RUCK | Ultimate Ruck Preparation for Distances from 3 Miles to 40Km (12 Weeks)

The only ruck program that knows what your pack actually weighs.

Ruck plans usually give you a distance and a weight and wish you luck. This one asks four questions first: how fast you covered three miles, what was in the pack when you did it, what you intend to carry on event day, and what you weigh. Then it builds twelve weeks of paces from the answers.

Bodyweight is an input because load cost scales with the pack as a fraction of the athlete, not as an absolute. Forty-five pounds is a different session for a 145 lb soldier than for a 220 lb one, and a program that cannot say so is guessing.

Eight targets, US and UK

10 km TAB · 8 Mile · 16 km TAB · 12 Mile · 24 km (Fan Dance) · 18 Mile · 32 km TAB · 40 km TAB. The mile events American selection pipelines test, and the metric distances the British Army and UKSF tab — including the out-and-back over Pen y Fan by the name everyone actually uses.

Water and food are weight, and the workbook counts them

Standing rule: 8 oz of water and 100 calories for every planned mile. That is about 0.57 lb per mile added on top of your dry load — roughly +4.6 lb over 8 miles, +10.3 lb over 18, and more than +14 lb over a 40 km TAB. On the longest events that is over a third of a standard dry load, carried on top of it.

The setup tab shows the consumable cost at every distance. Each session's load cell shows it for that session. A gold strip shows your event pack as a percentage of bodyweight at the start line and at the finish, because the pack gets lighter as you drink it — which is exactly why the pace model uses average carried weight rather than starting weight.

What is inside

• 12 weeks, 48 sessions, written eight ways — one for each target distance.
• Two mandatory ruck days (a quality ruck and the long ruck) plus two optional unloaded run days. Two days only, if the rucking sits on top of an existing strength program.
• Terrain factored in: flat road or towpath, hilly on trail, or cross-country over open ground with no trail.
• Every pace given twice — what the effort looks like on your event terrain, and the flat equivalent for the days you train on a measured road, a track or a treadmill.
• Load prescribed per session, not per block: dry pack rounded to the nearest 5 lb because plates come in fixed sizes, plus water in ounces, food in calories, consumable weight in pounds, and pack weight at the start line.
• A Week 8 re-test done properly — three miles at your original test weight with no consumable load, same ground, same protocol. That is the entire reason test weight is a separate input from event weight.
• Three blocks: load tolerance, then pace under load, then event-specific work — 85% of distance at Week 9, a 95% full-dress rehearsal at Week 10, taper, event on the Saturday of Week 12.
• A heart rate guide written for load carriage. Heart rate reads lower than the effort feels, because the limiter on a long ruck is feet, shoulders, spine, hips and quads, not the heart. Expect cardiac drift past two hours. Never use a low heart rate as permission to add distance or weight.
• How to build the pack — weight high and tight, hip belt carries, no shifting ballast, weigh it on a scale. And a full section on feet: tape before, not after; stop inside the first two miles; socks are equipment; boots half a size up.
• A training log with a FEET column alongside actual pack weight. Blister history at a given distance, weight and terrain is the most predictive data a rucker owns.

Who this is for

SFAS, RASP, MARSOC, Recon and UKSF candidates. Anyone with a 12-mile standard to beat, a Fan Dance entry, or a 40 km TAB in front of them. And hybrid athletes who want load carriage programmed properly rather than bolted on.

What you need before you start

A 3-mile ruck for time on flat ground at a known pack weight, a scale, and boots you have already broken in. Heart rate monitoring is optional but preferred.

Specifications

• Format: Excel workbook (.xlsx). Opens in Excel and in Google Sheets.
• Length: 12 weeks · 48 sessions · 2, 3 or 4 days per week
• Anchor test: 3-mile ruck for time at a recorded pack weight
• Inputs: target distance, test weight, event dry weight, bodyweight, terrain, age, threshold heart rate, days, ambition
• Tabs: SETUP · HOW TO USE · HR AND PACE GUIDE · three block tabs · TRAINING LOG
• Delivery: instant digital download. Reusable at any weight, distance or terrain.

This is a training tool, not medical advice. Clear hard training with your physician if you have any reason to.