Red-5, Set Up For Your Attack Run

So far, training to be a Stormtrooper has been a great motivation. I have said in previous articles it helps me get over humps and resist temptation. “Trooper’s gotta troop” becomes a bit of a chant towards the end of my runs, or when I have to explain to the guys why I am having a Diet Pepsi instead of a beer, “Sorry guys, Stormtroopers don’t get beer”.  When I run I turn it into a game, I am a big fan of RPGs so this mental escape helps get me through tough work outs.

There is a scene in the new version of Battlestar Galactica where one of the characters is doing laps around a part of the massive battleship.  This is where I go when I run, whether it’s running around Command Pole North of the Death Star or doing one of the exercise below, I bring the Star Wars universe into my workouts to try make them less banal. Running laps around my apartment complex becomes a dash through Mos Espa, or maybe my treadmill is buried deep in a Stormtrooper training center. It’s pretty dorky, but let’s get real we want to wear Stormtrooper armor for kicks, so here are some examples of exercises I use:

Echo Base Assault, Bike 30 km - The distance between the AT-ATs drop zone and the optimal firing range from the Echo Base shield generators. If you are training for a triathlon you will need to be able to bike 40 km and this will be your halfway point between the standard distances and a "sprint triathalon".

Millenium Falcon Combat Drills, 10 Sets of 14 Yard Sprints - The Falcon is a YT1300F freighter which is 25.61 m diameter. If we cut that in two, it means the radius of the round portion of the Falcon is 12.81 m. Try drills from the cockpit to the gunner positions by doing sprints over 42 feet or 14 yards on a football field. The quicker you get there, the more likely you will be to survive a TIE/ln attack, but only if they let you escape.

A Kessel Run, Run a Mile - If we take the Falcon's radius of 12.81m use πR^2 that means the circumfrence of the round portion of the Falcon is 515m or about half a kilometer. Try doing your fastest mile by running three laps around the Millenium Falcon.

Astromech Hurdles, 5 3' Hurdles Over 100 m - The standard R2 astromech droid is .92 meters tall, set up a series of 5 of them and sprint over them as fast as you can. This is a little lower than traditional men's hurdles, but Luke had to make do with what he had on the moisture farm.

Jedi Training, 5 km Run With 37.5 lb Pack - On Dagobah Luke had to become a Jedi ASAP. Apparently this meant running through the swamp, swinging on ropes, and doing flips, all while wearing your teacher on your back. While Yoda is small, he also isn't very dense, weighing only 37.5 lbs. Take a backpack, load it up with weight, and hit the trail. Backflips aren't necessarily required, but the extra weight should make things difficult enough.

Also quick shout out to the folks at WhiteArmor.net, who have a thread dedicated to trooper fitness already! Go check it out.