Let's dive a little deeper

Running is the most common failure point in SFET and ADF fitness testing. It is also the most trainable.

The 3.2km battle run is run in webbing with a weighted weapon, around 12kg on your frame, and you need to be under 16 minutes to stay in the fight. Sub-15 makes you competitive. Many selections also gate you first with a shuttle run, the beep test, to level 10.1. Then comes the pack march: 90 minutes under roughly 28kg, where the standard is holding your pace from the first minute to the last. Longer marches come later, on the selection course itself.

This is not one effort in isolation. It is a full day of testing, and the aerobic engine carrying you through the final kilometres of the march is the same one taxed by everything before it.

Most candidates prepare for each test separately. They train the battle run. They practise the march. What they do not build is the capacity to hold the standard across all of it, on the day, under fatigue.

The key is your aerobic ceiling. Lift it, and the 3.2km run stops pushing you into the red. Your sustainable pace rises at every intensity. Recovery between efforts gets faster. When the march starts, you have the reserves to hold pace from the first kilometre to the last, not just the opening few. Better endurance, better recovery. Better recovery, better performance across a full day of testing and across the weeks it takes to get through a selection course.

Ultra marathon and mountaineering demand exactly what selection demands: sustained movement under load, over time, when you are already tired. That is the background I bring to your training.

95% of my athletes make it through on their first attempt. The 5% who do not, make it on their second. When my athletes pass SFET, the Army’s own PTIs ask what they did in training. That is the standard we build here.

Two ways to train with me, depending on your timeline and selection date.

Premium Coaching: $350 per 4 weeks. Full 1:1. Weekly TrainingPeaks programming, monthly progress calls, and a plan built around your exact SFET or ADF test date. The same system I run with elite and high-performance endurance athletes, pointed at selection.

Custom Program: $200 per 4 weeks, or $800 for the full 16-week block. A fully periodised running plan built to your selection timeline, delivered through TrainingPeaks and updated as your fitness moves. Integrated strength included. No templates.

Use the form below. Tell me your selection date, your current fitness, and which test or course you are preparing for. You will hear back within 24 hours.

  • Running built specifically for the 3.2km battle run and beep test demands
  • Pack march preparation drawn from ultra marathon and mountaineering methodology. Load carriage is a core training element, not an add-on
  • Aerobic base development that makes selection running feel manageable while others fall off pace
  • Strength training built into every block from day one
  • Progressive structure, clear benchmarks, and a structured pre-test taper
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About
Matty Abel

A 2:48 marathoner with back-to-back sub-3s at Paris (2:53) and Boston (2:56) in a single week in 2026. Northburn 100 winner and two-time course record holder. Former Nike Head Coach. Australian Sky Running World Championships representative. Athletes I’ve coached include Nedd Brockmann (1,000 miles around a track), Cam Merrick (2:21:51 marathon), Sissi Bergman (25th female at New York City Marathon), Alex Barbas (Sydney to Perth and back to Sydney), Caleb Heiner (the length of New Zealand), and Joshua Coldray (TOR 330, 330km through the Italian Alps). Over a decade coaching 1,000+ athletes across every distance. Road, trail, ultra, transcontinental, and military selection. The same rigorous approach throughout: structured periodisation, strength training built in, and a clear understanding of the why behind every session.

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