Two mile run test yesterday at 14:09.

Work on getting your run time down. Then keep that same pace for 3 then 4 then 5 miles.

Ugh I know. My running is a big weakness right now. It’s getting better though.

Yesterday was lower body lifting.
Today was upper body lifting, then a some rowing.
1500m
Rest 2:00
1500m
Rest 2:00
1000m
Rest 1:30
500m

Tomorrow is a 10k run test.

Currently listening to FieldCraft Survival podcast.

10k - 52:50😐

Work on getting your times down to around 6-6.5 a mile for 10K runs. The only way to do that is push yourself running. Do intervals - sprint for 1-2 telephone poles and normal pace for the same, repeat for 3-miles. Do lots of sprints.

Yesterday - upper body. Today just running. 1x2.5 miles then 5x400m.

Today is a light/off day.

In the RASP prep program there is a 40/30/20 routine, start 40 push ups, roll over 40 sit ups etc... I did a modified version of that today

40 push
40 sit
Max pull (12 today)
60 yard(ish) farmers carry with 45 lb plates (chose plates because grips are larger/harder to hold)
Did the same down to 10 push/sit (so four sets)

Superset tricep cable extensions with reverse grip fixed weight barbell curls (forearm work) (4 sets)

31:58 minutes on the bike (10 miles)

For mental prep I never workout/ruck etc with music. This is just a little tidbit but I want to train with just myself in my head. I never ruck with a watch on, I look at the time right as I hit the street, and will see the clock in my building right as I finish.

Keep grinding boys

7 mike ruck today. Rest day tomorrow.

Today was lower body lifting. Squats, sumo deadlift, split squats, single leg RDLs, and heavy sled drags.

Then 3x1 mile run with 7 minute rest in between.

Saturday: 5K Run with a few of the ROTC cadets at my school, Muay Thai, and MMA
Sunday: Conditioning, then No-gi Jiu Jitsu
Monday: Jiu Jitsu
Tuesday: Rest day
Wednesday: Muay Thai & BJJ

I've read through Get Selected! for Special Forces: How to Successfully Train for and Complete Special Forces Assessment & Selection a few times. It answered most of my questions.

What do you guys think of this workout plan, I was thinking of running this and then running the Get Selected! program 1-2 months before leaving for selection.
Attachment 35762
E=Endurance
SE=Strength Endurance
HIC=High Intensity Cardio

Nice 5 miler this morning before coming in to work, 36:41. To build up to the five mile in 40 minute time I drilled 8 minute miles on the treadmill to get the pace, then transferred to outdoor running.

I have no authority on my next recommendation but just something I learned during training: I was doing a ton of dual arm farmers carries to work on grip but also realized we won’t always have both arms used balancing us out. Consequently my single arm carries are painful (good pain) because my obliques take a beating. Getting stronger and feeling good, but wanted to give an observation I made during my path.

Keep pushing

Tandum, get those 8-minute miles down to 6.5-minute miles!
Drive on!

Still here grinding. Yesterday I did 3x20min runs with about 5 min rest in between.

Going to SFRE with 20th group in Alabama sometime this year. Not sure if I will make the one at the end of this month or the one in the latter half of the year.

Yesterday:
5 Miles at 7:46 pace over varying terrain and lots of hills
30-minute stretch session
5x5 Dead hang pull-ups
4x Farmer carry 45 lbs dumbbells 60 meters
30x4 60lbs ruck squat

A few recommendations from your last workout session.
Work on dropping about one minute off your 5mile run time, and you might want to start on increasing your distance if it’s not already part of you workout plan.

Keep up the stretching, it’s a good habit to develop now and that recovery becomes crucial as you start adding up the years and mileage on your body.

Add more reps to your pull up sets, those numbers aren’t enough to set you up for success.

The farmers carries are good, your training weight is good, but increase the distance. Grip strength is great but without longer endurance you’ll still be hurting.

Squats=good, dead lifts and overhead military press’s overall help with body conditioning and strength.

Last tip, when rucking; hills are helpful but find some sand to ruck through...like a lot, just saying.

Train smart, and good luck with your plan.

Thank you for the advice BlackSunrise. Question on the 5-mile run, do you mean one minute total or one minute per mile? Also, I will do my best to find some sandy places to train. I'll ask the 20th group guys if they know of any places as I am relatively close to their Alabama location.

On another note, I would say my grip strength is currently my biggest physical weakness that I am looking to improve as much as possible before I attend SFAS. However, I have some time to improve. I won't be able to attend selection until I finish my Ph.D., which I am about 7 months away from completing.

It turns out the 20th group representative would like me to attend their SFRE at the end of this month in light of my SFAS date constraint (I will have to go through again before selection sometime later this year..good practice!). That said, I am dedicating about two-three hours a day to training to ramp up before/after work.

After speaking with the 20th group representative, it seems their SFRE is focused on the APFT, rope climb, 12-mile ruck, land nav test, and 5-mile run. I score a 300 on my APFT, but I've been neglecting to ruck over the years, so I am going to be focusing on getting my feet hard, grip strength up, ruck time down, and 5-mile run down all while not neglecting the pushups and situps. I'm using a modified plan from the book Get Selected to try and train up as much as possible... intelligently but quickly. In regards to landnav, I am a 1LT, so may God have mercy on my soul.

All jokes aside, thank you all for the valuable information on this forum.

Today's workout:

• 4-mile ruck with 45 lbs dry at 13:20/mile pace. Flat terrain for benchmarking purposes, will incorporate elevation and terrain (sand/offroad) moving forward. No issues with hotspots or blisters. Using toughfoot to try and speed up the hardening process.
• 30-minute stretch session
• 40x5 pushups. Each set under a minute, strict form.
• 50x5 situps. Each set under a minute, strict form.

Tomorrow's workout:

• 30-minute swim
• 5x10 Pull-ups
• 5x10 Shoulder Press (break into smaller sets as required)
• 3x 45 lbs farmer carries (As far as I can go)
• 1 min drills for max pushups and situps

Malone,

Just a one minute drop on your overall 5mile time, not per mile...unless your actually from Kenya and are trying out for the next summer Olympics.

I understand you have some time and will be required to attend x2 pre-selection events, not bad actually-just remember to take proper recovery time after those. Give your body a rest after you break it down...career ending injuries can occur if your over training and not letting your body recover.

You definitely need to maintain your ruck marches, sounds like your doing good research on what to do to toughen your feet, but nothing does it better than putting the weight and miles on them. Key thing is to determine what works for you now during training rather than at selection; there are a lot of options and recommendations out there, but does it work for you? With that said, figuring out what and how to actually take care of your feet when/ if they shit out on you is key. I saw a lot of guys doing crazy stuff to their feet...just completely insane because they didn’t know how to work through blisters and hot spots once they got them (you can add water saturation and trench foot to the mix as well). At the end of the day if you can’t walk on them, well...bye.

Your an LT so your screwed on landnav, find a solid NCO, Lol!

For me grip strength and shoulders were my weaknesses, I got through but painfully so. If your gonna be dumb, better be hard! Sounds like your well on your way though. Research and experiment now, I’m sure you’ve seen the common theme throughout the forums. Best of luck.

Duplicate post deleted.

Put some sweat on the ruck this afternoon, finally got up to about 90 degrees here today. Went 6 miles in roughly 1 hr 32 mins, mostly just fast walking, ever so often I would put in on a wiggle for a couple of light poles, no actual running though. (yes that water bottle is tied and taped to the ruck!)

Out of the miles I've put in (rucking ~3x a week from 4.5-6 mi each) I have been fortunate to not get blisters on the heels or the bottom of my feet. However I have recently started getting them on the tops of my (pinky/ring?) toes, they cover most of the toe and don't feel great. Will definitely be doing some research to treat these bad boys.

Friday:
Rest day. Lots of stretching and eating.

Saturday:
PT test with my unit
82 PU
82 SU
12:55 2 Mile

Sunday:
30-minute stretch session
6-mile ruck with 45 lbs
14 min/mile pace, no running, over asphalt, concrete, grass, and some sand. Some hills, nothing too crazy. One hot spot on my left foot during that required me to stop and re-lace my boot and adjust sock. No blisters afterward. Also, I had a strap come un-done which caused me to have to drop my ruck and re-attach. I think I will fold my excess on my straps and run a layer of gorilla duct tape over the fold to prevent the straps from un-doing itself again.

Today:
5-mile run - 7 min 43 sec/mile pace
30-minute stretch session
Pull-ups 4 sets of 10, breaking up sets as necessary
Farmer Carries 45 lbs, 4 sets of 90 meters in length
Squats w/ 60 lbs, 4 sets of 30 reps
Dips, 4 sets of 15 reps

The gym was closed today so I had to improvise.

Work on those ruck times over varied terrain. Strive for sub-12-minute miles. Then work on getting them down as much as you can. Try not to run. You will at times need to run duck, but don’t be dumb like me and do (did) it almost all of the time.

Thank you for your feedback Joker. I will definitely incorporate other terrain into my rucks and get that time down as much as possible. I've found some great state parks close by that have mixed terrain trails of packed dirt, gravel, and sand.

With only 3 weeks notice to attend the SFRE, I have built my rucking schedule like so:

• Week 1 - 3 mile baseline, and 4 mile ruck on road
• Week 2 - 6 mile ruck on varying terrain, and 8 mile ruck on road
• Week 3 - 10 mile ruck on varying terrain, and 6 mile ruck on varying terrain

I figure it is best to achieve a good rucking base rather than just jumping into 12 mile rucks and not letting my body properly build up. I've done this before in schools like air-assault and my body is pretty destroyed after the ruck. I've been told at the SFRE I will have to run 5 miles for time the day after a 12 mile ruck, so I want to train smarter.

Please let me know if you all have any other insight on how to train smarter/better. Thank you all again for collectively being an incredible resource.

Tuesday:
Bike for 45 min
Pull-ups - 5 sets of 10 (I'm able to do 15 dead-hang pull-ups for one set now)
45 lbs farmer carries - 4 sets of 90 meters
60 lbs Back Squat - 4 sets of 30 (each set between farmer carries)

Wednesday:
6.34-mile ruck at a 14:45 pace. 30-minute stretch afterward.
I know this sounds terrible, but this terrain... was no joke. This was a backwoods trail, mainly packed Georgia clay with a 1/4" of sand or rock on top. There were many obstacles along the route including downed trees, creeks, protruding roots almost every step, and loose rock. There were also areas throughout of only sand, only mud, or only rock. The elevation inclines and declines were tough at times, and overall I gained about 800 feet in elevation. This ruck began at 1300 when it was 94 degrees in direct sun, though most of the trail was under canopy. No blisters or hotspots, my feet are pretty calloused now thanks to the Tuf-Foot.
Overall, I was skeptical at times of the training value for the SFRE on this ruck route, as the chance for injury was pretty high. I almost fell a couple of times due to protruding roots. However, of all the rucks I have done thus far, this has been the most difficult because every step required all of my attention and the elevation gains were challenging. I'd like to hear what you all think about the training value.

Thursday:
2 Mile run in 13:45 in 95-degree heat. The south is experiencing a heatwave now that is expected the last through the SFRE date at the end of the month. My body is tired from the Wednesday workout, and my run time reflected this. I'm usually in the mid 12's to low 13's for a two-miler.
Mixed bodyweight workout for 1.5 hours (Burpees, rowers, squats, high knees, many variations of pushups, lunges, planks, sit-ups, etc.)

Friday: Rest, travel to Appalachian mountains.

Saturday & Sunday: 10-mile patrol-pace camping trip in the Appalachian mountains. 1200 foot elevation gain from 4100 feet up to 5300 feet. I'm carrying the majority of the load, my lady is carrying some as well. Probably around a 55lb ruck. Not really aiming at this being a timed workout, more of time spent with weight on my back and boots on my feet in varying terrain. Also, this will hopefully give me some more time to recover, I can feel my body is pretty broken down after the past two weeks of workouts. EDIT: Ended up being beautiful with highs of 80 degrees. Nice break from the heat. The hike was difficult with a 1000 ft elevation increase/decrease every two miles.

Monday: Return from Appalachian mountains. Rest.

Tuesday: 5 Mile run @ 7min 28sec pace in the morning. It was 89 degrees out, still weathering this heat wave... In the afternoon: 5 sets of ten pull-ups, 45 lbs farmer carries for 90 meters, 5 sets, while rotating in 30 reps of 60 lbs back squats, 40 reps pushups, or 50 sit ups on an alternating basis.

Yesterdays workout
 

Yesterdays workout at the gym consisted of:

2000m row warmup

AMRAP

Minutes 0-5
-20 Cal. Row
-20 Burpees
Minutes 5-10
-5 Push Jerks @ 95#
-10 Toes to Bar

2 Minute rest

Minutes 12-17
-20 Cal. Row
-20 Burpees
Minute 17-22
-5 Push Jerks @ 115#
-8 Tricep Dips

2 Minute rest

Minutes 24-29
-20 Cal. Row
-20 Burpees
Minutes 29-34
-5 Push Jerks @ 135#
-3 Pull-ups

I do CrossFit style workouts three days out of the week with distance and speed work five days of the week. I take a rest day every Sunday and whenever my body tells me that it needs it. I have three months until my ship date and the workout plan I am following builds up run and ruck distance steadily until then.

I plan on incorporating rucking into my workout more heavily next month. Which activity is best replaced by rucking workouts, gym or running?

Today's workout
 

Gym workout as follows:

4 Minute AMRAP for 4 rounds:

Row 500m starting odd rounds
Run 400m starting even rounds

AMRAP remaining time:
- 12 Deadlifts
- 9 Hang Power Clean
- 6 American KB Swings @ 70#

Round 1 @ 135# Barbell
Round 2,3,4 @ 145# Barbell

Then 2 rounds:
- 400m Farmers carry with 2 53# KB's
- 20 Barbell Sit-Ups

Attended SFRE for 20th GRP this past weekend. Most of the events were gate events, so I will focus on those. Here is some insight and observations on the training I've posted over the past two weeks:

• My feet were probably the only one without blisters after the weekend. Tuf-foot works after only two weeks of treatment. I've always gotten blisters on stand-alone road marches and after this weekend, I have zero. I combined antiperspirant deodorant, tuf-foot, and some foot powder in my boots before events.
  
• If it is going to be hot outside, train in the heat. Most of our events weren't super early in the morning (none before 7am), and it got up to 91 degrees both days. We were still training in the heat.
  
• The ruck route was a 6-mile loop done twice. The route was way more difficult than I had imagined and I was sucking by the end. You will not be prepared for this by rucking on the improved/unimproved roads. It was a combination of the heat and terrain. The loop went up and around the backside of a mountain (~700-800ft elevation gain). Moving as fast as I could the first 6 miles I completed it in 1:30, but my joints felt like they were going to explode from the pressure. The second 6 miles I could not fast walk at all, I was depleted and on the verge of being a heat cat. I finished in 3 hrs 40 min total. I puked 30 minutes after finishing and was experiencing vertigo the rest of the day. I was very disappointed in my ruck time/performance, and it was a humbling experience. Don't be like me, ruck on difficult terrain with rocks/roots in training, but do not hurt yourself.
  
• The 5-mile run was much harder after the difficulties I experienced in the ruck. I fought a cramp from mile 1 that lasted the entire duration of the run, which eventually added around two minutes to my time as I was puking on the side of the trail. I did lots of stretching and rehydrating the night before the run and still had issues. I ended up running it in 39 min on easy terrain, where my route in training was over hilly terrain I was averaging 36 min. So, I would recommend getting your times down as much as possible so that if you do run into a cramp/dehydration on your worst day, you still make time.
  
• The cadre running the events were very professional. They were extremely knowledgable and able to answer any questions we had. Out of ~100 people that said they wanted to attend, only 14 candidates showed up.
  
• All the candidates were a mix of enlisted/officer/civilian. Most had attended previously. Everyone worked together well and it was refreshing being around people motivated to better themselves.

I hope this information can help someone else out there. I plan to return for the next SFRE and crush that mountain.

^^^
Ruck more. Get those times way down.

Run more. Get those times down too. Don’t ever stop to puke, learn to puke while still running/moving.

Good specific detail with results and actionable fixes. :lifter

Good luck.

Make sure you are not chugging plain water. If you drink too much, you will experience hypernatremia and could die. We have lost candidates in SFAS and the SFQC from this.

Use ORS, Kool-Aid, Gatorade, salt and sugar, or whatever you can find to keep your electrolyte balance within tolerances, especially when sweating profusely.

Train yourself to drink small quantities of liquids constantly while rucking and moving.

As was already stated, work on ruck and run times, especially on gravel and in sand. Most of Bragg is in the Sandhills, and some areas, especially on the roads, are like trying to walk on the soft beach sand.

Good feedback, thanks.

TR

Today's workout
 

I am lucky to have job where I am contracted for work 1-2 weeks out of a month doing physical labor every other month or so. It pays well enough that I can live and leaves plenty of time to train hard.

Today I started with a five mile run at an easy pace. My time was 47:05 which puts me at a mile pace of 9:24. I have just over three months to ship so I figure volume over speed at this point and push for 7:00 miles for the five mile run by my ship date.

After eating a generous helping of eggs, bacon, chopped onion, toast and fruits I studied for an hour then I set off for my second activity of the day. A three mile ruck in the foothills near my home. I have a run that I have done up there since I was young. It consists of a 280' climb out to an overlook and back. The trail is covered in softball sized rocks (some buried halfway, some free) and soft dirt. It provides a good quick difficult climb that allows you to push yourself both in ruck weight and your ability to navigate hazards in uphills and downhills. I ruck with a 60# pack. It doesn't hurt me but definitely pushes me (I make sure to pay attention to my body and my joints as I do this). For me, knowing that I am going heavy now will give me mental strength at SFAS. My time for the three miles was 45:13 which puts me at 15:04 mile pace.

When I got back from the ruck I was already running late for the gym so I hurried in, changed into gym shoes and headed to the gym.

The gym workout consisted of:
Superset:
3x
Barbell split squats 10 each leg @ 60#
Single leg Romanian deadlift 10 each leg @ 60#

Immediately into:

50 Dumbbell Box step ups @ 50#
50 Burpees
50 Dumbbell Snatches @ 50#
50 Box jumps

Ending with 100 Push-ups

I just finished dinner and am about to do a two mile recovery jog and a stretch/ rolling routine. Today was a good day.

On a less physical note I have been reading "Inside Delta Force" By Eric L. Haney. He goes into detail about the selection process and through his writing you can't help but recognize valuable mental strategies. I should be finished with it tonight and already have "The Mission, the Men, and Me" queued up on the nightstand.

Have a great week! Kick some ass guys!

Get your run and ruck times down.
Runs need to be sub-7 minute miles.
Rucks need to be sub-12 minute miles - no running.

Malone,

Good job on figuring out what works for your feet and mitigating blisters! Sounds like you were severely dehydrated due to the heat and environmental factors and never fully recovered from it...muscle aches and cramping and all that. Did you guys have any ORS packets to add to your water? If not, add some salt into what your eating to retain better hydration. Other than that, experience is the best teacher right?

^^^Puke on the run!! Funniest shit to see! Been there done that, first time at SUT in the Q. Lol, good times!

Easy way to train for puke-run. Run hungover. Hard. Never stop. Don’t be a wimp. :D

Thank you to all the QP's for your advice! It is greatly appreciated!

I believe you are correct BlackSunrise, I was not myself after the ruck and on the 5-mile run. We were given a rice-based hydration mix called Cerasport. The night before the ruck I was drinking Pedialyte and water to rehydrate from the previous day's exercise and ate an entire MRE. The morning of the ruck I did not eat much and during the ruck, I opted to not use Cerasport until the end. I find it does not agree with me for one reason or another and has upset my stomach in the past (Used it in airborne and air-assault schools as well). I believe this was a mistake now, but as you said, experience is the best teacher.

From the symptoms, I believe I was experiencing the early stages of Hyponatremia (I'm no way qualified to actually diagnose myself, I'm a soon-to-be Ph.D., not M.D., and if any 18D's want to chime in and educate me I welcome it). Common symptoms include dizziness, nausea, disorientation. After a certain amount of sodium loss, your body cannot absorb water effectively and attempting to rehydrate with just water is futile and even dangerous. I sipped a Cerasport/water mix after the ruck and drank more Pedialyte after the day's events were complete. Even with these efforts, I was still very dehydrated and 4 days afterward I have only now returned to my pre-SFRE body weight.

Hyponatremia is something I have heard about previously from David Goggins' book "Can't Hurt Me" in the world of marathon/ultra-marathons but I did not think I would experience in my training. I thought I just wouldn't experience the extreme conditions that would lead to something like Hyponatremia. However, looking back on the SFRE weekend, I realize we easily exceeded 30 miles total running/rucking in heat and I lost nearly 7 pounds throughout the weekend, so we definitely dipped into the marathon-range distances (though definitely nowhere close to ultramarathon distances).

I have since done a little bit of research on Hyponatremia and how to prevent it, to include calculation of my sweat rate in the heat. I lose quite a bit of sweat and I believe I need to do everything I can when going through the next SFRE or SFAS/SFQC to ingest as much salt as possible before, during, and after the ruck. My understanding is that supplements common for marathon runners like salt tablets aren't an option for SFRE/SFAS, so I must find other ways to make up for the deficit.



On another note, I have a team deploying soon and their send-off is tonight. I'll put that running hungover and puking on-the-move to the test tomorrow!

Gatoraid worked the best for me. 50-50 mix, liquid GA with water. We used it in the ER for heat injuries.

Tuesday, Wednesday.
 

Copy, Thank you Joker.

Tuesday:

Five mile run: 9:11 pace
Three mile ruck @ 60#: 16:09 pace
Gym workout:

EMOM x 10 minutes:
Odd: 12 Overhead Squats
Even: Jump rope for 45 seconds alternating with 12 calories on the air bike every other minute.
Rest 3 minutes.

EMOM x 10 minutes:
Odd: 12 Hang Power Cleans
Even: Bike, Jump rope (alternating)
Rest 3 minutes.

EMOM x 10 minutes:
Odd: 12 Overhead Lunges
Even: Jump rope, Bike (alternating)

Definitely felt sore from Monday. Struggled to keep run/ruck times consistent. Gym kicked my ass but I didn't quit and finished the workout.
Scrapped the two mile "recovery run" kept the stretch and roll out session.

Wednesday:

No ruck or gym workout.

I stretched, iced and rested most of the day. I went down to HQ and got my CAC and handled some other clerical work I needed done before my ship date.

I got home and felt like I hadn't done much so I ate and headed out on a five mile run. I concentrated on regulating my breathing a bit better and saw improvement at a pace of 8:57. I think I need to work on stretching more before runs and striding out (as I have read in this thread) to really see the gains I need. I am aiming for 25-30 miles on "Endurance weeks" and plan on throwing a "Speed week" consisting of heavy interval training into the mix every third week to help remedy my slow running.

As always, thank you for your help and advice.

Have a good day.

This is the first time I have heard of Cerasport. Riced-based, made with simple sugars and supposed to balance carbohydrates, sodium, chloride and potassium intake, all natural and non-GMO. Interesting enough it is suppose to help the body absorb electrolytes easier without causing stomach distress. Wonder why it causes you problems?