“Prolonged intense exercise causes excessive oxidative stress, which basically burns through the antioxidants in your system and predisposes you to problems.”
According to Dr James O’keefe , all that running that you are doing isn’t all that great for you or your health. He goes on to say “Exercise may be the most important component of a healthy lifestyle, but like any powerful drug you’ve got to get the dose right“.
So, what does that mean for you? How does training mix in with running while preparing for Marathon season? It’s a long summer with many miles of pavement that will punish those poor legs of yours.
No reason to burn out or set yourself up for injury before you even get started. Your health and longevity should always be your biggest concern.
The main thing to keep in mind while training is to not overdue it. The easiest way to overdo it? Run MORE THEN 3 DAYS A WEEK while training/preparing.
YES, you heard it right, only run 3 days a week. Supplement the other 2 days with some type of HIIT (which is what we will be introducing here) or a low weight/high rep full body weight routine.
what WWU says about the benefits of strength training for endurance athletes+bonus sample workout –|PDF|What exactly is HIIT?
First, lets talk about what it is.
Well, it stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Short bouts of very intense (85-95% effort) for short bouts(20-30 sec) of time, followed by short bouts of rest(20-30 sec). Sets usually include anywhere from 3-6 exercises and duration is timed(20-30 sec) rather than counting reps. Each rep should be done with maximum explosive effort to really stimulate all your muscles at once and really get that heart rate going. All exercises are done one after the other before resting 30 secs to 1 minute before starting another set. Don’t get sloppy as you tire while always maintaining attention to your posture and correct exercise form.
What are the benefits?
According to some studies by the American Council on Exercise, HIIT training can burn an average of 240-360 calories per 20 minutes of exercise vs. an average of just 300-400 cal/hour of running alone . Also, it can raise ones metabolic rate by up to 50% for 30 minutes after exercise. Since the heart can never fully adapt to the load being placed on it(due to the up and down nature of the exercises being performed), it has to work much harder then a typical runner’s would by just running alone.
INCREASED DEMAND = INCREASED PERFORMANCE
Running clients that have switched up their training have noticed huge benefits in not only how long they could run, but how much stronger they felt while running as well.
Below you will find our first workout. Benefits can be felt as soon as just the 3rd workout, so make sure to start ASAP!
-click to enlarge+download-
How do you know how to set up a routine?
In my description up above, I laid out a range of times for each exercise, as well as rest periods.
So just starting out, I recommend 20 second periods of time for each exercise in the list(30 if you are in better shape), follow each exercise with 10 seconds of rest before moving on to next exercise. Once you complete all 5 exercises from list 1x each, rest 60 seconds and repeat.
So, your homework for the week is to try only running 3 days a week, and completing this workout 2 times and take a full 2 days of rest.
Since nothing is needed except 20 minutes of your time, YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE BUT TO AT LEAST GIVE IT A TRY.
Over the next 5 weeks, I will roll out 4 more simple workouts that can be added to your running training. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of my future FREE workouts.
What are your thoughts? Anyone out there currently supplementing running with weights and/or HIIT?
Read more!