Starting strength and a marathon - is it one or the other

floggg

Ok. I have been doing SS for the last few months, and made decent progress despite a few stop starts for various reasons. I am enjoying it, and feel i still have a bit to go before i need to move on to something new.

it has always been a goal of mine to do a marathon. I had thought i would put it off for a year or two, and concentrate on weights, but now my sister is trying to persaude me to give the marathon a go. Although i will be cutting it short in terms of preparation time, i think i can still give it a good shot.

However i don't necessarily want to give up on SS, and def don't want to give up on weight training while doing the marathon. Are the two compatible? Is there any point trying to do both, or should i pick one and go with it.

Also, i had been in fat loss mode for over a year before starting SS. I made good progress, but was finding it tough to lose the last bit, so decided to give it a break for a few months while doing SS and just focus on getting my lifts up. While i was comfortable with putting a bit of fat back on, i have now reached the limit of what i was willing to put back on, so am going back to more of a fat loss focus regardless. So even without the marathon, is my SS progress going to suffer anyway?

Should i give both a go and just really keep the protein intake high, or could i maybe take a break from SS or rest of summer and just do maintenance program on weights, or just pick on or the other?

Sorry, thats a bit rambly, but i hope it makes sense.

Will Heffernan

floggg wrote: »

Ok. I have been doing SS for the last few months, and made decent progress despite a few stop starts for various reasons. I am enjoying it, and feel i still have a bit to go before i need to move on to something new.

it has always been a goal of mine to do a marathon. I had thought i would put it off for a year or two, and concentrate on weights, but now my sister is trying to persaude me to give the marathon a go. Although i will be cutting it short in terms of preparation time, i think i can still give it a good shot.

However i don't necessarily want to give up on SS, and def don't want to give up on weight training while doing the marathon. Are the two compatible? Is there any point trying to do both, or should i pick one and go with it.

Also, i had been in fat loss mode for over a year before starting SS. I made good progress, but was finding it tough to lose the last bit, so decided to give it a break for a few months while doing SS and just focus on getting my lifts up. While i was comfortable with putting a bit of fat back on, i have now reached the limit of what i was willing to put back on, so am going back to more of a fat loss focus regardless. So even without the marathon, is my SS progress going to suffer anyway?

Should i give both a go and just really keep the protein intake high, or could i maybe take a break from SS or rest of summer and just do maintenance program on weights, or just pick on or the other?

Sorry, thats a bit rambly, but i hope it makes sense.

This is completely dependent on what time you want to run the marathon in? Anyone can finish a marathon so if you want to just do it for the craic then there's no problem in continuing your weight training. Continue what you are doing...add some more running...your weights progress might be hindered slightly but who cares...do your running training...you'll get a little leaner and then through your efforts back into your weight training when you are done.

Burkatron

Flogg,I honestly dont know the answer to this myself but Im in a similar situation with a triathlon & then the Dublin Marathon & strength training! I started triathlon training about 3 months ago & for the 1st month I tried to keep up heavy lifting but after 3 weeks I was fooked! Im just sticking to a maintenance weights programme twice a week & feel much better for it! Other people mightve had different more positive experiences/results with Strength training & endurance but I cant see how!

floggg

Will Heffernan wrote: »

This is completely dependent on what time you want to run the marathon in? Anyone can finish a marathon so if you want to just do it for the craic then there's no problem in continuing your weight training. Continue what you are doing...add some more running...your weights progress might be hindered slightly but who cares...do your running training...you'll get a little leaner and then through your efforts back into your weight training when you are done.

Was hoping you would chime in.

I obviously don't expect to be up at the front of the pack with Declan Moffett and the boys, but would like to do a decent time. Definitely sub-4 hours anyway. My 10k PB is 42 mins, so i wouldn't consider myself slow (although i'm not saying i am fast either).

Will Heffernan

Burkatron wrote: »

Flogg,I honestly dont know the answer to this myself but Im in a similar situation with a triathlon & then the Dublin Marathon & strength training! I started triathlon training about 3 months ago & for the 1st month I tried to keep up heavy lifting but after 3 weeks I was fooked! Im just sticking to a maintenance weights programme twice a week & feel much better for it! Other people mightve had different more positive experiences/results with Strength training & endurance but I cant see how!

This is pretty common and it just becomes a training structure issue more than anything else...once you have the structure right you just need to manipulate your volume.

Will Heffernan

floggg wrote: »

Was hoping you would chime in.

I'm just skiving off work...one of the benefits of being self employed.

I obviously don't expect to be up at the front of the pack with Declan Moffett and the boys, but would like to do a decent time. Definitely sub-4 hours anyway. My 10k PB is 42 mins, so i wouldn't consider myself slow (although i'm not saying i am fast either).

Start a thread or send me a link to your training log and I'd be happy to help you structure your training to accommodate all your training.

floggg

Will Heffernan wrote: »

I'm just skiving off work...one of the benefits of being self employed.


Start a thread or send me a link to your training log and I'd be happy to help you structure your training to accommodate all your training.

I pm'd you there. Thanks for the input.