Training for the PARAS'10 as a Woman, What the Standard Programme Doesn't Tell Female Tabbers
- Alastair Hunt
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
For women and men alike, the PARAS'10 is one of the premier tabbing challenges in the UK and it takes targeted and consistent training to succeed. What is the standard to achieve a pass?
10 miles (16.1km)
Carrying 35lbs (16kg)
Under 3 hours; Note: P Company is less than 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Boots and trousers (long pants)
It is an all out push from start to finish. And with both in-person and a virtual event, a challenge open to all.
Notably the training programme supplied was almost certainly not written with the female tabber in mind. Most military-derived training programmes, including the official PARAS'10 plan, were developed around male recruits in full-time training environments. That doesn't make them useless for female civilian tabbers. It does mean they need to be interpreted carefully, adapted intelligently, and supplemented with what the research now tells us about how women respond differently to load.
As ever, please talk to your doctor or medical practitioner most familiar with your medical history before implementing any changes in diet, exercise or lifestyle, especially if you are under treatment. Links to resources and research are shared at bottom of page.
The standard programme, what works and what doesn't
The PARAS'10 training plan does several things well. It sets a clearly defined goal, builds progressively toward it, mixes tabs with running and strength work, and includes rest days between sessions. These are sound principles regardless of who is following the programme. Download the .pdf here
The problem is the pace of progression. By Week 7 the plan includes two 10-mile runs and an 8-mile loaded march in a single week. For most recreational runners that is already aggressive. For a female tabber new to load carriage, it carries genuine injury risk and the research tells us that risk is disproportionately higher for women than for men.
A study comparing male and female biomechanics under load found that as load increases from unloaded to approximately 22kg, stress fracture risk increases by around 250% in women compared to 133% in men. The PARAS'10 load of 35lbs sits above that threshold. Arriving at it too quickly, before the musculoskeletal system has adapted, is the most reliable way to end a training block before it reaches the start line.
The adjustment that matters most: Timeline
In our previous article covering PARAS'10 training, Plan B, a 17-week preparation timeline, is presented as the cautious option for those slower to recover or juggling significant life commitments.
For female tabbers, Plan B is the default recommendation, not the conservative fallback. A longer preparation timeline is not a concession. It is the evidence-based starting point given the higher baseline injury risk and the greater relative physiological demand of carrying a standardised load on a smaller frame.
Load progression: More conservative, not less ambitious
The PARAS'10 standard is 35lbs. That target does not change. What changes is how you get there. Female tabbers should spend more time at intermediate loads, building from 10–15% of bodyweight, adding no more than 2.5kg every four sessions, and resisting the urge to train at event weight until the later stages of the block.
The musculoskeletal system needs more time to adapt than the cardiovascular system. Feeling aerobically capable of carrying more does not mean the connective tissue is ready.
Deload weeks: Every third week, not every fourth
The standard programme recommendation is a deload week every four weeks. For female tabbers, particularly in the early stages of a training block when connective tissue is still adapting to load, every third week is more appropriate.
Training still takes place during a deload week, sessions are shorter and intensity is reduced, but the recovery window is more frequent. The cumulative benefit over a 17-week block is meaningful.
If you are training for the PARAS'10, a Norwegian Foot March, or just to get fast and fit, our self-paced online course"Built to Ruck The Science and Practice of Rucking" covers everything the research tells us about load carriage training, pacing, progression, heat management, hydration, fueling and more. It is built for tabbers at every level of experience, and draws directly on the peer-reviewed military and sports science research.
Fueling is not optional
Research shows that women rely more heavily on carbohydrate oxidation at higher relative exercise intensities, and because a standardised load represents a higher percentage of bodyweight for most female tabbers, the relative intensity of any given session is already elevated compared to a larger male tabber at the same pace and load.
Carbohydrate availability during sessions exceeding 90 minutes is a direct performance variable. Treat fueling as part of your training, not a supplement to it.
Pacing and heart rate monitoring
The PARAS'10 pace of 10 minutes per mile is demanding for anyone. For a female rucker carrying 35lbs, the relative cardiovascular cost of maintaining that pace is higher than for a larger male at the same standard. Cardiac drift, the gradual rise in heart rate at constant pace as a session progresses, will be more pronounced.
Zone 2 discipline and heart rate monitoring are more critical, not less, in training sessions that exceed 60 minutes under load.
Kit fit
The standard PARAS'10 programme makes no mention of pack fit. For female tabbers it deserves explicit attention, a pack designed around male torso geometry distributes load less efficiently on a female frame, increasing biomechanical strain and accelerating fatigue. Before your training block begins:
Choose a pack with adjustable harness geometry: shorter torso length, narrower shoulder straps, and a shaped hip belt that sits correctly on female hips
Load high and close to the back: weight sitting low and away from the body amplifies strain on the lower back and hips with every step
Adjust straps so load transfers through the hip belt, not the shoulders
Test fit on a short session at event weight before committing it to a longer training ruck
Use strap padding or neoprene sleeves to reduce friction over longer distances
A well-fitted pack changes the biomechanical demand of every session that follows.
The bottom line
The PARAS'10 is an achievable goal for a well-prepared female tabber. The preparation just needs to be smarter: a longer timeline, more conservative load progression, more frequent recovery weeks, and explicit attention to fuelling and kit fit that the standard programme doesn't address.
What does success look like at the event itself? The best information we could find was from March 2026, Charlotte Preece "came home ninth overall to dominate the women’s event over the full 10-mile course, romping home in one hour 34 minutes 25 seconds to take the victory by almost 14 minutes from second-placed Alexandra Nicholson." Notably the top male participant claimed victory in 1 hour 23 minutes 34seconds.
Wherever you are: train safe and enjoy the process!
Alastair
Related resources & research
News (FaceBook): Women succeed at the PARAS'10
Schram B, Rosseau J, Canetti EFD, Orr R. Sex Differences in the Metabolic Cost of a Military Load Carriage Task: A Field Based Study. Sports (Basel). 2025 Dec 9;13(12):442. doi: 10.3390/sports13120442. PMID: 41441426; PMCID: PMC12736546.
Rubio JE, Tong J, Sundaramurthy A, Subramani AV, Kote VB, Baggaley M, Edwards WB, Reifman J. Differences in running biomechanics between young, healthy men and women carrying external loads. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Oct 3;11:1250937. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1250937. PMID: 37854880; PMCID: PMC10579583.
Wendland R, Bossi L, Oliver M. Biomechanical and physiological effects of female soldier load carriage: A scoping review. Appl Ergon. 2022 Nov;105:103837. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103837. Epub 2022 Jul 5. PMID: 35803166.
Oeschger R, Roos L, Wyss T, Buller MJ, Veenstra BJ, Gilgen-Ammann R. Influence of Soldiers' Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Physiological Responses and Dropouts During a Loaded Long-distance March. Mil Med. 2022 Jan 7;188(7-8):e1903–9. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usab540. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35015894; PMCID: PMC10363014.
Orr R, Pope R, Lopes TJA, Leyk D, Blacker S, Bustillo-Aguirre BS, Knapik JJ. Soldier Load Carriage, Injuries, Rehabilitation and Physical Conditioning: An International Approach. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 11;18(8):4010. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18084010. PMID: 33920426; PMCID: PMC8069713.
Godhe M, Helge T, Mattsson CM, Ekblom Ö, Ekblom B. Physiological Factors of Importance for Load Carriage in Experienced and Inexperienced Men and Women. Mil Med. 2020 Aug 14;185(7-8):e1168-e1174. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usaa050. PMID: 32248224.
Comments