General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Uncle Paul's Boot Camp Rss Feed  
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2011-05-08 7:54 PM

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Subject: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

I have a 18 year old nephew that will graduate from high school next month. He is a great kid from meager means that has dreamed of joining the Army since he was a boy. He attended JrROTC since middle school. He had his knee totally reconstructed (ACL/ MCL & meniscus) & finished PT last month. He is currently 5"8" & 225lbs. He realizes that getting in the Army may not happen, but wants to give it his best shot.

 

He has had a rough year, his father passed late last year & another younger relative earlier in the year. He has faced the reality of it all & remained strong. He will come live with our family after he graduates. I gave him two options, first one is to be absorbed into our family, find the means to further his education & leave on his own when he's comfortable. My wife & I would help him in any way we could, but also motivate him as well. He needs a healthy dose of motivation, but he's not lazy. He will always battle weight if he doesn't get a handle on it now. His knee problems were stretched out over a year & that's when he put most of the weight on.

 

The other option I gave him was "Uncle Paul's Boot Camp". It will be a 4 month crash course to lose at least 50lbs & prepare for Army basic training. He told me today he wants to go for it! I've had several long talks with him about diet, mainly 500 cals or less every three hours. His choices are limited till I get him. He has been trying to vigorously walk an hour a day, working toward two. He had a setback last week when they pulled his wisdom teeth. The good news is he likes to run & has been on some 5 mile runs with me a couple years ago. I plan to buy him a Garmin Forerunner 305 for graduation.

 

I have some idea of what I would like to do, this seemed like the best place to try to lay it out & get positive feedback.

The most important thing to start with will be getting his diet squared away & get him logging. I used Fitday a few years ago & he can just take over my account so he'll have my food library to make it easier to input.

 

 He told me today that he was getting P90X from a friend, which we can integrate into two-a-days. We can access his fitness with the Garmin & formulate a brutal training plan that won't get him injured. As his fitness improves, I'll surprise him with some crack of dawn 3K' climb or carry my weighted golf bag around a long very hilly course. He doesn't care for biking much, I hope to help him get more comfortable on the bike. He loves video games, but they will become a reward for much sweat. If the Army thing doesn't work out, I'll probably get him a membership to my gym.

 

I'm a Air Force Veteran, I tried to talk him into the Coast Guard or AF but he won't have it, so he'll have to learn how to deal with "unreasonableness". My wife won't tolerate any yelling (darn), so I'll have to come up with clever ways of being unreasonable, like "Moss Patrol" I have a huge NW lawn. All the military stuff is just fun & games, but I'll try to make it more fun than games. Plus my eight year old son will be my observer.

 

My fitness is ok, I've been really busy & am just picking my running back up. I've kept my weight down & eat pretty healthy. It's still not warm enough for the bike (I know, HTFU). I'm not planning any events this year because of some big projects including this one. I will be ramping up my fitness to try to stay in front of him as long as I can, but I know once he's fit, he'll be faster than me.

 

 At the very least, I hope we can get his weight back to close to normal, integrate healthy eating habits, & discover how much fitness is required to maintain desired weight. It's taken me years to do this, I hope he can learn faster than me. 

 



2011-05-14 5:08 AM
in reply to: #3488271

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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

It sounds like you are doing what family should do.  Take care of your own.  Good for you, sir.

My brother started basic training late last year, and was deployed to afghanistan within two weeks of graduation.  At 26 yo, he was the second oldest guy in his training group (unit? not sure on terminology).  What got him through?  Fitness.  He went in, in decent shape.  He was running 5 miles per day, a couple days a week with packs on.  He could hit all of this metrics before he went in too.  He hit the gym with one of the local recruiters several times a month, for the months leading up to basic.  My point is, talk to a recruiter about fitness and what your nephew needs for basic.  Set some metrics that correlate directly to what he is going to experience.  Not only will it help get him in physical shape for basic, it will help to get his head into the mindset of a goal beyond just getting into the army, it will get him a nice head start into his army career.

$.02

Thanks for serving, and hopefully for your nephew's service.

2011-06-01 12:02 AM
in reply to: #3488271


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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

There are the Triple Threat sprint trathlon events coming up in June, July and August if you want to bring him out to Fort Lewis (JBLM).

The information they have up on the web for the event is for crap but here is what they have so far: http://www.jblmmwr.com/race_calendar.htm

MArk B.

2011-06-01 1:30 PM
in reply to: #3488271

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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp
I would love to do the Ft Lewis event, but I won't have enough time to train this year. I hope to get my big projects completed this year so I can focus on training more next year. I hope he can develop a desire to tri train, but the bike is a problem for him at this point, & he hasn't swam in years.

 

 He will be here in a few weeks, then he has about a month of classes to finish online to get his diploma. I'll update if anything changes.

2011-06-11 9:52 PM
in reply to: #3488271

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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

Today was Day #1. He moved in lastnight, I was expecting another week or two. I immediately ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305 from Newegg, hopefully get it by Wednesday. I set him up on my Fitday account & showed him how to use it. We threw the football for half an hour then played hoops for about an hour.

This morning, we went to the track & he jogged a couple miles & walked one. I had him eat every three hours & we put in a full day trimming my hedge, 840lbs of leaves today, we'll finish the other half tomorrow. After we dumped the leaves, we stopped at the store, on the way out I suggested he walk the 2.2 miles home. I had a nice pasta dinner waiting for him. His weight today was 224.5.

I'll get him up early tomorrow for some tennis before we start on the hedge. He is very excited & willing. We will have to make a lot of changes around the house in the next week to get him settled in. He has a good amount of school work yet to finish.

Right now he's sitting at 1500 calories for the day with a perfect ratio 55% carbs/15% prot/ 30% fat, with room for a good snack before bed. Not bad for winging it. He'll learn to do his own diet planning soon.

2011-07-12 6:06 AM
in reply to: #3544285

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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

How about an update?  How is it going for him?  Can I come to Uncle Paul's Boot Camp, too?!  I'll bring my own Garmin! Wink

 

Jim



2011-07-12 3:10 PM
in reply to: #3488271

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Subject: RE: Uncle Paul's Boot Camp

Glad you asked Jim. He is doing well, he graduated last week & spent a few days with his Mom without putting weight back on. He was 208 yesterday & is again at his Mom's for a few days. He is a boxing enthusiast, so we got him a 70lb bag to bang on delivered from Walmart for $52, about half price. We have been playing tennis every day he's here & throwintg the football. He is still trying to get 5 miles a day in walking & shadow boxing to get/keep his heart rate up.

 

He is just getting over some blister problems on one of his feet. I showed him how to use the moleskin & Body Glide. I only had to push him a couple weeks & help him with his diet, he pretty independent now & about the only thing I've been telling him is to eat. After a couple weeks, he wasn't so sore & saw the weight coming off & that has added motivation. He is currently studing for the ASVAB test & I hope to help him get his driver's license next month.

 

Sorry Jim, no vancancies, my 23 year old daughter has boomeranged back into my life. I love having her around again, but don't know if it will last a day or a year.

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