SL5x5 and Half Marathon training at the same time?

bwright9752

I just started training for a half marathon this week. The race is on Sept 8. I also started Stronglifts 5x5s about 3 weeks ago. Am I crazy to be doing both at the same time?

Here's my recent fitness experience.
For 4 years until I started the SL5x5 I was doing P90X or P90X2 5 mornings a week, running 3x week at lunchtime and spinning 2x week at lunchtime. I have replaced the "lifting" P90X2 workouts with the SL5x5 so my schedule looks like this...
Mon 7am SL5x5 noon 4.5 miles on treadmill
Tues 7am P90X2 Plyo noon Spin Class 45 mins
Wed 7am SL 5x5 Noon 4.5 miles on treadmill
Thur 7am P90X2 Core Noon Spin Class 45 mins
Fri 7am SL5x5 Noon 4.5 mile on treadmill
Sat and Sunday - Usually chasing my kids around the local soccer and dance circuit and letting my body recover.

My thoughts would be to continue this basic plan with the addition of light recovery run on Sats and a long run (starting at 60 mins and working up to 120 mins over the next 10 weeks) on Sundays.

I'm wondering if I'd be better off focusing my lifting on the upper body and letting the legs recover for the running.

RunHardBeStrong

In for the replies. I just signed up for my first half this morning, I am also following SL 5x5 and had the same questions. I've read you should only strength train twice a week, lifting lower weights, higher reps when training for longer distance runs but I just don't know if I can give up the heavy weights for 3 months....

heysarge13

This makes 3 of us with the same question.... I did SL 5X5 a couple years ago and had great results with it. However at the time I was only concerned with running 2-3 miles. But know I'm preparing for a half marathon and still want to strength train, but don't want to over due it.

cwolfman13

When the weights truly get heavy, it's going to be a problem. I was doing Starting Strength for quite awhile and got to the point where I really couldn't do much more than walk for my cardio. I would try to run/jog, but it was just miserable and my times just sucked. I was actually ok with that for awhile because I really wanted to focus in on my strength training and making those linear gains. Ultimately I got to the point where I just couldn't recover from squatting every workout and trading off dead-lifts and rows every other workout...my legs just couldn't recover. Mind you this was a good 6-7 months into the program.

I recently switched over to Wendler's 5/3/1. My strength gains are going to be much slower, but I'm a lot more fresh these days and have my running legs back. It works well for my current fitness goals as I am training for a Goruck and there's no way in hell I could train for a Goruck and do Starting Strength at the same time...5/3/1 is perfect right now because I get the one big, heavy lift in and do whatever I want assistance wise and can tailor that assistance work to training for Goruck.

You might be ok in the short run, but you will ultimately run into issues with your legs. Strong Lifts and Starting Strength are excellent programs for optimizing strength, but it's really hard to train for much else when you're doing those programs as designed.

rick_po

When the weights truly get heavy, it's going to be a problem. I was doing Starting Strength for quite awhile and got to the point where I really couldn't do much more than walk for my cardio. I would try to run/jog, but it was just miserable and my times just sucked. I was actually ok with that for awhile because I really wanted to focus in on my strength training and making those linear gains. Ultimately I got to the point where I just couldn't recover from squatting every workout and trading off dead-lifts and rows every other workout...my legs just couldn't recover. Mind you this was a good 6-7 months into the program.

This was my experience too. I was able to do cardio on my off days for a few months, and then I felt like I just crashed. And then I managed to not learn from my mistake, and when I started working out again, I burned myself out again.

The third time, I kept the cardio light on my off days, and that worked much better. If I was training for a half marathon, I think I would cut my strength program back to 2 a week. Or at the very least, be prepared to cut back if I started to feel over-trained.

It's hard for me to imagine doing Stronglifts and running 5 miles on the same day. But if you can do it, I tip my hat to you, man.

Azdak

Your body can adapt to a lot of different things, so I would not say no off the bat. You can always cut back the intensity if you find the lifting interfering with the running. You will notice it at first because it's something new so don't make a judgement after just a week or so. Overall, I think strength training enhances distance running performance for the average person, although I don't know that Stronglifts is the best complementary program. .

I mainly wanted to disabuse people of this idea that "running takes care of the lower body". No. Running is not a substitute for resistance training. Yes, it "works" the legs, but in a completely different way.

Let me also add that 2x a week for resistance training is plenty.