What are you currently doing to prep for SFAS or SFRE

[SolidJune]

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.
ezgif-2-0fad9ac755e0.jpg
E=Endurance
SE=Strength Endurance
HIC=High Intensity Cardio

[Tandem]

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

[Joker]

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

[Alpina]

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

[Malone]

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

[BlackSunrise]

Originally Posted by Malone

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.

[Malone]

Originally Posted by BlackSunrise

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

[BlackSunrise]

Originally Posted by Malone

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.

[BlackSunrise]

Duplicate post deleted.

[Tandem]

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.

[Malone]

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.

[Joker]

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.

[Malone]

Originally Posted by Joker

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.

[Malone]

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.

[FishOnHisHead]

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?