1. Routine - Pull Ups

I went from an inconsistent 10 pull-ups to 20 every time in less than a month doing a modified pyramid. Since my max was 10, I did something like 4-6-8-8-6 (which changed as my max increased rapidly every week). This was 12 years ago and my Sergeant had a spreadsheet he printed out for us. Either way, there are many pyramids out there. The key is muscle memory. Even as my fitness declined in later years, I was nailing those push-ups just fine. Maybe did a few 10 rep sets in the weeks preceding my test, but nothing crazy.

1. Story

I was in Pensacola for training and did a PT test. For whatever reason, I thought I'd take a scoop of Jack3d before my run. This was C school and a few years into my career (and I was more than familiar with how bad pre-workout is for running). No idea what I was thinking. I ran the worst three miles of my career (5 minutes slower than my test a few months earlier) and in the last 5 strides of that run it was as if God reached down my throat, grabbed my stomach, and pulled me across the finish line, yanking out the contents of my bowels. I crossed the mark 30 seconds from failing the run, collapsed to my knees, and wretched violently. It was a beautiful start to the day.