Re: the weight lifting marathon runner, I spent many a year involved with online runners where we studied everyone’s training, race performances, etc. Her improvement from race #1 to #2 was outstanding. No doubt weight lifting helped a great deal but I also noticed…
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her listed paces don’t match her race time. If you take the slowest (7:30x18 + 8:00x5 + 8:40x3.2) you come up 4 minutes short of her time. Not huge, but it still…
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she says that her first marathon result was disappointing. I’d like to know what her training was and what went wrong during the race. It sounds like she was better runner in the beginning than the initial time indicated.
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she sounds like she changed a lot of variables from race #1 to #2. It sounds like she added a significant amount of speedwork and miles in addition to the weight training. She also lost 7 pounds which generally assumes an improvement of 2 sec/mile per pound. Over a marathon, that’s several minutes. All of those factors likely played a part in the improvement.
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if her beginning paces are correct, she had a ~10 min positive split. That’s still a painful marathon. I thought mine with 8 min positive splits were death marches! Her first mile < 7:00 was probably the key to that. Even if it felt easy, she probably reduced her glycogen stores too much causing a crash at the end. Meaning, she still has a faster race in her now at her current level of conditioning.
Bottom line though, is she showed phenomenal improvement from race #1 to race #2 and I am sure that the lifting helped a great deal. While it’s true that elite runners don’t want huge upper bodies, or muscles in general, she is not an elite runner. It is recognized by most that one needs to balance strength (and flexibility) with weight. It’s similar to the 2 sec drop per mile per pound of body weight. . At some point losing weight hinders performance. At some point building large muscles hinders performance, but you need some strength and muscle to help get you over the finish line. And most women aren’t going to develop significant bulk that will slow them down compared to other factors.
Done with the workout and short nap. For the time being, I think I will do the run to gym/stairmonster/run home/lift in shed combo on Saturday. When I got there, I thought I was the only person on the floor. There wound up being two others in hide-y holes. I definitely prefer that.
Workout was decent for the weather. Run to gym was pretty good. Stairmonster 40 min was strong. Run home was mixed. I ran the whole way but I was 30 sec slower than when I walked 1 min. (Shrug) video was total body Barre Blend. Well… I can say that I felt it more in my butt, legs and shoulders than the last time, but nobody will EVER see me do this in public. I look like an idiot. And I can’t get my arms to sync with my legs. If someone saw me they might mistake me for a deranged lunatic.
But it’s the season when I sweat so much I sweat through my fuel belt and through my waterproof otter box phone case. I have to take it apart and dry it out after my workouts. Gross.
@ClassicMom98
I don’t know how you and other hot weather cardio people do it.
I really really dislike hot weather!
I bow to you all!
As well as I ran the last couple Saturdays for my long runs, today was the opposite. Weather was just brutal and I was really wishing I wasn’t out there. 10.1 miles with the group, except I was completely by myself. Saw some of them briefly at the turnaround. Shade helped- but there were some stretches without shade. I’m pretty wiped out. It hasn’t been a good running week, but that’s how running goes!
@ClassicMom98 clearly you have a lot of running knowledge! I guess being submerged in that world does that to you. What has been your preference over time - shorter runs or the longer fun world?
I agree that strength training is beneficial for runners. For that marathoner, I think the increase in mileage and specific speedwork helped a lot, too. She sounds like she changed a lot of things. The slower first marathon was done on pretty low mileage, it seems. She certainly did go out too fast!
Ran 8 miles today with a very small group (3 of us). Very hot and humid. My small group is training for a virtual half at the end of September.
@FallGirl my body prefer to run pretty fast for long periods of time. I have no short speed. That being said, I hate(d) long runs. I preferred my speed work days over long slow blah runs. In the day, I created my own marathon program that now is pretty similar to the Hanson’s method - only I did it first. 
I never ran more than 15-17 miles for a long run, but I did them every Friday morning and faster than LSD. No special prep or anything for them. Just a regular workout. I also find that race day pacing is just as (if not more) important than ones training plan. Going out even 30 sec per mile faster than your optimal race pace for one mile can be devastating at the end. That’s why I hesitate anyone running with pacers. Someone who can run a 2:45 marathon and is pacing a 3:10 can run 1-3 miles too fast and be fine since a 3:10 is easy for them. The rest of the group not so much.
@Midwest67 I get through by whining, complaining, and being a to be around for several months. This is just a not time in our household. H is just as bad as me, if not worse because he hates having the summers off and feels like he’s encased in a tomb.
I had a lot of fun listening to Paul Horn’s podcast (Horn Strength & Conditioning) talk with his assistant coach about how much they hate strength training now that they are advanced lifters.
Refreshing honesty, haha!
Earlier this month, I scored a very nice ruched Athleta tank off eBay, wore It today for the first time to train, and felt great in something new & different. Hit all my lifts this week with no fails.
Note to self: it’s perfectly fine AND expected to fail reps.
My short term goal is to try spreading out my protein intake in smaller doses throughout the day. And to be sure I’m not running on coffee instead of water. A couple days last week I was bone tired. Went to pee and uh-oh, not clear. I drank some sparkling water and perked up about an hour later.
@ClassicMom98 I’ve added Nasocort to my Claritin routine, and I think it’s made a positive difference. Thank you for mentioning it months back. It’s just the nudge I needed.
I biked with the husband for 40 miles this morning into early afternoon. It was HOT at the end, but the first 28 miles were fine.
Supposed to do the 28 miles with a friend tomorrow. We are meeting at 7:30, which is early for me, but gotta get it done before it gets too hot.
Take car @1214mom. This heat is brutal!
Heat index over 100 degrees this week. My treadmill will be busy.
3 not-so-fun running miles this morning. The heat and humidity. Not complaining but seriously it felt like someone stuck me in an oven and said, “ok, now run for 30ish minutes”!!!
Treated myself gently this morning after the rough running week I’ve had. Went over to the path for shade and mainly flatness and was strict with myself on the low heart rate protocol. That allowed me to not be as trashed at the end of the 4.5 mile run. 41 mile week and 82.9% finished with the Race Across Tennessee as of last night. We are going to have heat index of 105 this afternoon.
I did get over to the pool mid-day yesterday (grabbed a slot on the sign up) and floated around awhile.
Easy day here. Best description I’ve read is that it is like trying to run in a dryer full of wet towels - and I’ll add carrying a 200 pound gorilla on my back while trying to breathe through a straw. The other issue that it’s not just going to be a heat index of 105-110, it’s that the heat index will still be 95-100 at 9pm. There’s no break from the nastiness. Even when it’s dark and technically cooler, you can’t get a good breath.
Enough whining for the day. Back to my cleaning… for some reason it doesn’t feel too awful. I just do the minimum most weeks in the summer.
I am feeling really lucky here that our weather has been quite cool and pleasant all week. That makes everything so much easier! I feel for all of you in the heat and humidity.
Since we’ve been staying home, I am exercising more than I usually would. There aren’t as many other things to do. If I happen to have a scheduling conflict with an exercise class I would take, I can just fit in a workout later.
I just did two days in a row that involved a lot of high intensity interval work on the rowing machine. I don’t think it is ideal to have those two days in a row but that’s how it worked out and both workouts were interesting and challenging.
So today I will probably just take today as a rest day aside from walking the dog (done already) and a bit of core and stretching.
I am definitely more aerobically fit than I was last year and stronger, but I’m still having some issues with my elbow if I try doing more strength work.
@orangepurple
I have been living with elbow tendonitis (golfer’s elbow) for months and months.
It’s very annoying. Sometimes it wakes me at night! Gah!
I had one strength coach tell me in a DM IG convo that he thinks sometimes it takes time for the connective tissue to “catch up” with the increased strength of the musculature — in older people.
I had another strength coach, who is also a practicing PT, tell me that usually it’s possible to find some combo of intensity and volume that will not increase the aggravation. And usually, masters lifters need intensity (heavy weights) but do not tolerate too much volume (lots of reps).
Where’s that magic wand to make the pain go away? Mine is in a pill form, right now. Thank you, Advil. Please be good to my stomach.
We were on our way from the parking lot at 7:38 this morning, for the 28ish mile bike ride. We debated stopping for a bagel, but we didn’t want to be riding in any more heat than we had to, so we skipped it.
This afternoon husband and I had the first crabs we’ve had for the season.
We knowingly way over did it, getting 1/2 a bushel for the two of us, but we picked what we didn’t eat and now we can have some delicacy either tonight or most likely tomorrow.
Would have been a fun social distancing thing, but it’s too hot to be outside, so we ate them at our kitchen table.
The weather here has been pleasant, around 80-ish +/-.
I love volume. Intensity not so much. ?
Saturday I did a combo of muscleups, volume front squats and rowing. Then did a 3x10 of glute ham raises. For strength, I worked to a heavy triple on the bench press. And then finished with 50 weighted GHD sit-ups and a 1.5 mile run.
Today was active recovery and accessories day. I opened with a 1 mile treadmill run. I worked on barbell rows and more glute ham raises. Then rowed 2,000 meters followed by “midline” work of single DB weighted OH lunges and L-sits using the parallettes. I finished with a 1 mile treadmill run.
In terms of nutrition, I very rarely have red meat, but last night I got an 8 oz steak for dinner, except I only ate 1/2 last night, so I could make my vege scramble today, after my workout, with the remaining portion of steak. Yum! ?
Checking in. I’ve been consistent this week–run an hour every other day, walk on the off days for an hour, and get at least a couple of days of strength/core in. I’m grateful for the chance to see mileage times SLOWLY decrease. Bit by bit!
Very nice @illneversaynever ! A full hour a day is a good solid commitment!