For quite some time, I have been trying to figure out why I was not becoming a better runner. I was constantly getting injured when I first started running, and then it dawned on me after a 12 Mile Ruck March, my legs had absolutely no endurance.

Power walking is a good way for inactive people to prepare themselves for a more intense form of cardio. When you are inactive, you have little muscle, so you naturally wouldn’t be able to do as much as an active person and you surely wouldn’t run too well, either.

In preparation of the Ruck March, we all had to set up our rucksacks (pretty much like an overgrown backpack) with about 35lbs of gear. The thing about this ruck march is that it was a 12 miler that had to be done within the course of 3 hours. Does not sound too bad, but we had a pace man who had to walk the entire way at 4mph, so if you fell behind that man, you had better pick up the pace.

I am not going to lie, I am a very short guy with little legs; i fell behind at certain points, so I had to run a lot of the march. We also had our weapons and combat boots on, so that march was no joke. After fininshing the march, we dropped all of our gear, and everyone was just exhausted. Some people even needed an IV afterwards. Anyhow, we were released for the weekend and told to report back on Monday.

After the 12 Mile Ruck march, we linked back up that Monday and my squad went on a run, and it was far easier than I thought it would be. We ran maybe between 5-6 miles and I felt like we could have done more. Of course, no one would have wanted to, but we could have at the time.

The reason why it helped so much was because we went a further distance walking, than we did running. That march gave our legs and body an immense amount of endurance and stamina. If you could keep up with that, your runs just might get a tad bit easier.

Give yourself a good power walk and let me know how you feel on your next run.