Professional Soldiers ® - View Single Post - Tryouts preparation

EleaticStranger · 03-10-2012, 06:35

I just finished SERE, and I'd say that the tryout weekend was the hardest, most strenuous single two days of the NG pipeline. (Of course you get to go home and rest at the end of it, which you don't during any other parts.) Without giving away any G2 about the tryout weekend I attended, I'd just say that it would be a good idea to be able to walk at least a 15 min/mile pace for 12-15 miles. If you're like me, you'll have to work up to this. And I'm definitely not saying not to try out if you can't do this pace. (The worst that will likely happen is they tell you to come back.) Don't run at all with a ruck while training. There's no training value there that can't be gained by simply rucking and doing sprints without a ruck, and it's hell on your joints. Save the ruck running for the tryout weekend. To get up to that pace, just always walk faster than is comfortable when you ruck, to the point where your legs are burning. Train a good two months in advance for the tryout. It won't go to waste. Once you start the process, you'll be training non-stop until you finish the Q (and after, of course, but I haven't gotten there yet). By the time you report to the Q, you'll want to be able to ruck 12 miles with a 45 lbs. ruck in under three hours, rest for 30 minutes, and then run five miles if you had to. That's not an event, per se, but that's the kind of shape you want to be in. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can surpass that level. I struggled to ruck at a 15 min./mile pace when I started but did my 12 miler before SUT in about 2:30, which is well below 13 min/mile.

As far as a training plan before the tryout weekend, I would start far enough out so that you can work up to 12 miles two or three weeks before the weekend. Ruck twice a week, once long (six, eight, ten, or 12) and once short (four miles). Run light or hard on the off days and put at least one rest day a week in there. Do your pushups, situps, pullups, etc. on the days you're not doing the long ruck (and obviously have days you're resting from those). I would taper before the tryout weekend. Do a short ruck the weekend before and your APFT training on Monday and Tuesday, but pretty much take it easy Wednesday through Friday.

There will be a lot of guys at the tryout completely unprepared. Don't be one of those. The weekend will kick your tail if it's anything like the A/2/20 weekend I attended, but it's finite. Prepare, and if you can't take whatever they throw at you in that weekend, how can you respect yourself? (That's what I thought, anyway, when I wanted to quit.) The weekend, and subsequent training team weekends, though, are really good suck-innoculation as well as great training. I was one of six selected the weekend I went. One quit after one training team weekend for family reasons, the other five are moving through the pipeline.

03-10-2012, 06:35	#15
EleaticStranger Asset Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Fuerte Bragg Posts: 1	I just finished SERE, and I'd say that the tryout weekend was the hardest, most strenuous single two days of the NG pipeline. (Of course you get to go home and rest at the end of it, which you don't during any other parts.) Without giving away any G2 about the tryout weekend I attended, I'd just say that it would be a good idea to be able to walk at least a 15 min/mile pace for 12-15 miles. If you're like me, you'll have to work up to this. And I'm definitely not saying not to try out if you can't do this pace. (The worst that will likely happen is they tell you to come back.) Don't run at all with a ruck while training. There's no training value there that can't be gained by simply rucking and doing sprints without a ruck, and it's hell on your joints. Save the ruck running for the tryout weekend. To get up to that pace, just always walk faster than is comfortable when you ruck, to the point where your legs are burning. Train a good two months in advance for the tryout. It won't go to waste. Once you start the process, you'll be training non-stop until you finish the Q (and after, of course, but I haven't gotten there yet). By the time you report to the Q, you'll want to be able to ruck 12 miles with a 45 lbs. ruck in under three hours, rest for 30 minutes, and then run five miles if you had to. That's not an event, per se, but that's the kind of shape you want to be in. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can surpass that level. I struggled to ruck at a 15 min./mile pace when I started but did my 12 miler before SUT in about 2:30, which is well below 13 min/mile. As far as a training plan before the tryout weekend, I would start far enough out so that you can work up to 12 miles two or three weeks before the weekend. Ruck twice a week, once long (six, eight, ten, or 12) and once short (four miles). Run light or hard on the off days and put at least one rest day a week in there. Do your pushups, situps, pullups, etc. on the days you're not doing the long ruck (and obviously have days you're resting from those). I would taper before the tryout weekend. Do a short ruck the weekend before and your APFT training on Monday and Tuesday, but pretty much take it easy Wednesday through Friday. There will be a lot of guys at the tryout completely unprepared. Don't be one of those. The weekend will kick your tail if it's anything like the A/2/20 weekend I attended, but it's finite. Prepare, and if you can't take whatever they throw at you in that weekend, how can you respect yourself? (That's what I thought, anyway, when I wanted to quit.) The weekend, and subsequent training team weekends, though, are really good suck-innoculation as well as great training. I was one of six selected the weekend I went. One quit after one training team weekend for family reasons, the other five are moving through the pipeline.
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