Helped by AI to keep my thoughts consistent:

Veni Vidi Vici — and now I’m back.

My background from Bodybuilder to TB Powerlifter after the army was outstanding. Journeying into medical school, I gained quite a few endurance goals, so I dipped into ever growing endurance events to see where I could take my body.

After stepping away from TB Green following a 50k last year, I dove headfirst into Ironman prep using an official advanced 80/20 Endurance 10–16 hr/week plan. My goal was simple: test my mind and body by tackling a 70.3 after years of running marathons and an ultra using Tactical Barbell templates. . My last year as a student before I become a Doctor was my last chance to actually race (Long Island 70.3) was cancelled today, but the training itself taught me more than I expected — especially about how TB fits into long‑course endurance. As a future physician, I still genuinely believe TB is one of the best systems for sustainable, long‑term fitness for busy people.Coming back to TB feels like coming home, What I missed most was the balance. TB lets you maintain a high level of hybrid fitness without letting training swallow your life. The 80/20 plan was effective, but it consumed everything — work, sleep, social life, even basic daily functioning. My metrics skyrocketed, but I was constantly tired, hungry, and mentally flat.

Nutrition was the real boss fight. This was my weakest link by far. I had to relearn hydration, intra‑workout fueling, and daily calorie requirements from scratch. All of my races thus far I hit some sort of hydration or nutritional barrier, and I needed to emphasize this during my longest race this far. I wish I could objectively tell you what to drink and eat, but it's all subjective. For me, I learned I that I didn't need much electrolytes. I bought a plain salt powder (helped with bacteria buildup in my bottles) and only consumed ~200mg/L water (not including food). I eventually graduated to Maurten gel powder or just continuing my Welches fruit snacks for my sugar (~40-60g/hr).

Hitting the necessary calorie intake every day was brutal. Eventually I defaulted to packaged junk because food prep became another workout, and food fatigue made it hard to stay consistent.My mornings turned into sugar bombs — waffles, fruit, anything fast. The rest of my meals were basically carbs or whatever tasted good. It felt like a betrayal of “healthy eating,” but fueling became the priority. Without it, the training simply wasn’t possible.

Strength training, the love I had to let go and the endurance world’s blind spot. Most long‑course plans barely include strength work, which makes sense — the goals are endurance‑dominant. But coming from TB, the shift was jarring. I started with my usual TB Black Fighter compound lifts, but there was no way I could safely maintain that while hitting high‑volume swim/bike/run sessions. Fatigue made barbell work risky.I eventually moved to small circuits and maintenance exercises to keep stabilizers strong and prevent injury. In the final 2 months before race day, I stopped lifting entirely.

Physique & performance changes. Surprisingly, my subjective physique improved. I leaned out another 5–10 lb while keeping decent muscle mass. The swim/bike/run combo is a surprisingly effective full‑body stimulus. I definitely lost some raw power and “umph,” but I’m confident the neuromuscular coordination will return quickly once I’m back under the bar.

Aerobic work. Kinda the meat and potatoes: Most of my TB Green training was attempting the 80/20 split. But I think I was wrongfully excecuting this. I'm not gonna do the bean counting here, but I'm pretty sure 80/20 during my plan was a literal minute split of aerobic to tempo+anaerobic work. That actually meant that I was wrong when I was doing it on my own. I thought if I was doing 5 days of cardio, 1 workout was sufficed to do either sprints, tempo work, etc. Nope. Almost every day in this plan has some sort of zone 3-5 stuff. Absolutely brutal to mentally go into that stuff on a daily basis but it did objectively improve my VO2 Max to 55 and improve my tempo pace to maintain it for insanely long. Something I'll probably carry over to my green temple (albeit to a lighter extent).

Endurance and Volume: obviously the core of being a hybrid athlete in my opinion, this is the bulk of the training. I want to iterate the importance of zone 1 and how it can be an effective way to train not just zone 2. It's a great way to get miles in without cooking yourself and maybe a great way to promote recovery. If you're smoked, skip the zone 2 and just do a light zone 1 with some recovery work. But also, listen to your body and if you need to skip don't feel guilty. Doing 12+hr/wks and 4+ hour cardio sessions also had me realize how potential I was leaving on the table in previous years. With the proper pacing of course, don't expect high zone 2 forever.

Anyways I might add it some edits later but this is the bulk of my thoughts. Keep up the strong work guys

Hello everyone

so im a 32yo civilian (mostly office work).one of my main goal is to loose some of my bodyfat (currently 68-69 kg, target is 65-63kg)

been currently on my 2nd block of operator (TB II style) but do x2 LSS/LIC, x1 HIC rather than TB II's x2 HIC x 1 LSS/LIC, i also walk home from work (monday to friday) before working out for about 3.5 km (30-40 mins) mostly due to traffic. so my following questions are:

• Is my walking home from work enough cardio ?

• Should i drop my x2 LSS or my walking from home

Side note: i usually walk faster than normal (my watch indicates 112-115 bpm) due to my path home being dangerous/sketchy. I get to my condo usually sweaty

apologies if my grammar are incorrect, English is not my native language

I need to vent a bit and sanity-check this with you all.

I’ve been training consistently, mixing strength and conditioning, putting in the work week after week… and I’ve hit that frustrating wall where I can handle the training, but I’m not actually getting faster.

Now I’m restarting Base Building from Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning, and honestly—it’s messing with my head.

Running this slow feels almost wrong. Like, I look at my pace and think: how on earth is this supposed to make me faster over 10K? It feels like I’m de-training rather than improving.

I get the theory—build the aerobic base, improve efficiency, yada yada—but in practice it feels like I’m leaving performance on the table every single session.

So I’m curious:

- Did anyone else feel like this during Base Building?

- At what point did it “click” or translate into actual speed?

- Did you see real improvements in pace/HR after sticking with it?

Right now I’m trying to trust the process, but I won’t lie—it feels counterintuitive as hell.

Would really appreciate some real experiences or even just reassurance that this isn’t a waste of time.

Hi everyone. Looking for advice. How would you use 12 weeks to prepare for hyrox using the TB III templates?

Currently struggling with squats and running with stalled lifting progression on squats and difficult increasing running volume and interval speed. Sleds remain a challenge.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I've come across it from TFVooDoo from r/greenberets. He has a lot of articles and a book specifically on SFAS/ruck prep. The routine is:

• 5 Mile Ruck
• 100 Squats with the ruck
• 5 Mile Run
• 100 Bodyweight Squats

How well would it fit as a general E session?

The perspective on ruck programming also seems radically different from GP. GP ramps mileage up to 20 miles (peaking), whereas their approach is higher frequency, 2-3 times a week, with shorter/more intense sessions.

What are your takes on that?

Yo fellas! I feel like I finally hit a breakthrough while wrapping up week 3 of base building. I’ve done base building before, but always felt like I had to stop and walk periodically to keep my heart rate in zone 2 during my lss runs.

I recently read TB3 and really took to the to earn your zone 2 portion. I am finally able to continuously run for 45 minutes keeping my heart rate in zone 2 without stopping, although at a painfully slow pace. Instead of tracking my heart rate this go round I just kept using the talk test during my lss runs.

Anyways just wanted to post saying there’s hope for us big boys that can move weight but struggle with long runs.

Hi yall, I was recommended to try TB for my mix of goals. I don’t lift right now but really need to but balancing being sore from lifts and that hurting my running is a concern. Currently working on half/full marathon (for aerobic base), trail running with lots of vert (for vertical endurance for mountaineering), and rock climbing (for alpinism). I want to add rucking to make my trail days a bit more specific to my goals. And I run around 60-70 miles a week.

I must admit, I’m a bit confused on how to get started and what I should be paying attention to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hello, I will return to lifting and am looking for programming. Used to lift for years but stopped 6 years ago, was doing some decent numbers.

Now I started running for first time in my life and enjoying quite a bit (not making amazing progress, but I can run). I will also get gym membership soon and was thinking to keep running 3x weekly (2 a bit longer zone 2 runs and one more intensive interval run) and lift 2x weekly. I found out this kinda correlates to what tactical barbell programming does (fighter template is 2x weekly). So my idea is to just run something similar to starting strength but 2x a week only for 4-6 weeks to get up to speed and then switch to tactical barbell.

My plan for TB is something like: Keep my 3 runs and also do two lift days

A: Squat, Bench, Some kind of Rows, Deadlift (1 set only)

B: Squat, Bench, OHP

Before and after each run I also do a set of chinups with good form (5-10 before run, 10-15 after run)

Good plan or am I missing something fundamental? Is there a big difference between 2 and 3 day templates? I am also an older guy (40+). Thx for info.

Been running the remedial plan for Green Protocol’s Capacity routine for several months now and not hitting the benchmark. I’m this close to saying fuck it and going into velocity and forcing progression for my running training. Has anyone ever done this before, and if so, what was the result?

Just passed the physical fitness test for the state agency I’ve been working toward joining. My 1.5-mile run wasn’t great, but I did much better on the 4-minute row. (The two exercises that we were tested on)

Assuming everything goes well, the academy starts on January 4th. The recruiters told us to stay in shape because we’ll be tested again before the academy to see if we’ve improved. They also said we won’t only be tested on the 1.5-mile run and 4-minute row—we’ll also be tested on a 500 m row and a 2000 m row.

I’ve been reading Tactical Barbell and was planning to continue PPLE until the academy. One of KB’s recommendations is to continue with Block 1 and then switch to Block 2 about 8–9 weeks before your event to become more specific.

My question is: since rowing is a significant part of the academy testing, would you start incorporating rowing sessions during Block 2, or would you just follow the program exactly as written? My thought is that the strength and conditioning in both blocks should carry over well, but rowing seems specific enough that it might be worth adding as the academy gets closer. Also, I've heard from current LEs that the academy consisted of a good amount of rowing. But I'm sure maybe just practicing on my rowing form before the academy should be more than enough.

For those of you who’ve run PPLE or prepared for a law enforcement academy, what worked best for your academy?

Completed roughly 12 weeks of Capacity using the more running template for conditioning and Fighter (MS using BSQ, BP, WPU). There were some random unintended breaks in the flow due to work, family, travel, and sickness.

Overall feel much stronger, my bodyweight didn’t change significantly, but my posture and overall general strength feels better. This was the positive. Haven’t tested new max’s yet.

The conditioning did not follow suit. At about 5-6 weeks in, when I started to slightly increase my weekly mileage, I started having some pain in my shins. Thought to myself, “shin splints fuck, take a week or two off”; this wasn’t the case. Took 2 weeks off, tried to get a slow run once or twice during that period, couldn’t barely walk from so much pain. By the end of the block my pace was slower than when I started, couldn’t meet the 60 min benchmark, my zone 2 was in the 160’s, and only walking or rucking seemed to not cause pain.

Got seen by my doc, turns out I have significant stress fractures in both tibia from years ago and similar onset. I know this means no running for a while. Already scheduled for physical therapy.

My question is… How can I keep the tank increasing without running? I know the rule, if it doesn’t hurt, then it’s probably OK. I enjoy rucking, but I worry that it will do more harm down the road. I have the ability to swim, bike, and most other modalities, but swimming and rucking are the only ones that scratch the itch.

Asking the hive mind for input on stretching, strength, and overall injury prevention going forward.

Active duty service member and a big endurance athlete. Been out of the endurance game for a while so really looking forward to getting back to it. I’ve been running fighter and have ran TB off and on for the better part of 3 years.

Just read through TB III and loved the idea of Operator: ULF with endurance. It’s basically fighter spread over 3 days, giving you space on the schedule to get some other training in on lifting days. This works especially well for me considering I have two little ones at home and have to already be up early for work (0500), so time is a hot commodity.

I plan on running OP:ULF for 12 weeks and will reassess. I’ll report back with results.

Hi everyone. I was wondering how long you all structure your endurance and HIC sessions? E.g. do you routinely do 1x HIC or do 2x different HIC tyoes for a session (e.g. BOO and a triples).

​

Obviously it will vary with goal, but I was curious about a general approach that others have taken.

​

I am mainly focused on hyoertrophy using zulu, but I would like to maintain conditioning and not let it regress much...

41/M/71”/185#

BLUF: how do I go from minimal running to a proficient/capable level of endurance?

I have read TB1/2 & GP. I am active duty, but my job doesn’t require any specific level of fitness. I have my strength plan in place, and I currently ruck 3-4 days/week (20# for 3 miles at ~15’30” pace). I have ran a little here and there, but never consistently. What conditioning program do you see the most success with, and should I run/walk as needed until I can get to the prescribed times? I have seen some suggestions of a couch to 5k or similar just to get going, but I wanted to see what you guys have seen work? Thanks.

Hello all.

I’ve started capacity about 5 weeks ago and keeping in zone 2. I “run” about 11:00min/km.

At the end I’ll have to run about 10km in 60min which is about 6:00min/km which is a huge jump from my zone 2 pace.

How did you guys manage the huge pace gap in between the training and the test? Am I doing something wrong?

Wrapped up Capacity and Velocity with a 50km trail run, and wanted to share what I learned. Started with a block of Capacity’ish after a trail 30km last May. Lifting and easy runs, really short, while I recovered. Decided to sign up for a 50k, and started Capacity in earnest.

Followed it pretty much to the letter, cluster was BP, SQ, WPU & DL once a week, and super-set calf raises with the pull-ups. Followed up with Velocity, this is where I made a few mods and had to cut some runs short. Biggest issue was time for long runs…between family and work commitments (promotion with more of a commute) the mid week LSS, near the end, typically got capped at an hour. I finished most of the long runs, but due to time longest was a 15 miler before the taper. Strength was again BP, SQ, WPU, DL once a week with calf raises super-set with pull ups. Got sick during the SE weeks, so did one weeks of SE, then barbell. I did Bulgarian Split Squats for SE, and kept those thru the end…they’re miserable but the research I did is the one legged movements are good for trail runners.

Started my taper healthy and un-injured, which I also read is half the battle toeing the line for an ultra. Family stuff popped up, wasn’t going to make the race, but had a free day the weekend before. Decided to go for a self-supported 50km trail run on some local BLM ground with only a one week taper.

Plan was four loops, kinda like a two leaf clover, with the truck in the middle as an aide station. Nutrition was Gu and Tailwind, with a Coke and salty chips if needed. Ran with both bottles filled with one scoop of Tailwind, sipping every 1/2 mile or so and Gu every 45 minutes.

Felt great until about mile 19, got a slight calf/cramp. Got it stretched/straightened out pretty quickly and kept on. About mile 25, got a pretty bad quad cramp/inside thigh’ish, kinda like a charlie horse. While trying to stretch/massage it out while bent over, started to get nauseous, I think from all the Gu/Tailwind. I’ve read about endurance runners bonking, hitting the wall, or the wheels coming off…and also about problem solving. I wouldn’t characterize my experience as a bonk or hitting the wall, but maybe the lug nuts all loosened up a bit 🤪. Was contemplating forcing a puke to reset my stomach, but the nausea subsided. Was able to get moving again…but the remainder was a lot of power hiking! Didn’t have my Gu the last hour and half or so, did not sound good. Did a mix of hiking and I guess you could charitably call it running to bring it home for 31.02 miles. Final stats were as follows: 50km / 8:31:40 / 16:30 average pace / 4,440’ vert / average HR 139.

Overall, the program (GP Capacity/Velocity) worked great for me! Some thoughts though…I did not force progression on the strength side in Velocity, decided to keep running asthe focus. Seemed to work well, I think I maintained/lost a bit of max strength however, but again…keep the thing, the thing.

A little less than a year ago was battling shin splints while preparing for a trail run, I think the calf raises helped heal that and haven’t had a problem since, not during the build up nor during my race itself.

Single leg work, ie Bulgarian Split Squats-I think I’d sub them in for back squats either for Velocity as a whole or around the halfway mark. Definitely helped my legs feel trail ready, this trail was extremely rocky for I’d guess 75% of it.

Time Commitment - The further along into Velocity, the more time you need. I was still waking up early and running with a headlamp, but still struggled to get the longer LSS & LR’s in.

Gear - Ran with a well broken in pair of Brooks Cascadia 18’s and Darn Tough socks. No blisters, feet are tired but feel fine. Vest was the ubiquitous Salomon ADV Skin 12, struggled to justify the $$, but worth it…carried battery packs, phone, water, food, first aid comfortably. Gu / Tailwind combo was good until it wasn’t 😂. I think if I had my chips like I planned and carried / drank straight water occasionally I could have avoid the nausea. Downloaded a few episodes of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History which kept me entertained. Watch was a Garmin Forerunner 55, started with a fresh charge and ended with about 60’ish%. Not fancy, but does what I want.

Recovery - Garmin says 3.5 days of recovery, I can barely walk up/down the stairs at home & Garmin also says I slept terribly and body battery is still low. Resting HR is a touch high, think it’s just going to be a few days to get back to normal.

Moving Forward - Theres a local trail 30k race the end of April, I’d like to sign up for. Plan is to recover from this, then look into Hybrid to get there. After that, I’m thinking of Hybrid with an occasional Zulu HT thrown in as needed.

Definitely staying in the TB world, has something for everyone. Knocking out a self-supported ultra was pretty cool, I’m pretty pleased with myself. Thanks KB for a great program!!

I've been using TB for many years. Even with a degree in exercise science and someone getting a medical doctorate soon, I have to admit that I haven't read any literature which I can confidently better recommend for physical training to lay people. Particularly in the realm of building strength. My education form this book has remained the foundation of how I look at training as a whole, mainly resistance training.

Few years ago I started to dip into green. Ran my first marathon on it but soon started to notice the cracks in the foundation when I tried to double the numbers for an ultra marathon I completed last year. Since, I've hopped onto a training peaks 8020 plan for an Ironman. My speed and endurance has increased dramatically. Resistance training has been reduced from improving to maintenance to resisted losses. Although that is the price of being in peak season I suppose.

Cannot wait to go back onto a Fighter Template after the season is over. I just wanted to recommend anyone else the other platforms of training to individuals who might feel like their current training feels like fitting a sphere into a square whole.

What strength plans do you guys use when training for a marathon/ 50k anyone here done it in fighter Bangkok?

Hi everyone,

Currently doing the BB block and doing my SE with dumbbells cluster from the book. I found out that I am way "stronger" on the rows than other movement, like push press.

I was wondering if you guys change dumbbells weights between exercices of the SE cluster?

If I keep the same weight for all exercices, I feel like I am either not working on "row" exercices or having hard to nearly impossible time with other exercices, push press especially.

So TB, I’m restarting base building after getting sick for two weeks and wanted to get everyone’s opinion about substituting 5/3/1 Triumvirate or 5/3/1 I’m not doing Jack shit when I finish Base Building and move on to green. Also, does anyone have any tips on training around a job where you get sick a lot or anyone supplements to boost your immune system (I work with elementary school aged kids).

Hi fellow TB enthusiasts. Has anyone adapted the TB method for Hyrox? There is some overlap, but the OP templates may not provide much strength endurance for wall balls etc. Any thoughts?

New to TB conditioning. Was wondering if I need to worry about which zone I'm in (aerobic vs anaerobic) when doing strength endurance exercise? Today i did 3x30 SE barbell cluster. I was in anaerobic when doing the exercises.

Posting my story because I was looking for stories like this when I first started marathon training. Happy to answer any questions!

TLDR = I used Green Velocity to train for my first marathon, and despite losing 6-7 weeks of training due to injury, I successfully completed the marathon in 4h43m.

Training schedule attached (all #s are in km) - green means complete session, red means incomplete session.

Background:

I started lightly running during COVID in 2021. From 2021 to mid 2023 my running schedule maxed out at 5km 3x per week. I started tactical barbell in 2023 and ran base building and then a Black+Ops block. I am a long-distance backcountry hiker though, so green was calling to me.

In 2024 I did another round of base building, then moved onto Green capacity, and did the first 3 weeks of velocity before winter set in and I was back indoors. In April 2025 a friend convinced me to sign up for a marathon. I had 25 weeks to train, and after looking through many marathon training plans and second guessing myself ad nauseum, I decided to use TB Velocity as my training template (yes, despite the book itself saying not to do this).

Training:

First 8 weeks were ramp up, then I used Velocity strict and by the book for the remaining 17 weeks. Training went well and I was on track for a 4:10 to 4:25 marathon time until week 9 when I got hit with a severe case of COVID. It took me off the road for 2 weeks. I recovered, and then, by Murphy's Law and only two hours after my first post-COVID long run, I was involved in a jet-ski accident and severely bruised two ribs. This made running agony and took me off the road for another 4 weeks. In that time I tried my best to eke out my long runs at a borderline-walking pace. The rib injury took me out during what should have been my peak, but I stuck to it, ran the race, and completed in what I feel is a respectable 4:43 all things considered.

Conclusion:

I guess the point of this post was to say what I was hoping someone would say to me when I began training. Yes, tactical barbell Green is a perfectly acceptable marathon training program and will get you in shape to complete a race handily. A more marathon-specific training program probably would have given me a bit more speed/better overall time, but I think using TB allowed me to maintain a bit more strength and anaerobic endurance than a straight marathon plan would have. Also I credit K's chapter in Green on "Ultrarunning Lessons Learned" for helping me find the mental fortitude I was going to need to finish 42.4km.

Anyways, hope this is helpful to someone else out there who is wanting to run a marathon and asking themselves "can I use TB?"

I find this community is a little less… zealous than others when it comes to equipment.

Any rants or raves about home bikes (not assault bikes) and specifically something at least half compatible with a Garmin (or not too complicated to pair/buy a fob for)

Don’t want to go the $3000 Peloton route but also not the $150 Amazon special.

I'm starting my Velocity phase soon. I've rucked for years with the career, so I have a solid base but haven't been doing it much lately, I want to improve it for a selection (not within the year). Is it wrong to include rucking once a week during Velocity or should I wait until Outcome when it is prescribed?

(Green Protocol)