and a codeine-based cough medicine, and told me to keep using the puffer as needed. I also took the day off. Figure Wednesday, I will lift again. Took my first doses when I got home, and felt measurably better and VERY SLEEPY.

When I want something, my body follows my will. This would be a lot easier if I lost weight. I need to stop manipulating neck and waist numbers and move towards a much lighter bodyweight. I know that greatly reducing my aerobics in May didn't help. Neither did having bronchitis and having to run. But a lighter weight would have helped, I remember what running in those days was like and it was not like this. 206 would be nice, 196 would be the bee's knees. I have to consider aerobics in a performance kind of way, also, not just from a fat loss standpoint: a few summers ago, I got close to 225 lbs playing a lot of basketball, since one is constantly sprinting, an indicator that I need this kind of aerobics as well as the steady state stuff. As long as I'm in the military, I better master running. Does this mean no more powerlifting? No, because my endurance work benefits from more strength. Right now, I got some thinking to do. But first things first . . . .

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!