APFT BOLC WOES

[reskee]

Currently I'm at BOLC at Fort Sam and scheduled to finish December. I failed the APFT on day 2 of arrival and again when given a second shot. Thing is I experience pretty immense pain in my feet when running. I have no idea what had happened (I have extremely flat feet but I passed APFT in April at my reserve unit) since then but I'm not sure what to do. I went to sick call about it and received a temporary profile and given stretches but advised that I may have to live with foot pain .

It is really causing me distress because I'm not physically unfit. I work out regularly by doing cardio and weight lifting. Im a 27 year old female I do 50 push ups, 54 Sit ups and over 1 minute on the run but of course none of that matters because a fail is a fail. On the 4 mile road March my feet were in immense pain and it moved up to ankle pain. I just don't know what to do because with my amount pain during running I'm not convinced that I CAN pass at this point.

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[WernickeDO]

If running is the issue you could explore the alternate cardio events. Perhaps the walk or the swim would be better for you. That may or may not be an option at BOLC, as it takes a pretty thorough workup to get to that point. Aren't they doing remedial PT at BOLC anymore?

 

[reskee]

If running is the issue you could explore the alternate cardio events. Perhaps the walk or the swim would be better for you. That may or may not be an option at BOLC, as it takes a pretty thorough workup to get to that point. Aren't they doing remedial PT at BOLC anymore?

I did the remedial PT group and fully participate but that doesn't help the underlying issue for me. There has been very little guidance on form or technique. We just do a bunch of push up, situps, then run around the track.

And I think you are right about it not being an option at BOLC because I talked to a Cadre member about it and she mentioned the alternative events, but eluded to the same thing about not being able to be eligible for it at BOLC. So I'm at a lost.

 

[Shikima]

Get a referral to PT.

 

[statusspasmaticus]

I did the remedial PT group and fully participate but that doesn't help the underlying issue for me. There has been very little guidance on form or technique. We just do a bunch of push up, situps, then run around the track.

And I think you are right about it not being an option at BOLC because I talked to a Cadre member about it and she mentioned the alternative events, but eluded to the same thing about not being able to be eligible for it at BOLC. So I'm at a lost.

You need a permanent profile to do an alternate event for a Record APFT which would be difficult to accomplish while at BOLC

 

[Dranger]

If I remember correctly you can't come to BOLC with a temporary profile or acquire one while there. Only permanent.

 

[drluvjonz]

Reskee, I usually just lurk, but you pulled me from the shadows. I have flat feet and used to experience considerable pain as well, running 5-6 days every week. I have at different points in my career diagnosed with both shin splints and plantar fasciitis. For the pf I was given the different stretching exercises, inserts for both my boots and running shoes (molded by a specialist), recommendation to roll a frozen bottle of water under my feet first thing in the morning, etc. What worked best for me was to lay off of the running for a while (you should still do some form of cardio). When I gradually started running again, I made sure I stretched VERY well before running, changed running shoes (went from Nike to Saucony) and worked on changing the way I ran (foot strike). My brother, who also is in the military, has arthritis in both of his knees (82nd ABN DIV) but can still run with relatively little pain. He recommended I read a book called Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. It was a little too "rainbows and unicorns" for my taste, but I must admit, it helped. If I could sum up the main point I got from the book: adjust the way you run until you stop hurting. Change your posture, and the way your foot hits the ground. If you usually run heel-toe or run on the balls of your feet, try a mid-foot strike. Hope this helps...