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That's it for Low-Blog-Activity-April, and to begin May, here's some good news (for myself) - I finally passed my first IPPT in about five years. Getting a silver while in the Army wasn't too hard, but over four years of a sedentary lifestyle is a different matter. I didn't pass the first two after my true ORD after serving my deferment in mid-2006, but then there were no consequences for those. Some smart guy removed the exemption for Remedial Training this time round, sadly, which led to 13 sessions at Bedok Camp for me. It wasn't all bad as it gave me an excuse to meet up with my parents and siblings, with a few slap-up dinners such as at the Nihon Mura Japanese restaurant at Tampines Swimming Complex, satay beehoon at East Coast Parkway, nasi lemak at some outlet on Clementi Road by NUS, and of course the Bedok Food Court right by the camp. Don't know if this contributed to my weight actually increasing by some 5kg to 72kg over the duration of the training period, but I'm hoping it's muscle :D (unlikely though) The two-hours-plus of exercises each session weren't too bad - it would begin with warm-ups (extended 5bx), mostly as follows:
Other choices were pull-ups (usually 2 sets of the minimum required to pass), calisthenics (i.e. more push-ups, crunches, flutter kicks, bridging [a killer] etc), lower limb exercises like high leg kicks/crab walks/shuttle run, speed training (i.e. 100m sprinting), and even gym circuit training sessions (pretty low-intensity). And there were of course the trial 2.4km runs, which was the whole point of it since I joined the running group. Came in at 12 minutes flat in the first trial during the 6th session, which was promising since there was a end-Phase I test on the 8th session, where passing meant I could exit RT. Sadly enough I fell sick on that day, and decided not to risk it. Got my MC, but as is to be expected from the army, their rigid rules meant that I had to continue with at least six more sessions inclusive of the mid-Phase II test. Alright then. Burnt more Monday, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, though I can't say that I really disliked the training. The PTIs were quite decent fellas, albeit with their little idiosyncrasies, for example liking to finish the day off with 100 or 140 jumping jacks (not a joke). The 12th session was packed with lower limb exercises such as tuck jumps, tiptoes and ranger hops, and our regular PTI promised to tell whomever took up for our Monday session to go easy on us, in readiness for the Wednesday test. Just had to mention that I saw a Toyota SUV playing a Barney video on the way home that day - Barney! Of course, our Monday PTI would pack us off on a 2.4km trial run first thing, followed by chin-ups and a bunch of other exercises, claiming that it was already slack. I was torn between running my best for the trial and conserving energy, and ended up putting in a confused 12:30+. Then the test itself on 29 April (a day before the Macro III paper). They divided us into batches of fifty, with the shuttle run as the first station. Speaking of the shuttle run, I believe it is the only station where I would be able to get maximum points without any preparation. It really is kinda hard to get less than that, with proper turning technique and without decelerating early on the final stretch. So it was with great confidence that I set off, only to be shocked at the first stride as my hamstrings ached magnificently. Put off, I only managed a mere 2 points. 
(Source: MINDEF Army Online Student Network) Chin-ups next, where I thought I did six, but ended up with five (2 points), a far cry from my JC days, but as they say 好汉不提当年勇. As for sit-ups (crunches), I watched a terribly obese guy do 33, then proceeded to barely crank out 31 (2 points) - much better than the 24 I managed three months ago though. Here it might be noted that the percentage difference between a pass and maximum points varies wildly between the stations. For instance, 5 chin-ups is a pass for Category Y (25 years), while 11 (more than double that needed for a pass) gets maximum points (5 points). For sit-ups, 30 is a pass, while 39 is maximum points - but how difficult those last few are! Those aching hamstrings didn't help as I jumped just under 2.2m for 2 points in the standing broad jump (max points at 18 more centimetres), and a quick calculation showed that I needed 4 points in the 2.4km just to pass (under 11:20). Possible, but not good. Thinking quickly, I went back to the shuttle run station, and with foreknowledge of my hamstring issues managed my 5 points. Still, it didn't bode well for the final run, and to maximize my chances I sat it out until the final detail, where as an added bonus the Indian fella in my group who usually manages a fair sub-12 pace was in. The 2.4km is as much a mental as a physical race, and it's easy to throw in the towel when one's breathing goes awry and one's sides hurt, and indeed there are those who clearly don't even try to push themselves. Our PTI advised us to go slow the first three laps and then speed up, but realistically I felt a constant 2-minute lap pace was better, giving me a 40 second buffer. I had planned to pace the Indian guy, but as he appeared to follow the slow-start strategy I went it alone and did the first lap in about 1:50. So far so good. Came in at about 3:55 for the second lap, and 6:00 for the third, and it was evident that I was slowing somewhat, though I was still near the head of the pack (which did not bode well for those behind). My preferred pacer soon caught up, and I completed my fifth lap in about 10:15, which left me with some 2:25 for the final 400m. Despite my best intentions, I slowed to walking pace then to catch my breath. Surely I could not throw it all away? The thought of more burnt afternoons spurred me on, and I managed the last 100m at a sprint to clock a 12:15 or thereabouts. Yay! That cleared both my current and previous year's obligations, which means that my next IPPT can be as late as January 2011 if I so wish. However, the exercise was almost... enjoyable. In fact, it was probably the hardest test I have attempted in my university life, in a way; one may suffer when studying, but in a different way, never going out of breath. Truly I wouldn't mind continuing, but it is all too easy to come up with excuses without enforcement - tiredness, homework, projects... but as a particularly wise PTI may or may not have said, it is not particularly hard to pass the IPPT if one uses those half-hours spent pcc-ing to run instead. In fact, it really isn't that far to a Gold award (and $400) - nine more sit-ups, which is surely manageable; six more chin-ups, when I once could manage 15 or 16 honest ones; nothing to be done for the shuttle run; some 10 more cm for the standing broad jump (not that much really), and finally a sub-10:15 for the 2.4km for Cat Y, which I've done - once. Whip a good training program, drop five kilograms, and it's on! Maybe I should try stuff like the 100 pushup or 20 pull up challenges? Not that the IPPT is a particularly good measure of combat fitness (can't imagine how the ability to do forty good crunches as opposed to thirty matters in a firefight, for instance, and there are opinions that running isn't even very helpful), with rumours that the test format may change drastically (and even RT being outsourced) in the near future. But for now, here's to passing the IPPT once more! Next: AWAREness By Hams
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