Awhile back I introduced you to an amazing mom who have transformed her body through the Fit Moms For Life DVDs. She transitioned herself from a long distance runner who was frustrated about not being able to lose her last 20 pounds, to a mom of three little kids who is now in the best shape of her life and extremely toned! Click here to read her entire story.
She has a very strong background in running, so I have asked her to share with you a running plan that can also incorporate resistance training. Karen has been interning with me the past 5 months and is now a certified trainer and will be opening up my brand new Fit Fun Bootcamp location in Waunakee! I am super excited to have her as a trainer. So if you know anyone in the Waunakee area, mark your calendars for May 3rd, the first day of outdoor bootcamp!
Incorporating Strength Training Into a Running Plan
Karen before, very active and fit, but not as toned as she would like
My name is Karen Endres and I am an avid fitness runner, track and cross country coach and currently studying to become a personal trainer. I have completed many, many distance races including a marathon. While training for long runs, I often noticed that I gained weight and did not see the muscle definition I desired and expected after logging 100′s of miles. After the birth of my third daughter in 2008, I immediately jumped back into running but was not seeing the weight loss results I desired. I then turned to strength training and burst/interval training. The results were more than expected, weight loss and five minutes off my 5K run time.
Strength training is one of the most important things you can do to enhance your running program. Whether you are training for a 5K, 10K or half-marathon by incorporating weights you will experience the following benefits:
1. Improve your race time(s).
2. Prevent injuries.
3. Help control/lose weight.
Depending on the length of race you are training for and the amount of time you have each week, I recommend adding 2-3 days of strength training to your running program. The type of strength training in Fit Moms For Life, Bootcamps and MamaTone classes will provide you with strong, long and lean muscles that will not only complement your running but take you to the next level.
Karen after 8 months of Fit Moms For Life Weight Training and Interval Training Workouts and 20 lbs lighter
Strength training will improve your race times. In my 10 years of experience as a running coach, the athletes that work on muscle and core strength have the most improvement in their performances. Stronger muscles help in many areas of running. You can execute proper running form more consistently and longer. A strong core allows you to drive your legs forward and up with more power. Using a weight training program that moves quickly through the exercises improves your overall cardio conditioning as well.
If you are only running, you will find certain muscles get very strong like your quadriceps while others stay weak such as your hamstrings. Incorporating strength training and core exercises will help you keep all muscle groups strong. This helps your performance but more importantly will help keep you injury free.
As Dustin has said many times on this blog, long distance cardio does not effectively burn fat. Strength training and running bursts/intervals increase the fat burn and therefore help you to maintain or lose weight while training for a run. An additional benefit is bursts/intervals help teach your muscles to react faster and turnover quickly therefore increasing your running pace. You can’t just decide to run faster, you need to teach your muscles the proper form and how to turnover.
Adding strength, core and interval/burst training will bring great results to your fitness program. Whether you are looking to race a 5K or complete at half-marathon. These elements will keep you healthy and running stronger than ever. Good luck and run hard.
Sample Workout Week
5K Training incorporating strength and core. A few things to keep in mind. To prevent injury do not add running miles too quickly. The commonly known rule of thumb is to increase your weekly mileage by no more than 10%. The running workouts below can be adjusted to fit your mileage goals for the week.
Day 1
5K Interval Ladder Run
(If using a treadmill use a slight incline 2% – 4%. If running outdoors, use a varied terrain.)
4 minute warm-up – comfortable pace where you could hold a conversation (example – 6mph)
18 minutes of 1 minute intervals (1 minute interval & 1 minute at resting pace)
1 minute @ 7
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 7.5
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 8
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 8.5
1 minute @ 6
1 minute @ 9
1 minute @ 6
Now walk the ladder back down (9, 6,8.5, 6, 8, 6, 7.5, 6, 7, 6)
2-4 minute cool-down to get you to a total mileage of 3.25
Day 2
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Day 3
20 minute Interval Run
(If using a treadmill use a slight incline 2% – 4%. If running outdoors, use a varied terrain.)
5 minute warm-up – comfortable pace where you could hold a conversation (example – 6mph)
10 minutes of 30 second intervals (30 second interval & 30 seconds at resting pace)
30 seconds @ 7.5
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 8
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 8.5
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 9
30 seconds @ 6
30 seconds @ 9.5
30 seconds @ 6
Now walk the ladder back down (9.5, 6,9, 6, 8.5, 6, 8, 6, 7.5, 6)
5 minute cool-down
Day 4
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Day 5
Hill Workout (approximate distance 5K)
1 mile warm-up
10 minutes of hills
Run up a hill hard for 30 seconds & walk or jog down
(if on a treadmill use a 10% incline and challenging speed but that you can recover in about 35 – 45 seconds)
1 mile cool-down
Day 6 (optional)
30 – 40 minutes of Strength Training & Core
Additional running workouts to rotate in.
Out and Back
Run out 1.5 miles and run the same course back to where you started by take 2 minutes off your time for the return run.
15 Second Interval
Same as the 30 second interval run but change the interval to 15 seconds. Keep the rest at 30 seconds but increase the incline and start your first interval at a faster mph.
Race Pace Training Run (3.5 to 4 mile run)
5 minute warm-up
Approximately 24 minutes
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
½ mile at your race pace
2 minute at your recovery pace
5 – 10 minute cool-down
Do you have any running questions for Karen, post your questions below!
Hey Karen! Congrats on becoming a Certified Personal Trainer and achieving your goals. You look amazing! I am very proud of you and can’t wait to attend your Boot Camp one day. Way to go!
You look fantastic Karen!
I was excited to see this because I’ve been contemplating doing CrazyLegs again this year. Unfortunately, I pulled my hamstring in July and it’s still not at 100%, so I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off or not. I’m anxious to try this running workout plan to see how my leg does. I’ll keep you posted!
Way to go Karen! You look great! Nice to see you at class this morning, it was a good one! I am going to run the Crazy Legs this year so this info will be very helpful for me. I have never run it, only walked. I don’t really care for long distance running, but I’m going for it!! So thanks for sharing and wish me luck!
Congrats and how fun to have your own bootcamp location! Bootcamp has totally improved my run. My 2.5 mile route used to take me 30 min and it was the most I could do. Now I run it in 16 min and use it as my speed route. I didn’t increase the amount of running I did to have this improvement–the difference was bootcamp (burst/strength training). bootcamp rocks for many reasons!
Karen you ROCK! Thanks to you (and you Dustin!) and your speed workout I cut almost 2 min off my PR and that was on a hilly course! Can’t wait to see how it is on a flat course! Again, you rock and look AMAZING!!!
I have a couple of general interval training questions.
(1) When interval training, should the focus be on maximizing speed in bursts, or making the rest intervals short? I.e., is it better to go really fast for 30 sec and take a 60 sec break, or keep the burst speed down so the rest interval is consistently no longer 30 sec?
(2) When using the stairmaster instead of a treadmill, is there a rule of thumb for converting mph and incline to stairmaster measurements such as level, number of floors, etc?
Thanks!
Mariyam,
Great questions! I would do both, sometimes rest longer so that you can go faster, and sometimes rest shorter and get more intervals in. Generally the more time in a workout you spend on bursts, the longer the rest periods can be.
There isn’t a rule of thumb, just go by perceived exertion. For most people once they get decently fit, they will be able to go at the highest level on the stair climber.
Dustin
This plan looks great and easy to follow, can’t wait to try it out. Thanks Dustin
I am doing a 5k this weekend and runs almost every month this summer working my way to a half marathon in Nov so this is very helpful to me:) Thank you!!
Hi Karen -
Great post. Curious, do you think your increased speed came mostly from losing 20lbs or the intervals? Also – how much did you modify your diet?
Hi Amy
I would say the majority of my speed gain came from the interval work. Fast interval work with active recovery jogs help increase your aerobic capacity and therefore allow you to run at a higher speed for a longer distance.
The weight loss and the strength training which added lean muscle were also important in the reducing my times. The stronger, leaner muscles (especially my core) help me hold my form longer and drive my legs to run more efficiently. All these combined lead me to run my fastest 5K ever.
For my diet, I changed what I was eating for breakfast. Bye, bye sugar cereal! Hello Greek Yogurt and Kashi cereal. I workout in the morning and needed to make sure I was getting some protein in for breakfast as well as reducing my sugar intake. I also really changed the types of snacks I was eating and cut out my bedtime treats. I have three young girls who are in need of calories so our dinners haven’t changed too much but I do think about portion size for myself and incorporating more vegetables.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
Karen,
I was wondering if you had any suggestions for newbies. I just started Dustin’s program (have completed 3 times of #1) would like to do some running on off days and have never run before(well… not since high school which was a while ago). I do not think I could do the above program. Also I will try your suggestion of changing breakfast and watching snacks to start the eating changes.
Thanks, Beth