Being a runner AND strength training... How?

I run Monday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings, and I strength train Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I do other cardio Tuesdays & Sundays. I started strength training in February and running in May, and now I wouldn't want to have to give up either of them.

Like other said, just alternate your workouts. HIIT is a great way to get in strength training while bringing your heart rate up and I've found it vastly improved my running, not only speed but also endurance. I do 3 days of running and 3 of HIIT, alternating.

I would suggest to prioritize one of them. If you think of yourself primarily as a runner, then keep your strength training relatively light, focusing on lifts and exercises that will assist your running--such as hamstring and calf strengthening, and some not particularly taxing upper body work. If you want to be a lifter, then running has to be light and relatively short, so as not to interfere with recovery. I think it's a mistake to try to go all out on both running and lifting, since they have somewhat opposing requirements.

I'm doing Les Mills Pump, which is basically at home Body Pump, and running where I can. The calendar actually calls for walks of varying lengths so I run instead those days and sometimes on my rest days. The Pump calendar has 3 main strength workouts a week plus abs 2-3x a week, plenty of room for running.

As a runner, your diet will be especially crucial to your success as a lifter. You're going to have to eat a lot to offset the cals burned from running and have enough left over to build muscle.

Just do it!

bumping cuz im also curious!

I don't know the answer to your question... but I do know this... I run, and I strength train... and I like my progress... ok, that's all, carry on...

You need both, absolutely. Do a full body strength training routine 2-3 times a week, and do your lightest runs the day after you lift. You can still run 5x a week that way if you like.

PS. Nothing has made me a faster runner than when I started seriously strength training and working sprints in to my overall routine. I ran for like the last 10 years at 10min/mile, now I comfortably do long runs around 8:30 and achieved my first ever 6:52 mile....I attribute it mostly to strength training.

Bump

Thanks for all the responses! I think prioritizing is a great tip and I'm glad to know I'm on the right path. If anyone has other suggestions, let me know! I've only been a regular exerciser for about a year so I'm still a newbie.

Example days can be shifted in the week, but the intent here is to get the most out of the lifting by allowing good recovery, and not being too tired to actually lift well in the first place.
When starting you can do a bunch wrong and still see improvement, not as much as done right of course.
But you'll usually plateau faster and then no improvement to either, or very slow, compared to again doing it right.
Jack of all trades - master of none.

Sun - rest
Mon - full body heavy lifting
Tue - 30-45 min slow jog in Active Recovery HR zone - training aerobic fat-burning system, allowing recovery to lifting
Wed - 60 min run in mid-Aerobic HR zone - still training fat-burning system but closer to long race pace
Thu - upper body heavy lifting, 30 min hill sprints for lower body (5-10 min walking warmup/cooldown) - training anaerobic system and lactic acid usage
Fri - 30-45 min jog in Recovery HR zone
Sat - over 60 min jog in upper Aerobic HR zone, race pace and distance

As you get faster at lower HR, Tue/Wed/Fri distance will increase since based on time and specific HR.
Sat is the one you increase and probably go for distance needed.
Wed could also be cross training to ease the stress as weight comes off, spin class, ect. Just don't do it so hard you muscles are tired for next day's sprints. You can ruin those.
Oh, Active Recovery HR zone, as it's been known for years, got the fad name lately of being called fat-burning zone, and a fad backlash even more lately against it. It very much has it's place in a good training program. Active Recovery, using the muscles, getting blood flow and oxygen, but hopefully adding no additional load to the muscles that requires repair.

So this should allow muscles to not be tired and really lift heavy and see max strength gains, and the next day is not additional load but chance to recovery.
After all, exercise if done right tears down, it's the rest for recovery and repair with good diet that allows actually building back up again, hopefully better.

-_-

Long distance running actually is really hard on the body especially the knees and if you do marathons like biking or running your body will go catabolic at some point and start eating muscle. The reason why runners appear to have amazing upper bodies isn't the fact they run. Running may help they stay leaner because of the calorie deficit, but you can only gain a minimal amount of muscle with cardio especially on a deficit.

Resistance training sort of "burns" fat, but the better way to look at it is it preserves the muscle you do have and depending on your level of lifting experience you may gain some lean body mass while your body fat % goes down. Fat is not a good nutrient source as muscle is when the body is starving. It takes quite a lot of work to go catabolic like severe under eating and over exercise or... fasting for more than 72 hours. You don't go catabolic if you don't get your $4 protein shake in 30 minutes post workout.

What most athletes/serious enthusiasts do is rotate through seasonal training regimens. In your "racing season," when you're building up to an event or actually running events, go lighters on the strength training. In the off-season, like when the weather is cold, ramp up your strength training and do less steady-state running.

One option is to look to various military / special forces workouts because those individuals are often required to both develop strength and the capacity to run sizeable distances, often at a pretty good speed. They won't necessarily turn you into the next bodybuilding chamption or ultra marathoner, but they're pretty good if you want to develop in both areas.