This is for any ladies wearing boots or thinking about upgrading to boots and you don’t have any friends/family to show you the ropes (no pun intended lol). I know I wouldn’t have known what to do without my husband, so I just figured I’d share some tips when I think of them! You want to tuck your laces if you’ll be in the woods so they don’t get snagged on stuff and you also don’t want to have to keep tying them obv lol.

1. Tie your laces as you normally would, then pull the strings so the loops and tails are even.
2. Make a double knot and pull again so all loops/strings are neat and even
3. Fold your sock over the top of the boot and then tuck the loops/tails underneath and kinda to the sides so it’s neat, not bulky, and nothings hanging out

Have a great day!

Over the weekend, I ran my first half marathon in nine years. When I was 31 years old, I ran the San Antonio Rock n Roll Half in about 2.5 hours. But on Saturday, I ran a local half marathon race in 2:03, crossing the finish line hand-in-hand with my 5yo daughter. I shaved off 30 minutes from my previous time at 40 years old. And I believe rucking is one of the biggest reasons for that.

Now, I know this is a rucking community so I'm sort of preaching to the choir, but I just wanted to share my own experience. Over the last 15 months, I've taken my personal health and wellness seriously. After putting my father in a nursing home (he's 62 years old but looks 80 due to years of sedentary lifestyle/smoking/alcohol abuse) I realized pretty hard that I DON'T want that for myself. I want to be around for my wife and daughter for as long as possible. I used to be fit. In my late-20s and early-30s, I ran a couple of half marathons. I played soccer. I wasn't elite by any sense, but I was active. But then we had a baby, and then a COVID pandemic, and then all of a sudden I was 40 years old with a dad bod.

Over the last year, I’ve used rucking as one of my main tools for rebuilding my fitness. Some weeks it was a dedicated session with a 35lb plate in my GR1. Other weeks it was a short 2 mile neighborhood ruck between runs. Sometimes it was just a way to get moving when my body didn’t need another hard workout. But those miles added up! Rucking gave me time on my feet without the same impact as running. It strengthened my legs, hips, back, and core. It helped me practice steady effort. It let me build endurance on days when another run would have been too much. And that absolutely mattered during half marathon training.

Don't get me wrong, the half marathon still hurt. But I didn't blow up, I didn't collapse. I felt durable, and that's because of all the time I've spent walking under load, with a weighted backpack for miles and miles.

So, yeah. Rucking isn't flashy, but when I ran the race this past weekend, it was THE thing that put my fitness over the edge.

Years ago, I heard about the GORUCK 50-mile Star Course. At the time, if I remember correctly, it was only offered in D.C. I told my girlfriend that I'd love to do a 50-mile ruck one of these days. She responded with, "The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend." Well, I had to impress the girl — which meant I was going. I picked a route and set off at 7 PM that Friday night. It wasn't pretty, folks. I had blisters popping in my shoes. Blisters forming under blisters. I was in SAD shape by the end of those 50 miles.

Not long after that, they started offering Star Courses in other cities, and I didn't just want to do one — I wanted to win one. So I went looking for solutions to my foot problem and started experimenting. I don't recall exactly where I found it, but someone suggested wearing toe socks inside thin merino wool socks. I gave it a shot on a 30-mile ruck leading up to the Denver Star Course, and my feet were fantastic afterward. If you're planning an endurance ruck, give this a try!

BTW - The girlfriend eventually married me, apparently it worked!

Recently started going to the gym and starting my diet 2 weeks ago. (M30, 6’0”, 280lbs). Decided I wanted to upgrade my cardio by Rucking while walking my dogs instead of just walking without weight (I hate running.)

This felt pretty good. Added 30lbs of weight in an old 5.11 pack I had lying around. I was able to keep the weight high and tight but it’s missing the sternum strap which I feel would help with the shoulder soreness I started to get about half way through. I’ll probably upgrade eventually but this works for now. Total weight was 37lbs on the scale including the weight of the pack and water bladder.

I probably could have shaved a couple minutes walking by myself as my dogs love stopping and smelling the flowers, but I’m still decently happy with this and I know I have plenty of room to grow. Looking forward to seeing how good I can get.

Hi guys! I’m new to the rucking community. My husband is in the military and I always thought rucking looked fun and then recently he participated in a memorial ruck/swim/run event and I was really inspired. The girls were kickass and there was one girl who was a civilian - 16 years old - and she did amazinggg! So anyway, that motivated me and now here I am rucking and running everyday and hopefully one day I can participate in events too!

My short term goals are to: 1) Get up to 15 min pace 2) Get up to 12 miles and then LTG eventually I’d love to do 12 miles @ 15 min pace.

My last ruck was 5.3 miles, my average pace is usually 16-17 min/mile, and I carry 35 lbs. I’m 5’2, 140 lbs.

So far rucking has been amazing. It’s made me run faster, lose weight, my posture has improved, and I’ve gone up a lot in weight on deadlifts.

Here’s my setup! (Don’t come at me for the PT bear “Labubu” lmao). I’m going to put my “In case of emergency” info in the ID holder for when I’m in the woods.

Pack: ILBE Boots: Danner Resurgents Socks: Fox Rivers (or I steal the husbands Darn Toughs if I didn’t do laundry lolol)

Appearing to be homeless helps when moving through Denver in the middle of the night :)

These super long rucks probably take a stronger mind than body. There is a constant internal conversation with the body checking in to ensure everything is working properly.

Pack weight started at around 45lbs with dual water bladders. I wanted enough water in my pack to make it through the entire event without stopping. The only time I ever stopped was to pee and take pictures of the various way points. Probably one of my greatest rucking related accomplishments.

On a weight loss journey and decided to finally start putting on muscle and working on cardio since I've been neglecting those things. There's a little route in my area that's just under 2 miles, 130ft up, 124ft down, 1% grade, and only has a couple lights that I have to stop at (usually none if in time it right) pretty proud that I managed to cut off 7 minutes from my last time (ignore the first two times, I was tryna figure out a good route that's near a good yet quick distance). I've been taking my dog most of the time, but these are just me on my own. I'm managing about 3 three or four times a week.

Hey,
I set myself a challenge to hit 5 million ruck steps in a year, currently close to a million within 2 months

Currently at:

954k steps rucked so far
19% done
303 days left
~13.3k steps/day needed from here

🎒 is usually around 8–10kg / 18–22lbs
Mostly weight plates + about 2L of water. By the end of the session the water’s usually gone, so technically the load gets lighter as I go lol

Not gonna lie, some days the motivation is there, other days it’s literally just “put the ruck on and move”

Biggest thing I’ve learned so far is consistency matters way more than huge single days. The steps stack up faster than expected if you just keep showing up

Also.. one bad day doesn’t matter much in the long run.. it’s easy to make up for it over time if you stay consistent overall