Heavy lifting while half marathon training - foolish?

GiddyupTim wrote: »

rybo wrote: »

Yes you can. People do it all the time. Rest becomes more important, nutrition becomes more important, and scheduling. I assume you are just looking to finish & not set a blazing speed?

No,
You are going to find it really hard to get in the running mileage you need if you are trying to lift heavy three -- even just two -- times per week. You won't have enough time for recovery.
You can try it for a couple of weeks if you want. I think you'll see. Those runs the day after you lift will be really hard, really slow, and really miserable. And, after a couple of weeks, you will stop progressing in one activity or the other. Maybe both.
PS See the other comments above. Almost every one says: 'Yeah, I've done it. But I cut way back on my lifting' or 'Sure, but I stopped doing legs while I was training for my race.'

This is such a false hood. Just because many people fail at it, doesn't mean it can't successfully be done. Rest, recovery & schedule are very important. I'm not saying you can run a huge volume & soul crushing lifting program, but you can continue to lift heavy and progress both avenues. Please look up people like Alex Viada, Pete Stables, and "hybrid" athletes. Now that people have opened their mind to concurrent training there are lots of people who successfully do both.

Oh, boy.
We have been through this before.

I Crossfit. So, sure, I am well aware that in the 2016 Games Matt Frazier ran almost a six-minute-mile pace in winning the ~10k trail run event. He's an Olympic lifter by training.
But all that says is that lifters can run and that guy is in incredible shape and he trains four hours every day, with an optimal diet.
It does not say that someone can comfortably go from not being able to run 13 miles to running 13 miles while also improving their lifts.
Oh, by the way, he worked with an elite running coach three times a week during his training -- and even he admits your lifts suffer a bit with cardio training, if the two are not extremely well spaced from each other.

Please look up Pete Stables. He recommends running only twice a week for people who are lifting heavy -- and one of those runs he says should be only a 30 minute run.
That kind of training might prepare you for run-walking a half marathon. But it will not prepare you for any respectable finish in a race that long.

And, look at any "strength training" recommendations from Runner's World or from Alberto Salazar, the proselyte of cross training and strength for runners. You simply will not find anyone recommending that a runner do a Starting Strength/Stronglifts 5x5/bodybuilding type of program. Their programs are dumbbells, cables, and bodyweight exercises. And, they tend to recommend doing those once, maybe twice, a week, and running at least four.
I'm not saying you won't get a bit stronger doing that -- if you are really lacking in strength to begin with. But not many weight lifters would consider that "weight lifting" or "strength training."

I think if you are training for a race, you should follow the advice of the running experts.
Run hills or stairs, and do out-and-out sprint intervals, to try to strengthen your legs.
Do v-sits and push-ups and pull-ups and yoga if you want to work your upper body. (Regarding yoga, it has been shown in controlled experiment that isometric exercises actually strengthen a muscle throughout the range of motion, though you hold the muscle in a static position throughout each exercise.)

Or, maybe better yet, check out "Coach Jay Johnson's" website and/or YouTube channel. He's a former middle distance coach for the University of Colorado, Boulder, and he has all kinds of strength training routines for runners, including an eight-week, general strength progression program and a "core H" routine, that is about 15 minutes of v-sits with flutter kicks and supermans and heel-elbows prop-ups, etc. It's pretty hard. No. It is very hard, actually.

But squats, deadlifts, and bench press? No. It takes too much out of you, and your legs are heavy and slow when you try to run the next day, or later that day.

There is a reason why, when people lift, they generally take a day off between doing the same lifts again. It's because when you lift, and you lift heavy, those muscles need time to recover and repair.

PS Again, I must object to the Jill Coleman program. She admits that she was already really strong before she started training to run, and she only lifted two days a week when she was training to run. One day legs. One day upper body. I can guarantee her lifts were not improving. She was simply maintaining.
Plus, she ran a 1:30 half-marathon on only three-days-a-week of training. Not many of us could do that. (She says she was already doing much interval work before she started running training, so she had a substantial base.)