10+ Weeks to Get In Serious Shape

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hey everyone I have just over 10 weeks to get ready for RASP. Which is the US Army Ranger Assessment and Selection Program. It is a very strenuos 8 week course. Over the weeks I will be doing 5+ mile runs at around 7:30 pace and faster and weekly ruck marchs building up tp a 12 miler that has to be done in around 2 hours and 30 mins to be succesful.

I need help designing a program that is seperate to my morning PT. That focuses on pretty much every aspect of training but, running and cardio are the main focuses in order to be succesful in this course. I have no idea really on how to train for distance running and just running in general.

I also need to drop about 10 lbs for this course making it easier on my joints with the running and all the rope climbing. I am currently 187lbs roughly would like to be 175 or slightly less and solid. Any tips on how to eat for the energy I am going to need while still dropping the weight would be great. Thanks guys.

2

I would supplement daily rucking with Sealfit.com.

3

I’ve never done RASP so feel free to disregard this, however it is my understanding that historically guys lose an average of 30lbs over the duration of the program. In other words if you went in at 175 you’d come out at 145. So I guess I’m saying that carrying in a little extra weight, as long as your conditioning is good, might not be a bad idea. It may be a little harder at the start but it may also help you to finish stronger than if you cut down too hard going in and have nothing left at the end. And I’m guessing that it’s harder to finish RASP than it is to start it.

Whatever you do, congratulations on going after this. All the best.

4

Here is a basic running program that may help you. Better programs may be available, but this is decent.

Week 1,2 : 2 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
Week 3 : No running - risk of stress fractures - cycle, swim, row etc.
Week 4 : 3 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
week 5,6 : 2/3/4/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri
Week 7,8,9 : 3/4/5/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri

Begin at an 8:30 pace and build up slowly, as your recovery allows. This program contains no speed work (tempo runs, sprints, fartleks etc.) however IMO you will be better served by building as strong an aerobic base as you can at this point. Work on building good running form as well, it’s important for staying injury free. That said if you wanted to substitute the odd hill sprint session (with proper warm up) to break up the monotony, it probably wouldn’t hurt you any.

I would suggest 30-60 mins morning rucking, daily (wear your boots), PT through the day, and running in the evening with optional weight training (5/3/1, 2 day template?), again recovery permitting. Get serious about stretching/mobility as well as foam roller and lacrosse ball self massage. BCAA’s, fish oil and protein are all you really need to think about for supps, and are really secondary to good food (meats, leaves, seeds, roots and fruits) and lots of it. Hope that helps.

5

[quote]batman730 wrote:
Here is a basic running program that may help you. Better programs may be available, but this is decent.

Week 1,2 : 2 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
Week 3 : No running - risk of stress fractures - cycle, swim, row etc.
Week 4 : 3 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
week 5,6 : 2/3/4/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri
Week 7,8,9 : 3/4/5/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri

Begin at an 8:30 pace and build up slowly, as your recovery allows. This program contains no speed work (tempo runs, sprints, fartleks etc.) however IMO you will be better served by building as strong an aerobic base as you can at this point. Work on building good running form as well, it’s important for staying injury free. That said if you wanted to substitute the odd hill sprint session (with proper warm up) to break up the monotony, it probably wouldn’t hurt you any.

I would suggest 30-60 mins morning rucking, daily (wear your boots), PT through the day, and running in the evening with optional weight training (5/3/1, 2 day template?), again recovery permitting. Get serious about stretching/mobility as well as foam roller and lacrosse ball self massage. BCAA’s, fish oil and protein are all you really need to think about for supps, and are really secondary to good food (meats, leaves, seeds, roots and fruits) and lots of it. Hope that helps.[/quote]

Would that be for a beginner? Risk of stress fractures running 6 miles a week?

6

[quote]xXSeraphimXx wrote:

[quote]batman730 wrote:
Here is a basic running program that may help you. Better programs may be available, but this is decent.

Week 1,2 : 2 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
Week 3 : No running - risk of stress fractures - cycle, swim, row etc.
Week 4 : 3 mi/day - Mon/Wed/Fri
week 5,6 : 2/3/4/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri
Week 7,8,9 : 3/4/5/2 mi - Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri

Begin at an 8:30 pace and build up slowly, as your recovery allows. This program contains no speed work (tempo runs, sprints, fartleks etc.) however IMO you will be better served by building as strong an aerobic base as you can at this point. Work on building good running form as well, it’s important for staying injury free. That said if you wanted to substitute the odd hill sprint session (with proper warm up) to break up the monotony, it probably wouldn’t hurt you any.

I would suggest 30-60 mins morning rucking, daily (wear your boots), PT through the day, and running in the evening with optional weight training (5/3/1, 2 day template?), again recovery permitting. Get serious about stretching/mobility as well as foam roller and lacrosse ball self massage. BCAA’s, fish oil and protein are all you really need to think about for supps, and are really secondary to good food (meats, leaves, seeds, roots and fruits) and lots of it. Hope that helps.[/quote]

Would that be for a beginner? Risk of stress fractures running 6 miles a week?[/quote]

Honestly, I just imported the program like basically it was written, and it is a beginner’s program. It seems a little alarmist to me, but the author (Stew Smith) thought it was worth mentioning, so I passed it along. Besides, nobody wants to go into something like th OP is doing injured so why take a chance, right?

EDIT - The basic run progression is Smith’s the other stuff, good or bad, is my own thinking.
heavily informed by smarter people than me.

7

Check in with Gregron. He was in SF until recently and he’s been very generous with advice on training for special fitness tests.

8

Don’t forget to do a lot of core work to prepare your body to carry those ruck sacks, also I agree it would be a good idea to invest in a foam roller to keep muscles loose and work out soreness during training.

9

I was in the army a long time ago and I’m sure it wasn’t like anything Ranger training will be but I have some recommendations that I would have loved to have given to myself back when I went in that you could maybe use.

Running 2 miles fast is better for getting ready than 10 miles done as an easy Sunday afternoon jog.

If you have time, maybe go for a long walk or bike ride later in the day after your AM training as the thing that tires you out in the army is that you’re basically on your feet all day, so running hard in the morning and then sitting in front of the TV or computer the rest of the day isn’t good enough.

Sometimes a workout where you run 400 yards fast then do 25 push ups then another 400 yards and sit ups and shit like that will get you ready for how crazy the exercise can get, where your heart just finished getting you through a run then you’re lifting or pushing something. It’s no comparison to when you or I are in the gym and do 5 sets with 2 minutes in between then take a break before a 30 minute treadmill jog.

If you bring any supplements don’t let any of the instructors see them or you’ll get a nickname like, well…something embarrassing.

10

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCcQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.specialtactics.com%2Fkbmodsasprog.pdf&rct=j&q=14%20week%20sas%20program&ei=ZwUITpWuG7CimQWMzOHSDQ&usg=AFQjCNFKVYwcG5_u-rS73fKCC12JvWZh2g

A quick google search netted me this pdf. Definitely interesting