Rant..... and some advice please...

[Bomber1981]

Sorry for my first post to be a rant and i know it might be a bit of an old one but my mate borrowed me that Ultimate Force and I watched it last night....

What a big load of bollocks that was!

First of all they've got Grant Mitchell - as if!? I cant see anyone in the SAS having a beer gut.

And they seem to get involved with what would probably be 99% of the time Police operations. I haven't seen one episode in a war zone yet!! What bollocks... My mate reckoned it was top!!!

I ain't even gonna ask how true to life this crap is....

Anyways, my main reason for posting on here was to ask about 4 Para. Do they ask for any more extra time than the TA? If i remember right, the TA want you for at least 1 night a week, 1 weekend a month and a two week camp a year..

I've got decent fitness in my eyes:

Running-wise I do a 6 mile run on a Tuesday, a 45 minute interval running session on a Thursday and a 3 mile run on a Saturday. All the other days I do weights.

I'm 14 stone - down from 15 stone and been training for about 6 weeks solid. I trained regularly before but not as 'solid' as I am doing now.

any advice on how to improve my training schedule would be appreciated.

Theres loads of Personal Trainers at my gym but they all want money off you before they give you any advice - tossers.

[Tab]

You have to remember that Television shows like that are not true to life and they have been made to entertain people.

[Bomber1981]

I know but to be fair its pretty dire ain't it? My mate says a bird joins in one of the series????

WTF!?

Anyways, I was gonna add to my topic above - Anyone done that Toughguy challenge? It looks f'in fearsome! I was thinking of doing that in January coz it should be a good physical test to see how far i've come with my training. I've found a steep hill in a park near me which I've started sprinting up and jogging down. A bit of advice of a Toughguy veteran would be cool.

I ain't 100% sure what i wanna do to be honest - I reckon i'd get in the TA with the level of fitness i'm at now but now i've got to this level of I keep looking at 4 Para and RMR....

[gunner75]

Every other weekend as a recruit, plus CIC (2week) and Jumps at Brize (2weeks) assuming you get your lid.
No more commitment required than regular TA as far as Im aware, however research it or get on the blower to HQ. Superior level of fitness is ultimately required, which they will 'help' to get you to - so you dont have to be superman when you turn up. However the onus is on you to maintain and improve your fitness each day of every passing week to keep up to the required standard, therefore if you only put in the effort on a drill night or weekend you may find it very difficult. If you see fitness or sport as a challenge and are competitive in nature then go for it. 4 Para are better disciplined and trained than most regular units (in my opinion) so if your wanting a challenge get joined up and earn that maroon lid.

[Chris_1940]

gunner75 is right supreme fitness needed!! Ive just come back from weekend 2 with 4 Para and it was tough. Only problem i have now is my boss at work he says he's unable to let me have more weekends off so im stuck!!

[Bomber1981]

Does anyone find it hard juggling work, the missus, family, friends and everything else???

Hats off to blokes (and the girlfriends!!!!) who are ok with spending long periods of time away from each other.

Honestly speaking, I am fit but i wouldn't say 'supremely' fit yet. I can run like a madman but probably ain't doing 1.5 mile in 9:30 (or whatever it is) yet. Thats why i'm trying to incoporate more intense workouts - I am glad though that it's my legs that ache while running for ages rather than my lungs / chest - I used to smoke like a trooper but gave it up. I used to run when I smoked but my chest just killed for ages and it was my chest that used to make me stop - now it's me legs! Gotta be a good sign!

[gunner75]

alright chris_1940? nice to hear from you and your gettin stuck in! Told you it would be hard, but dont worry it gets A LOT harder lol! just take it on the chin mate, chew it up and spit it out. Sounds a b*tch if your boss is kicking up a stink. I dont know the legal bit behind it all but I thought an employer couldnt lay someone off for reasons of serving with the TA. whether or not this counts in your case Im not sure.

Bomber you sound like a big bloke and my advise is get rid of some of the timber before you consider applying. When I done 4 para many moons ago we were told to aim for initially 1.5mile in 9min30sec. I think now that time has been put down to something like 9.18 or something daft like that. If I were you id sack any weight training and sprint work and just concentrate on long distance work and shorter faster paced runs. The idea is that getting your fitness up to cope with 10 or so miles in one hit should instill enough stamina in you to run a fast pace over 1.5miles - therefore improving your time and losing you some weight.

[Bomber1981]

Cheers for the advice Gunner - I've been working a lot on my overall strength quite a bit lately so yeah, i'm a fairly big bloke. But at the same time, i've been doing a fair bit of running so thats been building up my stamina.

I reckon my 1.5 miler would be around the 10:30min mark. I'll give it a try and see how i do. Agree with the advice on doing a straight 10 mile run. I do around 6 mile at the moment so I reckon I should be able to stick another 4 mile on top of that. What would be a good time for a 10 mile run in your opinion?

[Tab]

As the kids are as big the missus then it is very hard to juggle with them

[Tab]

You will need to get your 1.5 mile run down to around 9 minutes at least

[penguin_army]

I know but to be fair its pretty dire ain't it? My mate says a bird joins in one of the series????

WTF!?

Anyways, I was gonna add to my topic above - Anyone done that Toughguy challenge? It looks f'in fearsome! I was thinking of doing that in January coz it should be a good physical test to see how far i've come with my training. I've found a steep hill in a park near me which I've started sprinting up and jogging down. A bit of advice of a Toughguy veteran would be cool.

I ain't 100% sure what i wanna do to be honest - I reckon i'd get in the TA with the level of fitness i'm at now but now i've got to this level of I keep looking at 4 Para and RMR....

I did toughguy in 2008. I wouldn't really say it's a test of fitness, because you spend a lot of time standing around trying to get onto an obstacle it's that busy. However, it is a good test of doing gipping horrible stuff. Don't swallow the water. I was hallucinating for about a week afterwards.

[sky ninja steve]

wouldnt worry bout fitness ta recruits get extra time on most of the events on p coy anyway

[gunner75]

haha true but still a thousand gazelles faster than other joes while wearing a cnut cap

I wouldn't bimble down to 4 Para 'not worrying about' fitness as unless its all different since my time (which I doubt) You wont last 5 minutes let alone allowed or sent to do CIC and P-coy with the Regular's staff.