How To Balance Lots Of Running And Strength Training
By admin
Happy Thursday! Today is my first “scheduled” day that includes both strength training and running. The first of many.
I should also note, that while this is the first on my actual training schedule, its not my first double workouts this training session (sometimes I just can’t say no to a good boot camp class).
Which brings me to the topic on hand. I actually wrote about this very thing a few years ago (so I guess it’s a #TBT) while I was training for a half marathon, but I feel it needs to be discussed again. I can’t tell you how many times I hear from you guys in the comments that you feel one aspect of your training gets passed over for another.
Well, with me right now, that’s not possible.
Sure, I’m training for a 50K mountain trail race, but I’m also training for a kettlebell certification which requires that I preform 100 snatches in under 5 minutes. Oh and it’s just 3 weeks before the trail race. <— Smart? Sometimes that’s life.
Strength can not be avoided, my strength training can not take a backseat to running.
Basically, that means figuring how to balance my training is key right now. As it should be for everyone. Strength training is so important for runners, and really shouldn’t be avoided.
Benefits Of Strength Training For Runners
- Decrease risk of injury by strengthening muscles, joints, bones and tendons. As well as developing stabilizer muscles.
- Improve speed. By creating more strength in the legs, core and arms, you’re able to develop speed! Ever feel you can’t get that “kick” at the end of the race with the finish line in sight? The ability to sprint to this finish, has been one of the biggest improvements to my own running.
- Get your race weight. For distance running, lighter runners tend to do better. Less weight to move. Strength training increase metabolism better than cardio alone, and therefore makes it easier to get to your race weight.
- Offers a change. Running is great, I can’t live without it. But having the strength training offers more variety and keeps me from burning out.
This list can go on and on but I think you already know, strength is important. Yes?
So if you know it’s important, do you have a hard time balancing both? Or do you let one over shadow the other?
Here are a few tips to help, these are the rules that I continue to tell myself on a daily basis to keep myself in check.
The Rules For Balancing Lots Of Running And Strength Training
Grab a calendar and plan out an entire month of training.
Each day write if it’s a rest day, running day, strength day, etc. When you actually have it planned out, you ‘re more likely to follow through. And by planning a whole month (or more) in advanced it gives you something to look forward to and work towards. You’re able to see progress than if you just go week to week or day to day.
This has been how I’ve made it work this far. If I didn’t have an actual training plan that included running and strength training, I would probably have stopped training a week into it. Or just had really crappy runs.
It’s easy to make excuses and to say, “oh I’ve run 4 miles today, my legs are tired, I’m going to skip my 10 minute strength session.”
Just remind yourself that if you want to be a healthy runner and continue to run those 4, 10, 20, whatever miles, you need this. Take a breath and get it done.
It’s like stretching, we know it’s great but it’s easy to push aside. BUT DON’T!
This was a point stressed over and over again in a mountaineering book I recently finished, Alpine Training, where the authors stress that climbing alone won’t make you a better climber.
The same is true for running. If all you do is run, you’ll increase your risk of injuries, burn out, and you likely won’t see the improvements you think you deserve since you didn’t strength the muscles that would help you improve.
Total body strength training helps with that!
There will be days where it’s best to double up training.
Go for you run, and then complete your strength training all in the same day. Believe it or not, this is actually a great training tool as it helps your tired legs gain endurance (working out on tired legs), it also helps to fit everything you need into your training week.
I don’t recommend doing this for every run but 1-2 times a week should be fine assuming you’re giving your body amble time to recover.
When you’re training hard for something, it’s not about losing weight. At least it shouldn’t be. It’s about fueling your body for recovery and performance.
Give you body what it needs, balanced calories with balanced training.
If you’re starving, then eat. Focus on whole food nutrition and taking in all the essentials: proteins, fats, carbs.
My friend Lindsay, at CotterCrunch.com has some really amazing posts on nutrition for athletes. Check her out!
I am so guilty of this, before 50K training kicked off. Cooling down, stretching, massaging, those things were skipped. But now I realize how much my body requires these things.
Spending a few minutes with my foam roller is going to help blood flow and speed up recovery time so that I’m physically able to workout back to back to back days.
Don’t ignore it! Need more, here’s why foam rolling is so important!
An Example Of My Week
Really it boils down to 2 things:
Making both a priority and scheduling them.
That’s it. You have to hold yourself accountable, because, seriously it’s really easy to skip out of one thing over your preferential workout. Yes?
Lucky for me, both are equally important right now, and therefore both are forced to be balanced. I thought it might help to share my current week outline. And remember, tomorrow I’ll share my specific workouts from last week for even more help.
- Monday: Strength (Kettlebells)
- Tuesday: Run
- Wednesday: Run + #T&BWorkoutChallenge
- Thursday: Run + Strength (Kettlebells)
- Friday: Rest
- Saturday: Long Run
- Sunday: Short Run
And as for my diet? I’m done counting my calories or even thinking about them. I’m merely aiming to fill my body with high quality food when it needs it. Am I eating more? You better believe it, but I’m also working out way more than I have been for the previous 6 months (if not more).
So let me ask you…