Weight Training

RunningActor

So apparently I've been lifting wrong for a distance runner. I always thought the consensus was high reps/low-weight but this article: http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/how-strength-training-ups-masters-marathoners-economy (sorry don't know how to do a link on here yet.

featured on Runnersworld.com (they link to the actual study there) indicates that this might not be optimum for improving my running economy.

How do you folks supplement your running with weight training, and is this study going to change it?

WhataBroad

I use low rep/heavy weight... I like to be shaking on the 6th rep

ETA: of course 'heavy' is relative to your own abilities

barrpc

I have always done enough weight to be able to only do 10 or 12 reps, and by the last rep I am almost at failure. This has helped me lose body fat. I only lift 2 times a week, but I am 52 years old so it takes a bit longer to recover.

Don't take RW too seriously. I have read that mag since I was 22 years old. Some of the workouts they post are geared only toward naturally talented runners. There is no way I could do half the workouts that they have posted at times. I do much better listening to my body and gradually increasing load, weights or running. That has kept me happy with my results.

GiddyupTim

I vary my training a bit, so I might not be representative. But mostly, I lift heavy -- weight that I can only do for 5-8 reps, 5 sets (plus lighter weight warm-up sets), and about 3-4 exercises.
I almost always do a set of squats or of deadlifts. But I rarely, if ever, do both on the same day. (It's too much; I don't do either as well, and I worry about hurting myself when I am weak from the first 5 sets of one or the other.)
I am not going to stop lifting because I like it. But, with all that said, I find it tends to interfere with my running more than it helps. The days I lift are days I do not run. Then, the day after I lift, my legs are spent and I run slower.
That means, if I run slower two days, and I don't run two days, I only have three days a week when I could be running hard and well. And, two of those days are supposed to be rest days. (I do one day a week, generally.)
It doesn't leave me much time for good running.
I think that is where the lighter lifting has an advantage. You can do some light weights-high reps on days you run, sometimes. Also, there is less recovery, so you can run the next day.
I am a little older, and I need the lifting days to spare myself from some of the pounding of running, right now at least. But, I mostly think this new emphasis on cross training is oversold.