Candidate Q: Swimmer’s Running Preparation

Candidate:

First off I want to say this blog is fantastic and has so much helpful information on it!

-I’m a competitive swimmer, I swim six days a week (meets are on weekends so it can end up being 7) and do weights every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I want to get in shape but frankly have little to no time to go running, even on the weekends. Running has always been a weakness for me, my best mile (and last time I ran a timed mile) was two years ago and was 8:15…not satisfactory to the standards I see being placed for OCS especially since you need endurance for the 3 mile! What can I do in what little time I have to improve?

[Side note: at weights we do a variety of exercises, we do abdominal work and arm and leg strengthening too.]

Thanks for any help you can provide, I’m a Junior in high school so I’m trying to start preparing NOW!

Response:

If you’ve been swimming and lifting since 2 years ago, your run will have improved significantly. You’re a junior in high school so you are very early in the game. When your swimming season is over, switch to the workout on our site. In the meantime just keep up your level of fitness and slimmer, fitter figure, and you’ll be fine physical-wise. Concentrate on developing a resume of leadership and volunteer service, which will be harder to get up to speed in a short period of time later on. Volunteer at church, Big Brothers and Sisters, run for leadership positions in high school clubs or on your sports teams. No need to worry about a PFT. You won’t run one for several more years at this point.

Good luck and Semper Fi