Day 1 · Mon
Ruck
- Load
- 55 lbs
- Distance
- 4 mi
- Pace
- 15-17 min/mi
- Terrain
- Roads and hard path.
- Recovery
- Foot check, legs up, early night.
- Notes
- Easy start to a heavy week.
Selection prep: build the base before you sign up
A selection event is not something you can cram for and it is not something you can talk your way through. What you can do is arrive with a base that took seasons rather than weeks to build: feet that have been under load on every surface you can reach, shoulders and a back that have carried heavy for long hours, and a head that has already met the part of a long effort where nothing is fun any more. This page is about building that. It says nothing about what the event asks of you on the day, because GORUCK publishes those requirements and changes them, and the only honest place to read them is the source.
The next screen asks for your event date, because a plan that does not know when you are going cannot taper you into it.
What this page deliberately will not tell you
It will not give you distances, carried weights, time standards or completion odds for GORUCK Selection. Those belong to GORUCK, they get revised, and a training site that types them onto a page is a training site that will be wrong sooner or later without noticing. Read them from the organiser, treat any figure you find repeated elsewhere as a rumour, and check them again before you commit. What we can tell you honestly is how to build the athlete who turns up.
The base is months of unremarkable carrying
Nearly everybody preparing for something long makes the same mistake: they find the hardest single session they can survive, complete it, and call that training. A base is the opposite of that. It is a long run of ordinary carries at a load that never feels heroic, on the surfaces you would rather avoid, in the weather you would rather skip, in the same boots and the same rucksack every time. The sample plan below is one block out of that kind of build rather than the whole of it.
Load rises slowly or it stops being training
The ceiling this app uses is a share of body weight and it moves with experience, from 33 percent for somebody who has never carried a load up to 50 percent for somebody with years of it behind them. Between weeks the load may rise by at most 10 percent or 5 pounds, whichever is smaller, and one week in every 4 pulls the volume back. Those limits are not timidity. They are the difference between arriving on intact feet and arriving with an injury you earned in the third week of a long build.
The last weeks are for arriving fresh
A build does not finish with the hardest week you can survive. It finishes with a taper: volume down, load held, sleep and feet given room to catch up. Nothing you add in the final stretch will make you fitter for the event, and plenty of it can take you out of one. If the choice is between one more long carry and a quiet week of walking easy, the walking wins every time.
If you have never carried heavy for hours
Then this is not the page to start from, and that is not a brush off. Build the habit first: regular carries at a load you can finish comfortably, distance before weight, and a full season of it before you point anything at a selection event. The ceilings and the weekly ramp used here are the same ones the plan builder holds you to later, so none of that early work is wasted.
A sample block from a selection build
This is week 6 of an example plan that runs 8 weeks, built for an athlete who weighs 190 pounds, describes their experience as Experienced, already carries 45 pounds on a normal ruck, trains 5 days a week and works on Mixed ground. The ruck load for the week shown is 60 pounds. At that body weight and experience the hard ceiling is 95 pounds, which is 50 percent of body weight, and every session below sits inside it. These are the same cards an athlete sees on their own plan page.
Load progression
- Wk 1: 45 lbs
- Wk 2: 48 lbs
- Wk 3: 50 lbs
- Wk 4: 45 lbs
- Wk 5: 55 lbs
- Wk 6: 60 lbs
- Wk 7: 65 lbs
- Wk 8: 50 lbs
Week 6
Load and distance both at their highest of the block: this is the week the build is aiming at.
Ruck load: 60 lbs
Day 2 · Tue
Strength
- Terrain
- Gym or garage.
- Strength
- Back squat 5x3, split squat 3x8 each side, farmer carry 5x50 yards.
- Recovery
- Walk it off for ten minutes.
- Notes
- Heavy bar, low reps, plenty left over.
Day 4 · Thu
Ruck
- Load
- 60 lbs
- Distance
- 5 mi
- Pace
- 15-17 min/mi
- Terrain
- Hilly. Climb loaded, descend under control.
- Recovery
- Lace tight before descents and check the toes at the end.
- Notes
- The heaviest midweek carry of the plan.
Day 5 · Fri
Strength
- Terrain
- Gym or garage.
- Strength
- Deadlift 4x3, weighted plank 3x60 seconds, reverse lunge 3x10 each side.
- Recovery
- Short and sharp. Save the legs for Saturday.
- Notes
- Cut it if the legs are still heavy from Thursday.
Day 6 · Sat
Ruck
- Load
- 60 lbs
- Distance
- 8.8 mi
- Pace
- 16-18 min/mi
- Terrain
- Mixed ground, longest route of the block.
- Recovery
- Sock change at halfway, full foot check at the end, and a proper meal after.
- Notes
- Heavy and long together. Eat on the move and keep drinking.
Nothing here is a template we hand out. A generated plan is built from your body weight, your load history, the days you can actually train and the date you are pointing at, and it is held to the same ceilings and the same weekly ramp you can see above.
The next screen asks for your event date, because a plan that does not know when you are going cannot taper you into it.
Work out what you should be carrying
Before you point a plan at anything, find out what your body weight and your load history actually allow. The ruck weight calculator gives you a starting weight and a ceiling, using the same limits the plan builder uses.
Common questions about selection prep
How long should I prepare before attempting a selection event?
Longer than you want to hear. Think in seasons rather than in weeks: a base of regular carrying, then a build, then a taper. If the date is close and the base is not there, the honest move is to point at a later date and spend the time building, rather than to cram and turn up broken.
What load should I be training with for selection?
The load your body weight and your carrying history allow, and not a pound more. This app caps carried load at a share of body weight that rises with experience, from 33 percent for somebody new to load up to 50 percent for somebody with years behind them, and it lets that load rise by at most 10 percent or 5 pounds a week. Training heavier than that does not make you readier. It makes you injured sooner.
Where do I find the real requirements for the event?
From GORUCK, who set them and revise them. We do not restate them anywhere on this site, because a requirement copied onto a training page goes stale quietly and then misleads the next person who trusts it. The link at the foot of this page goes to the organiser.
Can I prepare for something like this without a coach?
You can train, and plenty of people do. What you cannot easily do is judge your own ramp honestly when you are tired and the date is coming, which is where a written plan earns its keep: it chose this week for you before you were tired. Use one, and let a training partner or a coach tell you when to back off.
What does a deload week actually do in a long build?
It cuts volume and holds the load steady so the work you have already done can land. One week in every 4 of a generated plan is one. Skipping deloads is the most common way a long build turns into an injury in its final month, and it always feels like the right call at the time.
About the event and who owns it
RuckPacks is an independent training site. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by GORUCK, and we do not speak for them. The requirements for their events are theirs to set, to publish and to change, and their own site is the only place to read them.