The FBI PFT

Yesterday we went to the BARA Tuesday night track workout. It had to be over 85 degrees by the time we arrived at the IU Outdoor track at 7:30pm, and no one in the small group that did show up seemed motivated to run much/hard in the heat. (and it's not looking like this heat wave will pass anytime soon, bleh) It's been a rough few weeks, so something fun was well overdue!

Our friend's dream job is to someday (soon!) be an FBI agent, and to do this, one of the main criteria is at least a passing score on the FBI PFT (physical fitness test). [I was kinda curious so I looked up... these standards are summarized accurately(?) in third-party sites: USMC | Navy | Air Force | Army]

We were talking about how our friend wants to get closer to maxing the score (fastest time) on the 300-meter run for the test. Since no one really goes out to train for a 300-meter run, of course this spurred questions on why, and many many more questions on what else the PFT involves. So, rather than talk about it, we ALL decided to do it!

There are 4 parts to the test, all mandatory:
1) Sit-ups
2) 300 meter sprint
3) Push-ups
4) 1.5 mile run

You can earn points for each part, depending on how well you do. In order to pass the PFT, you must earn at least one point in each event. There are strict rules about what constitutes one rep, like proper form. The scoring scales are below - excerpted from the official site here.

This was really fun! I've been in a dark place with running since it's been 100+ degrees each day (and I've had to wake up at 5 or 6am to run), so despite the temperature, Tuesday was the first time I had FUN running in a few weeks.

One-Minute Sit-Ups

Score	Female Range	Male Range
-2	29 and below	31 and below
0	30-34	32-37
1	35-36	38
2	37-40	39-42
3	41-42	43-44
4	43-46	45-47
5	47-48	48-49
6	49-50	50-51
7	51-52	52-53
8	53-54	54-55
9	55-56	56-57
10	57 and over	58 and over

On the sit-ups, I feel like my score was a shallow achievement: I finished 44 total, but our spotters Ben and Jeff said that I was dangerously close to not doing it right. We're going to call it 44...


Timed 300-Meter Sprint (in seconds)

Score	Female Range	Male Range
-2	67.5 and over	55.1 and over
0	67.4-65.0	55.0-52.5
1	64.9-62.5	52.4-51.1
2	62.4-60.0	51.0-49.5
3	59.9-57.5	49.4-48.0
4	57.4-56.0	47.9-46.1
5	55.9-54.0	46.0-45.0
6	53.9-53.0	44.9-44.0
7	52.9-52.0	43.9-43.0
8	51.9-51.0	42.9-42.0
9	50.9-50.0	41.9-41.0
10	49.9 and below	40.9 and below

I could NOT believe I was nervous for this, and rightly so because I got smoked in this run by the other two ridiculously fast runners I went with (Katie & Trevor)! The nerves might've partially done that to me. But, we were all still running fast enough that I lost my hat in the breeze. :) No way I could've kept this pace up for even 400, haha - and to think that some of the women in the trials this past week were running each of their 400m splits at this pace. Crazy! Or maybe the sick part is that plenty of people can run a full 400 meters in less than the time it took me to finish 300... yep, I will not be going to the Olympics for sprints. [Katie did awesome! That girl's on a hot streak right now.]

Today I noticed that I busted small tears in the front of my Newtons (on both shoes!!) while doing this. :( Probably from jamming my foot to the front of my shoes while running on my toes. More reasons I why shouldn't be a sprinter.

Well-earned.

Push-Ups (untimed)

Score	Female Range	Male Range
-2	4 and below	19 and below
0	5-13	20-29
1	14-18	30-32
2	19-21	33-39
3	22-26	40-43
4	27-29	44-49
5	30-32	50-53
6	33-35	54-56
7	36-38	57-60
8	39-41	61-64
9	42-44	65-70
10	45 and over	71 and over

Ok, I min-ed on the push-ups. Normally, I can do 20-25 on any given day, but Katie and Jeff were making me laugh so I gave up at 14.


1.5 Mile Run (in minutes:seconds)

Score	Female Range	Male Range
-2	15:00 and over	13:30 and over
0	14:59-14:00	13:29-12:25
1	13:59-13:35	12:24-12:15
2	13:34-13:00	12:14-11:35
3	12:59-12:30	11:34-11:10
4	12:29-11:57	11:09-10:35
5	11:56-11:35	10:34-10:15
6	11:34-11:15	10:14-9:55
7	11:14-11:06	9:54-9:35
8	11:05-10:45	9:34-9:20
9	10:44-10:35	9:19-9:00
10	10:34 and below	8:59 and below

No watches allowed. Just a person calling the elapsed time every 400 meters (1 lap). I did my 1.5 mile run in 9:51 with no nerves, unlike the 300m!

My first 400 was 97 seconds, and while I didn't feel like I was going to "fly and die (the danger of starting out too fast)," I thought maybe I got a little over-excited on the first lap as usual. On lap 2, I tried to reign it in a little bit but I felt.... good! and kept on going. Turns out that the second lap was another 97-second split. At this point, I thought: I could totally hang onto this for 4 more laps! :)

As I passed the 1 mile mark and Ben called my time, I was around 6:30. This was about the time that I realized how much easier 6 laps is compared to 12.5 (from our 5k time trials)! And now, only two laps left. I am embarrassed to admit that I lost count around here: I couldn't remember if I was on lap 5 or lap 6... I just cannot get my brain to function when I run!

The last two laps were uneventful. I was starting to catch some of the other people a lap behind me but trying not to get in the way. Coasted to the finish without any problems keeping up. It was really nice - I felt mostly relaxed the whole run! It would seem to me that running slow for these past few months is making me faster. :) This was the confidence boost I needed to get me out the door for the next few days, at least.

All in all, the FBI PFT day was a fun non-running running day for us! We'll try it again soon. And, I definitely learned/remembered something on this day: If you don't feel like running the same old thing, do something fun instead!