I'm not a religious man but I do try to believe that everything happens for a reason and to look for the good in every bad situation. I say 'try to' because this is easy when things are going ok, but can be virtually impossible when things are at rock bottom.

However if you can maintain this ...

Dave

That's one hell of a story.

It takes mental strength that 99% of people haven't got to be able to find some forgiveness for those who've really wronged us, especially when it's on the scale that you're referring to, so I have the utmost admiration for you in that respect.

It sounds like you ...

I won't claim to know what it's like to have PTSD, but I had some serious issues and had tried pretty much everything you could think of to sort them out, to no avail.
Without going into detail, I was in enough of a state to be almost constantly thinking about suicide and had written a goodbye note ...

Roll on retirement

Doc wrote: Sitting in that urine smelling chair at the nursing home with a "nurse" who doesnt speak English and may well be fiddling with you

Apart from the p1ss-smelling chair this sounds pretty good to me.

I wouldn't let age bother you mate. Lates 20s/early 30s is far from old (although admittedly some sectors of society would have you think otherwise).
At the rate I'm going I'll be 27 or 28 by the time I get to RT (assuming that I do) but I see that as a positive, having some life experience and ...

The world record for the 5k (about 3.1 miles) is 12:37.35. :o All you lads with sub-17 minute three milers have got nothing on this guy :lol:. Just goes to show the human body can achieve anything if its owner puts his mind to it.

That's impressive, but I bet I could carry an 80 lb bergen further ...

If I were about to start a tour somewhere like Afghanistan then I'd definitely fork out for it if I thought it was better than the standard issue malarkey.

£2.5k for your internal organs sounds like a bargain

Just out of interest, roughly how much does it cost for the kind of thing you'd wear out in the field?

I had a look around their website but couldn't find any prices.

My AFCO told me that it had to be done in less than 10 mins to pass, but they'd really be looking for a time nearer the 9 min mark to show that you'd really put the effort in.
I've also heard (elsewhere) that a good PJFT time may benefit you at the later stages of selection, although I don't know ...

That makes sense. Cheers chaps, sound advice once again.

AJtothemax wrote: Also, if you refer to your's as looking like Yoda, I'd see a doctor sharpish.

Whoa whoa whoa, so you're saying that my old chap SHOULDN'T be green, wrinkly and covered in tufts of grey hair???

Shit.

I enjoy weight lifting and have been doing it for years on and off, but I've had to put it second to fitness and endurance exercise now because how I was before I'd be completely useless to the RM.

Now I still do weights as often as I did before, but rather than doing low reps at maximum weight I ...

The other week I found out something interesting about how I train- usually I'd go for a run and give pretty much 100% effort so that by the last 100 metres I'd be almost throwing up, but a few weeks ago I unexpectedly had to cut one of my runs short part-way through, meaning I never got to that ...

By the way, Dangermouse, on a serious note about knocking one out before training. I can see the benefits there as you'll recieve a spike in testosterone - this is the genetic advantage males have. Like a survival thing.


I'm pretty sure that the opposite is true- when you've got the horn your ...