TacticalBarbell.com

Male, 26, 78kg
Squat: 130kg
Deadlift: 140kg
Bench: 85kg
OHP: 60kg
Weighted Pull-Up: +20kg
5k: 27m
10k: 62m

Long Term Goal: Achieve a high all-around level of fitness, specifically in support of hiking, mountaineering and back country hunting, and preferably for that fitness to be visible.

Immediate Goals: To increase my endurance levels and run times at various distances.

Hi Guys,

A bit of personal background. I was in a wheelchair during part of my childhood and the advice I received pretty universally from surgeons / physios etc was to avoid doing too much exercise for the sake of not aggravating structural issues that period has left me with. I played golf, sailed and rode horses but never really ran and certainly never lifted weights. This approach inevitably led to those issues compounding themselves and to a general deterioration in my quality of life. I have always loved hiking and hunting, and these activities were badly effected by my lack of fitness, mobility and chronic pain. With the assistance of an excellent physio / Pilates instructor a couple of years ago I got control of myself and having regained sufficient mobility and core stability I started weight lifting.

I followed a linear progression (Phraks’ Greyskull LP) for about a year and then switched to Tactical Barbell (Operator Template) when I felt I had exhausted my linear gains (at least on my bench press) which I complimented with the C25K running app. Having completed the C25K program I decided to take my cardio more seriously and completed an unconventional Base Build.

Base Build Weeks 1-5: AM Simple and Sinister (Swings and Turkish Get Ups).
PM Long Steady State running following BB guidelines in TB2.
4 times a week.

Base Build Weeks 6-8: Simple and Sinister plus Bench Press and Pull-ups on Max Strength days.
5k Tempo Runs and 600m Resets on HIC days.
Long Steady State running on E days.

This was phenomenal and I highly recommend this approach to Base Building, except I would maybe complement Simple and Sinister with push-ups / pullups / sit-ups next time. I am not satisfied yet though, I have only got to the Simple and Sinister standards using a 24kg Kettlebell and I want to get to 32kg, and I don’t want to lay off the endurance training having only just got into it, it ultimately being very important for hiking and hunting. Thus I now plan to start a version of Green Protocol, however to be honest I find the section in TB2 on Green to be pretty nebulous about how exactly to proceed once the heart rate restrictions from BB have been lifted (this is the only thing which makes the TB books somewhat incomplete though the forums have helped here). I am a philosopher/mathematician and I really really really don’t like training without knowing exactly what I’m doing and why (thank you TB!), so I bought a copy of Faster Road Racing by Pfitzinger to understand how to structure my E sessions for Green. I have come up with this plan.

Green Protocol: Simple and Sinister plus Bench Press and Pull-ups 2x a week (i.e. Fighter Template)
2 General Cardio (i.e. moderate intensity tempo runs)
1 Speed / Lactate session (alternating each week)
1 LSS Endurance run.

The idea is to slowly increase the length of the runs until I’ve got from the 35-40km a week I was doing by week 5 of BB to a goal of 50km a week and then hold it there for a while. I foresee this taking 12 weeks which should also be enough time to be closing in on the Simple and Sinister goals. This is a lot of mileage for somebody with my background, but I am hoping you would agree that its achievable given I am not doing heavy squats or deadlifts only swings. It seems to me that the Speed/Lactate sessions cover my HIC requirements, and that while I am not doing any SE sessions specifically Simple and Sinister definitely has an SE aspect to it.

Question: Does my plan for Green Protocol seem realistic to you guys given my background and stats, and do you think it sufficiently fulfils the Green Guidelines? Is there something I am overlooking or not understanding? Does long distance running training like what I have adopted fail to cover elements of endurance which are important to a hiker/hunter?

When I have completed the 12 weeks of Green I plan on returning to Operator (squats!) and running Black Pro indefinitely, with a dedicated block of SE every 6 or 12 weeks (I think SE in the sense of lots of pushups etc is the only domain which my BB and Green neglect so it deserves focused attention when this is all over). I would run either a BB or a Green again each summer.

Black Protocol: Bench, Pull-Ups, Squat 3x a week (i.e. Operator)
1 HIC 1-10
1 HIC 11-24
1 LSS/GC (alternating each week)

Thanks a million.

Your short term and long term goals are different and require different approaches. Your plan for your short term goal looks fine.

Re: your long term goal, the issue I have with what you're doing is that you're using a running program to get better at hunting, hiking, and mountaineering. All of these require movement while weighted or carrying a pack and gear. Your running program won't hurt, but adding some specificity in the form of ruck marching or weighted fun-runs will do you much better. If it were me, I would do one LSS, a weighted fun-run or ruck (perhaps alternate between the two), and a moderate mid-distance tempo every week. If you have extra conditioning time on your hands do a track workout. If your ultimate goal is hunting and mountaineering, then you should care less about run times at various distances and more about getting better at moving for long periods of time while carrying weight.

Green is nebulous on purpose because endurance goals tend to be very specific and require goal-specific training. Using a running program isn't necessarily optimal for tactical ops, and ruck marching and fun-runs aren't optimal for someone training to run their first marathon.

TangoZero wrote:Re: your long term goal, the issue I have with what you're doing is that you're using a running program to get better at hunting, hiking, and mountaineering. All of these require movement while weighted or carrying a pack and gear. Your running program won't hurt, but adding some specificity in the form of ruck marching or weighted fun-runs will do you much better. If it were me, I would do one LSS, a weighted fun-run or ruck (perhaps alternate between the two), and a moderate mid-distance tempo every week. If you have extra conditioning time on your hands do a track workout. If your ultimate goal is hunting and mountaineering, then you should care less about run times at various distances and more about getting better at moving for long periods of time while carrying weight.

Green is nebulous on purpose because endurance goals tend to be very specific and require goal-specific training. Using a running program isn't necessarily optimal for tactical ops, and ruck marching and fun-runs aren't optimal for someone training to run their first marathon.

Very much this.

As someone who is primarily a Green protocol guy, I can give my $0.02 in what I have experienced so far, which may be beneficial to you since my training typically involves a lot of miles wearing a weighted rucksack (ruck marching).

I've found so far that 3-4 E sessions (depending on total mileage and goals that week) seems to be ideal for me as I try to have a good mix of running and rucking when I can. I've noticed running helps rucking, and vice versa, so to hit both is ideal. Two strength sessions a week is a good mix, but unless you have some SE specific goals you can work them in in other ways (will discuss as we go).

A long walk once a week with a weighted backpack is probably one of the best E sessions you can do for your goals, and definitely in the upper ranges of what KB recommends (occasionally pushing farther). I try to get a few hours in, whether going for a set distance or just going for time depending on how I feel. On the 2nd, I did 12 miles with a backpack and was shooting to finish in under 3 hours - I ended up getting 3:11 as I got turned around at one point on the track. This Saturday, I'm going for a set mileage over several hours (I've always wanted to ruck a marathon, so I'm going for 26.2 miles with a goal of finishing in under 9 hours). I'm preparing for a ruck endurance event, so you don't necessarily need to pursue these goals, but the idea is to mimic what you want to prepare for in the best way you can. You can do additional rucks per week (I have in the past, and still fit in a shorter one once a week when getting ready for these events) but I keep the commitment low (1 hour, or about 4 miles) and typically combine it with an SE day (I am primarily training SE right now as that will be a key part of this event I'm getting ready for).

Dedicate your long E session per week to a ruck march, and then you can sprinkle in your runs around that. Since you like the idea of SE, without compromising too much you can change one of your E sessions into a fun run with set intervals to stop and do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, etc. This way you still get the benefits of SE without having to worry too much about it. J-Madd reported great benefits doing a weekly long fun run in one of his articles for TB: https://www.reddit.com/r/tacticalbarbel ... g_lessons/

Based off of your Green protocol ideas, you could do two days of MS + S&S , one long ruck march, a fun run, and 1-2 moderate endurance sessions of some other kind (a steady paced cross country run, for example). I recommend two rest days a week for Green protocol, or one rest day with a very light workout on another day. This is just what has worked for me and what I would do.

grouchyjarhead wrote:I've noticed running helps rucking, and vice versa, so to hit both is ideal.

Man, great observation.

x 2 on everything Tango and Grouchy said. Being a good distance or pace runner doesn't translate equally to being able to ruck comfortably for days.

BlackPyjamas wrote:

grouchyjarhead wrote:I've noticed running helps rucking, and vice versa, so to hit both is ideal.

Man, great observation.

x 2 on everything Tango and Grouchy said. Being a good distance or pace runner doesn't translate equally to being able to ruck comfortably for days.

I actually tested it last block (no running, just rucking) using the Army PFT. In 9 weeks or so I shaved about 40 sec off of my 2 mile run time. This next block after a GORUCK Tough I'm upping the running and doing less rucking then going to test it out at a GORUCK Light in December. Trying to find my own optimal balance.

Definitely need to get a ruck in if you want to get good good at rucking.

I also like ruck intervals for set distance and doing multiple rounds with rest. E.g
1 mile ruck intervals at a certain pace per round for 4 rounds. I also run or shuffle for these.
This is more applicable for for military or LE guys, but it's a good way to get some good hard ruck work in a shorter time.

I also did a base build with simple and sinister. I paired it with the Fighter pullup program and daily running for as long as I could.
Eventually the volume of running and daily strength work got to much and I just had to aim for 3x S&S and 3x LSD runs a week to finish the base build.

Just something to keep in mind when you start upping that volume. Be prepared to adjust if needed.

BlackPyjamas wrote:

grouchyjarhead wrote:I've noticed running helps rucking, and vice versa, so to hit both is ideal.

Man, great observation.

Yup, I didn't realize how true this was until Grouchy said it.

grouchyjarhead wrote:

BlackPyjamas wrote:

grouchyjarhead wrote:I've noticed running helps rucking, and vice versa, so to hit both is ideal.

Man, great observation.

x 2 on everything Tango and Grouchy said. Being a good distance or pace runner doesn't translate equally to being able to ruck comfortably for days.

I actually tested it last block (no running, just rucking) using the Army PFT. In 9 weeks or so I shaved about 40 sec off of my 2 mile run time. This next block after a GORUCK Tough I'm upping the running and doing less rucking then going to test it out at a GORUCK Light in December. Trying to find my own optimal balance.

Interesting about rucking-only cutting down your run times. Please keep us posted on your experiments with this if you can.
I recently saw it mentioned on the Reddit, someone doing a kind of Triples session with just running and rucking. Boot run for 20-30 minutes followed by picking up a ruck and going for same or longer. I imagine it doesn't have to be a boot run (I tend to stay away from those these days unless I absolutely have to).

Thank you for the thoughtful replies guys!

I realize the long and short term goals are not perfectly aligned, thats why I seperated them in the first place I guess. Seeing as none of you seem to think theres anything wrong with my plan as such, I think I'm going to go ahead with it as right now conquering the running is important for me psychologically, and I dont have any particularly demanding hunts planned for the upcoming season, and while this might not be as targeted as it could be increasing my weekly mileage cant hurt my hiking.

You've given me lots to think about in terms of setting up a more long term protocol after my 12 weeks of running though, thinking Operator + Green Light with rucking and fun runs is clearly a better year round template for me than Black as I had planned.

Thanks for the input!