Half marathoners who lift

lizafava2

Anyone else in here running any long distances this year? Have you done it while lifting?

I started my "pre-training" which means I'm increasing my weekly milage from 15ish miles to 20ish miles with a race mid-october. I have run a couple 5ks over the years; racing - and the crowds - is not really my thing, but I think a training program and a goal will help me achieve my over-all goal of running more miles, faster.

Curious what might happen to my lifting. I am guessing I will settle into a lifting plateau during the more intense weeks of training? Anyone have to stop completely? Any hope that I will continue to progress, albeit slowly?

I found a powerlifting gym with competitions and am worried that I will be torn between two goals!

arl1286

I've been trying to figure out how to balance these for a while. The best I've found is tapering my lifting to 2 days/week when I'm training for a race. Definitely not ideal.

LishieFruit89

I did a half marathon in 2012 but wasn't really lifting at the time.
I think I was just in the beginning workouts of NROLFW if I had even started it.
Since then though, I've done 3 days running, 3 days lifting. (Except when I was banned from running and had a bro split so I could drop leg day in and out as needed).

I'm training for one again now and I'm going to be lifting twice a week - I'm using the NerdFitness bodyweight routine since I'm moving. But once I'm all set again, I'm returning to SL (I ran ICF post-bro split).

I wouldn't stop lifting completely but I believe you will reach a standstill with lifting. Eventually, you have to pick which one is more important so that might mean dropping weight on your squats so you aren't dead for your runs.

smarionette

I've been lifting 2x a week and running 3x lately. I am not really seeing any major lifting gains that can't be attributed to "newb" gains. I am seeing though that I need to do more mobility work since I've worked the lifting into my routine. My next half is in September, so I'm going to start a proper running training cycle for that soon. I'll likely be lifting 3x and running 4x at that point but don't expect to see much by way of gains, just trying to hold what I have till running season ends!

katro111

When I was on my running kick in 2012 (did 2 half marathons and multiple 13+ mile training runs) my lifting didn't suffer too much. I didn't increase the weight I lifted very frequently (went up 5 to 10 pounds every month to month and a half). I would also like to mention that rest days are your friends! Take them!

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

I am in week 10 of a 12 week half marathon training program which has me running 4x/week (sometimes 3 on light weeks or at the very beginning of the program) and I was lifting 2x/week. Starting this week I decided to take the remaining 3 weeks off lifting because it was just becoming too much for me with the increase in mileage, plus I was doing one 2-a-day to ensure that I still got 2 full rest days.

Basically you can't progress at both successfully, so one has to take priority. For me, my running season is pretty much summer and fall and lifting is winter and spring. I do both year round, just the priority changes. Last year was a 10k program and I was able to successfully lift the entire program. Half marathon training is a different beast

lizafava2

Thanks everyone. I was thinking that after the race I could re-prioritize lifting. I'd rather spend more time in the gym in the winter anyway.

Right now I am lifting three times a week and running 5 times. Two of my runs are shorties though and I am not feeling like the running is too much yet. I have a 2+ year solid base of uninterrupted running so.... so far so good. I did replace one of my powerlifting days with Olympic lifting at the crossfit box. It definitely seems like it has lightened my load, so to speak. I will just try to pay attention to my body and scale back as needed.

Maybe I'll actually lose some weight! haha. I realize that a lot of people gain weight when they are training for longer races. But who knows. My body seems to have its own ideas about things.