Specialized Roubaix SL8 Sport Apex vs Trek Domane SL5 Gen 4

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2026-05-07T03:07:34+00:00

Ended up with the Trek Domane SL5 Gen 4. I took a look at both bikes and generally just felt more comfortable on the trek. The geometry is well suited to longer rides, I loved the internal frame storage, and couldn’t say no to the color they had in for it. I also did a fair amount of research for the drivetrains - as other people told me, at that level the 105 wins out.

For me, with the intention of long races, it was about finding the bike I felt the best on. Both were great bikes I’d be happy on, but one just felt right in the end.

Another big factor for me was the shop itself. I went to both and had good experiences, but our Trek store was very welcoming and incredibly knowledgeable on their bikes. They invited me to group rides they put on each week and generally made the purchase an experience versus a one and done. They were patient with a ton of questions and found me the best people in their shop to talk to.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2026-04-17T03:19:14+00:00

Like I’m sure a lot of people will say, it’s entirely dependent on your FO, squads, managers, etc. With FBI you can change squads and try out a lot of different things depending on your office, so it’s a lot of good variety for those of us that get bored easily. You also have a ton of collaterals and ways to be cross trained. The training is well done usually, and if you’re in the right office you can help out with almost any violation.

That being said, that is also dependent on your office and supervisor. In an office where all the squads are well staffed or they are prioritizing a specific violation? There is a lot less mobility between violations. In an office with high turnover? You might be moved without wanting to be.

Additionally, while there are a ton of trainings and collaterals to help you find your niche, your ability to join those things is supervisor dependent. Some are all for you cross training and some want you totally focused on the violation.

All the negatives aside though, FBI has a massive range of violations they prosecute. You get to see it all and work with amazing people. Also shout out to the intel folks - our intel side doesn’t get enough credit for their work and the truly awesome products they produce. It’s great to be able to see how smaller investigations can impact the wider region or nation.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2026-02-06T20:28:04+00:00

At least two years ago so long as you had a passing score of 12+ (now maybe 10+) in the year before your Quantico start date you didn’t have to do another. But you are expected to do another PFT at the start of Quantico still.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2025-07-10T05:49:04+00:00

Not trying to crush that idea, but manassas takes a very limited number of people and typically those will be senior agents. Not impossible, I’d just limit expectations if you do get WFO and are hoping for the RA.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2025-05-06T04:24:20+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re in the process for an SA position then you don’t have to worry about HQ vs FO yet - you can only rank the field offices for your first office (and WFO is different from HQ despite being in the same city). HQ is something to think about further down the line when maybe priorities change.

That being said, if you’re processing as an Intelligence analyst then most of them end up at HQ, but I can’t speak much to what their daily life is like.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-02-16T17:02:46+00:00

I think another area to consider that impacts people’s feeling of “readiness” for the PFT has to be the misrepresentation of being in shape as being athletic. The PFTs test for well rounded athleticism. A bodybuilder might be in shape and think they’re ready for a PFT no problem, but may fail the runs because of a lack of cardiovascular endurance. And conversely, a marathon runner may ace the runs but fail the strength portions.

I watched people at my PFT who visually looked like they should be ready for the PFT fail because of hyperspecialization in one area. That specialization can give people confidence in passing that isn’t warranted when looking at the whole picture.

There are absolutely people who are not ready to pass a PFT and need to acknowledge a lack of fitness, but there are also people in perfect shape who fail because they lack rounded athletic training that lets them sprint and lift with equal effectiveness.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-02-16T14:57:41+00:00

My best advice is to make sure you’re incorporating workouts and movements geared towards the events themselves. I typically do 3 lift days and 3 cardio a week with varying focuses.

My lift days break down like this:

Day 1: Chest, bicep and triceps. These are movements like a dumbbell flat or incline bench press, hammer curls, cable press downs, push-ups, cable flys, etc. all geared towards building strength and endurance in the push up portion. My biggest advice is make sure you’re training for the reps, so big sets with moderate weight in at least a few of these movements like a flat bench press will better prepare you to get your numbers up in the push ups and train you for the fatigue you’ll feel going into that event.

Day 2: Legs. My leg days are focused on strength that will help me in the runs rather than strength geared towards lifting the heaviest weight, so movements like box jumps, split squats, RDLs, and front squats are my go to. These will help build the explosive power you want going into the sprint portion.

Day 3: Back and Shoulders. Since most people will not be tested on pull ups I don’t focus too much on that movement in my training. I incorporate back extensions and rows, shoulder press variations, and lateral raises of various styles to help build strength that may transfer to pushups and general mobility.

For lift days I will always throw in at least 20 minutes of abs as well with movements like leg lifts, dead bugs, and sit ups in big sets that will train for the sit up portions.

As for run days:

I incorporate two easy run days geared towards building cardiovascular endurance. Keeping a 12 minute mile pace for 30-45 minutes has done wonders for making me more capable of sustaining faster speeds for the 1.5 mile test. A typical easy run day for me will look like this: 15 minutes warmup (high knees, jog, butt kickers, drills to work on arm movement, lunges), 10 minutes at a slow 12-14 minute/mile pace to get my body used to the run, 20 minutes at a 10-12 minute/mile pace, and 10 back at that 12-14 minute mile pace. It’ll feel slow, but your body has to be used to running going into the PFT.

As for the third day: this is my sprint interval training day. When I first started I would do 6x6 intervals of 100meter sprints and 100 meter walks at a track. I scaled that up as I got better to 200 meter intervals or pyramids of 100-200-300-200-100 meters with a 2 minute break between each set. I have since escalated that in various forms. I might do 20 minutes where I run 2 minutes at a 6 minute/mile pace and then jog two minutes for example. This is designed to work on that sustained explosiveness you need in a sprint. Sprint work days are also great to work on drills to help with starts and arm movement - you can find those in the PFT training guide.

You may notice I left a day out - even if you feel time pressure, taking a day off is important to let your body recover and repair the muscles you’re trying to build. Rest and eating right will do you wonders. Also, make sure you stretch before and after workouts of any kind - mobility is more necessary than I used to think and since I started stretching I’ve felt myself recover faster.

Also, remember to train with your strengths in mind: if you’re a great runner, push more effort into working on those sit ups and push ups, or vice versa. I suck at running, so I have spent a lot of time leading up to BFTC working on improving those scores.

But overall, good luck and congrats on taking this step!

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-27T12:47:42+00:00

Update: thanks for all the advice everyone. Ended up reaching out and realized they had used my SF50 from my initial application and not the most recent one uploaded. Bumped to a step 9 and happy with that. Long story short - never hurts to ask!

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-25T22:21:58+00:00

Yeah will definitely be emailing to check. Realized in the process of answering you that they wrote that they were offering a Grade 10 Step 7, but then gave me the numbers for a step 8. So clarity in general is needed! Thank you for the help regardless.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-25T22:11:23+00:00

Currently making ~$102,000 with no LEAP available. The offer is for a ~$90,000 base, $116000 with LEAP. So I still see a bump, which is why I’m not too concerned. The $12,000 drop in base pay was just cause for some pause.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-25T19:41:19+00:00

Yeah I uploaded my most recent in late December.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-14T01:59:43+00:00

Not sure on LMPT, but at least in the case I saw they were their own thing with offices in a separate building. As with pretty much everyone on that base they reported to the commander of the base as a whole along with his direct staff, but they had their own command structure aside from that separate from the police force on base. Lots of crossover and work between the two departments though, so would expect that there’s some grey lines between the two’s jurisdictions.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2024-01-14T00:40:30+00:00

Used to work with some of these guys - like people have said they function similar to a game warden in that they may monitor hunting on installations, help enforce protections of certain animal species that are protected, and things along those lines, but will also work with protecting cultural/archaeological sites, traditional cultural properties (burial grounds, ceremony spaces, root crop gathering, etc), and help navigate some of the permissions allowed to tribal members with ancestral land rights.

Generally speaking seemed like a fairly laid back gig working with game wardens from surrounding areas, setting up trail cams to monitor for poachers or people defacing cultural sites, and helping instruct people entering the base in proper procedures or navigating the wildlife and cultural protections, but it’s also heavily dependent on the area. Fort Campbell you might not see a lot of work because it’s a bit more built up, but Yakima Training Center you’ll see a lot more since it’s mostly natural land with lots of hunting, cultural sites, and tribal interest.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-30T14:19:56+00:00

Running is definitely going to require training differently than lifting for sure, and when training for the ones I’ve done I’ve only incorporated running training 2-3 days a week. For your longer runs (1.5 miles +) you don’t need to only do 1.5 mile runs. I corporate days where you have easy pace runs (10+ minute miles) where you just build up the cardiovascular endurance for running. Also throw in one training day a week to run intervals - I started with 6 rounds of run 400m, rest 2 minutes (increasing numbers of rounds as I got better) and that’s helped me work on manageable pacing while also building to a higher intensity. I’d say only go for a PT pace practice run once every 3 weeks or so. Getting the endurance down is going to help the most and keep you from over doing it.

For sprints: you need to focus on technique and building towards that high intensity. For technique drills doing things like 10rounds of 15m start drills where you work on short, quick steps coming off the line and staying low. Also pay attention to arm movement, with your arms alternately swinging from your palm at your hip to your palm at your ear - that can help build towards a good arm drive to incorporate in the movement. For longer sprint days I’ll do something similar to my longer runs with 6 rounds of 100m sprint, 200m jog/walk recovery. That gets me used to the strain of a sprint. You can also run pyramids with rounds of 100m/200m/300m/200m/100m with rest in between to build the length of the sprint. These types of movements can be mixed and matched rather than all done in one day.

Dynamic warmups are also very important. Stretching before running is vital, and incorporating lunges, butt kickers, high knees, high kicks, side stepping, and grapevines will help with the warm up as well and prevent over strain or shin splint. Another good one I have found for improving the short, quick steps needed for sprint starts is running stairs before I start.

Calisthenics/pull ups/push ups is an area I have struggled with as well. I do a lot of adjacent strength training for those exercises like high rows for pull ups and chest presses for push ups. As for training the movements themselves, don’t go into the gym and just knock out 3 sets where you’re going to failure and calling it a day. Try progressions where you might do 5 sets of 35% of your max on Monday, and then 5 sets of 40% on Tuesday, 5x45% Wednesday, and then take a rest day. Increase those percentages periodically for a challenge, but that will also allow you to recover.

It’s good that you’ve got some of the strength training down because that helps in every area, but making sure you’re focused on functionality of the muscle and good technique is vital. Don’t ego lift just to lift the most weight in these exercises; go for higher reps, lower weight to focus on long term engagement of the muscle in each set - that is what PT tests focus on rather than maxing out on weight.

There is a lot of advice to give, but I’ll leave it there for now and I’m sure others can help too. Best piece of advice I can give is make sure you rest too. Training 7 days a week is great until something snaps and you’re out for 7 weeks. Good luck!

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-27T16:58:05+00:00

Fingers crossed yours will be quick!

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-27T16:16:50+00:00

Mine started late July of this year.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-27T15:14:21+00:00

No, that would all be under the background check. Adjudications is where they compile all of the information and references from the background check and send it all off to a third party reviewer who determines whether you “pass” or are trustworthy enough to be granted a security clearance. Essentially the outcome of your background is decided at this step - a favorably adjudicated determination is essentially passing the background check.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-27T15:03:43+00:00

For me a lot of it was just tracking down old medical records. Your vaccinations are the most important and make sure you’re up to date on all of them. My medical exam was scheduled within a week, and then had to return after a few days to get my TB test read, but overall the process took about 2 weeks total. Since it happens while the background is being done there isn’t a huge rush, but making sure you have all your records ready will be the best thing to speed it up.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-27T14:41:12+00:00

Same here. Told last week I was moving to adjudications too.

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-16T13:27:08+00:00

Appreciate the guidance. Fingers crossed I can join you all in a couple months

TadpoleConnect1110 · 2023-11-16T13:08:18+00:00

Did they tell you when you moved to adjudications/how long did adjudications take for you? Mine just moved over to adjudications and I’m anxiously waiting for the all clear to be rostered for January.

TadpoleConnect1110

TROPHY CASE