So I just commissioned in the Army and soon I'll be heading to my Basic Officer course.  I want to be as physically fit as possible; it is a challenging course and Ranger school may be down the line.  I have 6 months to train and get into shape.  I know what I want to excel at, but not entirely sure how to fold everything together into a comprehensive weekly plan.  I'm a big guy and have been lifting a lot over the past year.  Strength is not my weak spot, but I can't neglect it.  If it were up to me, I'd be doing deadlifts, squats, and other more functional workouts, but I already have a good baseline for that and need to really focus on the areas that I'll actually be graded in.


What I need to focus on:
-Push Ups
-Situps
-Pull Ups
-2mile Run
-5mile Run
-Lower Body fat %

For running I've been doing the below with great success; I pulled it from a running website designed to improve 5k times.  Open to other ideas, but I'd like the PU/SU/Pullups to be folded into this plan and other more "rounding" exercises like squats if at all possible.  I'm worried that I might try to overload the week with too many workouts and exercises:



Diet:
I know that abs are made in the kitchen, so I should probably include my diet as well for your critique.  Sample day below, but basically trying to reduce carbs, eat more meats and fruits and vegetables.  Logging everything I eat on MyFitnessPal, trying to lose 2lbs per week so basically a 2000calories per day for me.  Need to keep my protein up to limit muscle loss as I'm cutting.

Breakfast:  Banana, fruit
Lunch:  Salad, greek yogurt, hard boiled eggs
Dinner:  Lean protein like fish/chicken with mixed vegetables.



Tell me what you think.  How should I build my training cycle.

Your diet looks bad to me. You are giving your body sugar right off the bat which messes with you for the rest of the day. Protein and fat in the AM. Bacon and eggs. By what your sample day looks like I don't see how you can be getting anywhere near enough protein and fat. You can eat a pretty good amount of food on 2,000 calories. What is your current weight/bf% vs target? A lot can be accomplished in the time you have if you program correctly.

Right now I'm too heavy.  238lbs, 19%BF.  I'd like to lose 20-25 lbs and get my % down closer to 10-12%.  Any other details on what you might suggest?

Others who have .mil experience will be along shortly I'm sure, but until then:

What is your current position on your 2/5 mile run, pushups, pullups, and situps?

What is your weight, height, age? How much extra body weight (fat) are you carrying?

I follow a very similar plan to what you have outlined above, but also have 3 days of barbell work with the SS program incorporated. I tolerate it fine, but neither my lifts or my run times advance as quickly if I specialized in one or the other.  

How often/long are the weighted carries, or ruck marches. It may be that the barbell work prepares you to handle these better

Someone who has been there and done that would really provide the best insight.

Assuming you are accurate with you bf% you have ~193 lbs of lean body mass. Chances are you are fatter than you think, most people are, but we will continue with your numbers. I would start building your diet at 200 grams of protein(800 calories) and 90 grams of fat (810 calories). That leaves you with 390 calories of to split between additional fat/protein and carbs. So basically you could do 200p/90/f/100c (2,010 calories). If you can drop your carbs under 50 grams you'd be better off for it. Then you could add 11 grams of fat and 25 grams of protein which would put you at 225p/101f/50c (2,009 calories).

Eat protein and fat for your first meals and then include the carbs either later in the day or around your workouts. Be careful of not going too deep a deficit with all that running and what not. So you should up your calories on exercise days, especially at the beginning. If your weight isn't where you want it as your deadline approaches, then you can go into a big more of a deficit if needed.

My times are not good; something that I've struggled with for a long time.  like a 16min 2 mile, 45min 5 mile, 50ish PU, 70 SU, and 5ish pull ups.  240ish with 19% Bf so about 45lbs of extra weight.  It would be really awesome to lose 20lbs or so to bring me closer to 10-12%.  Rucking is actually really easy for me; hence why im trying to focus more on the running parts.

Ok that's really helpful, thanks.  What foods do you recommend?  Usually when I'm cutting I eat a lot of eggs, chicken, fish, carrots, peas, corn, greek yogurt, etc.  Gets me a lot of protein and fats.  Maybe there's some other quick and easy food that I'm missing.

I eat a lot of ground beef. You can tailor the protein to fat ratio depending on your needs. It's easy to make, eat cold, cheap, etc. Cheese is good. Avoid sugary veggies. Yogurt can add too many sugars too easily. Olive oil, coconut oil, and butter are my main sources of added fats.

On the training portion, the best way to increase you push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups is to do them. A lot. Pull up whenever you see something you can do one from. Push-ups and sit-ups before/after you put something in your face and first thing when you wake up.

If you ignore your strength training you will most likely lose lean body mass. So I wouldn't ignore it.

Running, I don't do it anymore. So ask someone else.

Time to stop by the supermarket and get some beef!  Hopefully they won't mind me doing pushups in the checkout line.  Thanks, this was really helpful

Anvil gave good advice on the nutrient portion. Listen to that.

I tried a quick google search to see what reps and times maxed out the test BOC, but couldn't find anything. Your run program looks fine. I would make sure you are doing lots of pushups and pullups each week. I don't know what your strength training program looks like, but get lots of those in there.  The only other thing I would add is to stay consistent in diet and workouts. 6 months is great time frame to get where you want to be, just stay the course.

Former Army Officer, 10 years, Infantry and MI.  I was commissioned in '97, while my experience is dated, some basic things hold true.  

I'm focusing my advice based on your goal of going to Ranger school.

Drop your weight lifting to maintenance level.  Stick to big lifts so you don't lose any strength.  5/3/1 BBB would be good for this.

Focus your efforts on rucking, running and bodyweight work.

If you want to go to Ranger school you need to be able to hump.  Used to be 12 miles in 3 hours for 0 Week, my year they changed it to 16 in 4 hours.  Six months seems like a long time, but if you've never rucked before, you will need a long time for your body to adapt.

You need to be able to do 49 pushups, 59 situps and 6 chinups.  Looks like you are right on the bottom edge in terms of numbers, you do not want to be there.  You want to have a buffer in case you have a bad day or a hard grader.

5 mile run- under 40 min.  Dropping 5 min is hard.  You're only running 3 days a week and only 1 long run.  That's not enough.

There are also obstacle courses and other endurance events.  You need to train for these.  Remember, the PT test, 5 mile run and 12 mile roadmarch just get you in, then you have to be in shape for the actual training.  This is all endurance based assessments.

I would seriously consider mixing in some HIIT running into your program. Will help you run faster and also takes up less time. You can squeeze it in after lifting even.
Treadmill or outdoors with a watch / timer.

The program I am using, I warm up a bit, and then run 10 mph for 1 minute, walk 4mph for 1 minute. I do 6-8 cycles of that. Your HR gets up pretty high. 10 mph is a 6 min mile.

Do you get to choose which regiment you'll serve in?

You should listen to Anvil.  Your diet posted absolutely sucks for what you're trying to do.

Fowl is foul.  Eat protein and fat.

Thanks for the advice everyone; I think I've got some good direction to go in!