k r i s a n d r o

I failed my IPPT last December which explains why I was attending RT for the last 4 weeks. I couldn’t pass last year as I was pretty much slacking in my cardiovascular exercises and I failed my 2.4km run by 18 seconds. Doesn’t sound much but I ran my lungs out and almost fainted on the treadmill.

After 4 weeks of really pushing it during RT – especially during runs – I went for the IPPT test yesterday with much confidence.
True enough, I improved my run by almost a good 30 seconds and had probably some energy left in me at the end of the run.

Hurray?

NO!

I FAILED MY CHIN-UPS BY ONE! ARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I needed to do at least 5 and I struggled at the 5th and my chin was probably 5cm from the bar. The 2nd attempt was even worse.

Somebody just chin me to death already. I am very disappointed in myself. I concentrated too much on my 2.4km run that I totally neglected my upper body strength training. KuKuNehNeh even suggested that I might have gained weight since last December and hence the decline in chin-up counts. :p

Anyway, bad news for failing the IPPT. I have to continue into the next RT phase and this means I have to attend RT for 3 days per week for the next 4 weeks.

WHAT THE CHIN?? ARRRGHHH!!!

I went for my IPPT at Toa Payoh Safra last Sunday in hope that I can at least fulfil the minimum requirements of passing it before my birthday on Christmas. Passing it was all I hoped for, knowing that this is the probably the weakest point in my life; I have stopped playing weekly football, going to the gym and running for a year!

Time flies when I am slacking!

I had a fast timing for the shuttle run station, clocking 10.1 seconds and did good at the standing broad jump with a distance of 239 cm. I guess I still have power in these legs of mine. Well, either that or the fact that I lost 6kg for the past year. My chin-ups dropped drastically and I could only do 5; sit-ups were no better and I manage only 34 in the space of a minute.

For the uninitiated, the 2.4km runs  conducted in Safra gyms are ran on the treadmill and as I stood on the treadmill, I felt pretty confident about passing the run. The timing to beat was 12mins 35secs. It sounded really easy at that point in time but little I know that my fitness level was way below what I expected.

I kept a 5min/km pace initially but quickly lost steam right after the 1km mark. I slowed down to 6.5mins/km for long periods after that. I was struggling to keep my pace on the treadmill so much that I didn’t look at the time at all for the last 400 meters. All I remembered was increasing the speed on the treadmill to about 5.5min/km speed and running desperately to stay on the belt. The belt started to slow down at the 2.4km mark and I immediately let the exhaustion take over my body and fell onto the floor. I was panting very heavily with blurred vision and was fighting to stay conscious. I don’t think I would have noticed if anybody asked for my well being at that moment. I was too busy trying to breathe.

After 10-15 minutes of lying where I fell, I got help from a medic to stand up and my legs could have very well belonged to another person as I tried to stand. Heaving and panting, I managed to collect my results after climbing a flight of stairs and the timing was 12mins 53secs.

I FAILED BY 18 seconds!

I couldn’t catch my breath at all all the way from Toa Payoh to Ang Mo Kio in KuKuNehNeh’s car. She was so worried that I will die on her.

I think my will to run, coupled with the treadmill that forced me to keep my pace up, pushed me over my physical limit. Looking back now, it was quite a frightening experience. I could have just fainted right there and died just because I wanted to pass my IPPT.

Simply not worth it…

I still remember the day when I first got a gold award for my IPPT in Officer Cadet School (OCS). It wasn’t a problem getting maximum points for all the other fitness tests but the 2.4km run has a timing requirement of 9mins 44 secs & below and it has always eluded me. The army won’t present me with 1 million dollars and 99 virgins if I do get gold for my IPPT but I thought of it as a one of the things I must achieve during my stint with national service.

The IPPT Gold Award that resembles the silhouette of Superman as he takes off to peep at Louis Lane again.

It was extremely frustrating for me especially when my timings for the 2.4km run has always bordered around 10mins. Shaving 16 seconds off from a 10min timing is by no means an easy feat – trust me.

On that very day, there was about 4 out of the 30 odd people running that day that were shoo-ins for the gold timing. The game-plan for me and another friend called Christopher was to follow the leading pack as close as we can, without looking like we want to hump them from behind; using them as benchmarks to get a gold timing.

Adrenaline was pumping through me like never before that day. It’s one of those days where I feel like I can accomplish anything – barring jumping down from a flat and the likes of course. The breaking point for me was always on the 3rd lap when the front runners would peel away from me, leaving me with little confidence in their wake. This time, however, I kept up with the pack right up to the 5th lap. As I turned around the corner of my final 100 meters or so, Christopher used his long, lanky legs to put himself for a 5th place finish while I ran for my life to keep up. Another guy overtook me during the last 20 meters and I was about 3 strides behind that sneaky fellow who finished with the timekeeper shouting, “9 mins 42 secs!!!”. My heart was racing as I crossed the finishing line and stared at the timekeeper while time seems to stop as I avoided bullets, Matrix style.

“9 minutes……”

“… 44 SECONDS!!!“

I punched the air jubilantly and gave a grunt which exhausted every ounce of energy left in me as my sweaty platoon mates congratulate me on the achievement that wouldn’t win me 1 million dollars and 99 virgins.