Hello everyone - I was accepted into USNA and I have questions about plebe summer. I know there have been many forums on this, but I wanted to confirm and receive advice about running in particular.
I have never been a runner. I am female and a swimmer, and lift weights. I can do more than 80 pushups and 110 sit-ups under two minutes, and am currently working on my pull-ups (only 3 pull-ups at the moment). However, I am not a runner. Miraculously, I was appointed with a 9:21 mile, most likely because I maxed out on the other tests in the CFA, and because I excelled in academics - but a 9:21 mile was achieved through self-training for two weeks before NASS (in other words, instead of building muscle, I ran a lot and went on a diet).
Since then I have forced myself to run in the morning, but because of my schedule, I switched to interval running for 15 minutes (sprinting, then jogging slowly, sprinting, etc) instead of cardio for 30-60 minutes. In about 7 weeks I will be going to I-day. Should I return to the dieting and focus on improving my running, or should I continue building muscle?
I also heard about running groups - a 9:21 mile was my fastest record so far. I am assuming that I would have to be in the last running group, but what is the distribution of runners at USNA? Are most people fast, slow, or moderate? Where would I place? Also, would it be shameful to be slow? I will improve but I can only improve so much in a little more than 2 months. I am hoping to be at around 8:30 mile pace - if I do achieve this, which running group would I place then?
Thank you so much.
I have never been a runner. I am female and a swimmer, and lift weights. I can do more than 80 pushups and 110 sit-ups under two minutes, and am currently working on my pull-ups (only 3 pull-ups at the moment). However, I am not a runner. Miraculously, I was appointed with a 9:21 mile, most likely because I maxed out on the other tests in the CFA, and because I excelled in academics - but a 9:21 mile was achieved through self-training for two weeks before NASS (in other words, instead of building muscle, I ran a lot and went on a diet).
Since then I have forced myself to run in the morning, but because of my schedule, I switched to interval running for 15 minutes (sprinting, then jogging slowly, sprinting, etc) instead of cardio for 30-60 minutes. In about 7 weeks I will be going to I-day. Should I return to the dieting and focus on improving my running, or should I continue building muscle?
I also heard about running groups - a 9:21 mile was my fastest record so far. I am assuming that I would have to be in the last running group, but what is the distribution of runners at USNA? Are most people fast, slow, or moderate? Where would I place? Also, would it be shameful to be slow? I will improve but I can only improve so much in a little more than 2 months. I am hoping to be at around 8:30 mile pace - if I do achieve this, which running group would I place then?
Thank you so much.