Running and lifting schedule help

DancingMoosie

This is my lifting schedule from the last few weeks. I usually try to get in a run on Sunday. I'd like to incorporate another run during the week and increase my Sunday run. I just need help with my schedule and programming. Gym is available for lifting Monday through Thursday evenings.

MariaOLeary

If you want to add another run and increase your distance on Sundays, I think you need to adjust your lifting schedule to upper and lower on alternating days. As I suppose you already know, the muscles need time to rebuild after the lifting. You might consider Sunday Long Run, Monday Upper, Tuesday tempo run, Wednesday upper, Thursday Lower, Friday rest (if running Sat) or very short / light jog, Saturday Rest or very short/light jog (if you rested on Friday). If you want to do two lower body lifting sessions a week, then you might run on Saturday, rest sunday, lower monday, upper tuesday, lower wednesday, easy run thursday, rest friday, long run Saturday. Hope that helps or at least gives you something to think about.

The_Enginerd

Given your are constrained by the Monday through Thursday lifting schedule, a long run on Saturday would be the best day if that is feasible. Barring that, you may have to balance your lifting progress with your running desires and progress. When I was doing a similar program to you (SL 5x5 with two days a week of running), I usually did one 3 mile run during the week between lifting days and another on the weekend of 6 miles during that time. At that mileage and routine, it did not have a significant impact on my lifting.

When I starting upping my mileage to the half marathon distance and running 3-4 days a week, recovery and balancing lifting progress against running progress became an issue once I was hitting 20 miles per week and long runs in the 10+ mile range.

I think some clarification on what your running goals and what you mean by "long" run would help on the guidance.

firef1y72

My usual schedule looks like this :

Monday : 30min sprints with my PT
Shoulders and arms (shoulder press plus accessories)
Circuits

Tuesday : 30-40min interval run
30min with PT
Zumba
Chest (bench plus accessories)
Insanity and boxercise

Wednesday : every other week 30min PT
Longer run (anything up.to 10miles)
PiYo
Zumba

Thursday : 20-30min easy run
30min PT
Squats (no accessories)
Tabata
Barbell

Friday : 1hr PT
30-40min interval run
Total body conditioning
Deadlifts

Saturday : 30min easy run
Bootcamp

Sunday : 20min easy run
Rest

If I have a race on the sunday then Saturday becomes my active rest and all I do is a 20min easy run and wednesday run goes down to 30min

DancingMoosie

I guess my goal is up to 12 miles/wk. That is what I have averaged in the past that has worked, but I'm also lifting heavier now. My longer run is usually about 6 miles, but I'm not there yet. Today was run 3mi, walk .5, run .5, walk .5, run .5, walk .75. I might try just a 10-15 min jog after my lifting this week and add as I can. Another idea is to lift twice, run once one week, and then do the 10-15 min jogs after lifting 3x/wk, alternating weeks.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I wonder if a 4 day upper lower split would b more flexible for you as well. Something like PHUL possibly. You could fit the running on the day you were training upper or on a day off. I’m not a runner but I do a spin class and 2 step aerobics classes
I do

Mon upper power
Tues lower power
Weds upper then spin
Thurs lower hypertrophy
Fri upper hypertrophy
Sat step
Sunday step.

Not sure if something like that would work for your running. If been doing my cardio classes for years before I started weight training so I was already pretty adapted to them.