Advice please from those who run

[NeedToAskPlease]

Hi.

Just after some insight/advice to what others do for strength workouts and how you structure your week with the exercise.

I currently plod (l can't call it running as I'm so slow!) 3 times a week in the morning on my days off - 2 x 10k and parkrun.

I swim and do a Les Mills Combat class once a week before work. I then do a weights session on a Sunday morning.

I know l need to do strength training to complement my running and l asked a PT to devise a plan for me. He wanted me to give up some cardio and concentrate on weights which l refused as that's not what l want to do.

My problem is, the workout I'm doing is absolutely killing my legs and preventing me from running. On Monday l could barely move from the pain my glutes and hamstrings were in.

My routine is:
Leg raises x 34
Bench chest press with 7.5kg dumbells x 36
Situp using 5kg weight on chest x 30
Calf raises with 20k bar on back x 45
30kg deadlifts x 36
30kg squats x 36
Abduction/adduction 27kg x 42 for both
Assisted pullups x 36

These are broken down into 3 sets

My week generally looks like this:

Monday - 10k
Tuesday - swim and work
Weds - 10k
Thursday - Combat and work
Friday - work
Saturday - parkrun
Sunday - weights session

I'm just wondering if I'm using too heavier weights and if it's necessary for me to do so.

Reduce the volume on the squats if DOMS are severe in your legs, try 3 sets of 8.

Usually your deadlift weight would be more than your squat.

Hard to advise exactly though without knowing what RPE you're currently working at etc.

Should add, ultimately as time goes on and you get used to that workout the DOMS will reduce and dissappear, but you do need rest days.

If your primary motivation for doing weights is to prevent injury I think you need to be doing more single sided exercises (e.g. split squats, single leg deadlifts) which are really useful for building running specific strength. James Dunne has some great recommendations aimed specifically at runners.

You might also find these podcasts useful on strength and injury prevention:

https://strengthrunning.com/2020/04/dr-victoria-sekely-run-more-stay-healthy/
https://app.runsmarter.online/audio

Generally DOMS does diminish with practice - I find it's at its worst when I'm increasing weights significantly or adding in a new move (adding hack squats definitely stopped me running for a few days!) so I try to schedule a lighter load running week if I know I'm at higher DOMS risk, knowing that in subsequent weeks I can pick up the running load again.

Spreading your strength work across multiple sessions a week should also help with reducing DOMS I also find it's easier to fit in strength around running if I do separate lower and upper body days - I tend to do lower body later on the same day as my runs and then upper body the following day so my legs can rest.

Finally consider volume/intensity - it looks like you're currently in a 10-12 rep range which is OK but in the long term you might do better in lower rep ranges with heavier weights (though don't rush this as getting used to heavier weights takes time) which should help build power rather than endurance. There was a school of thought that runners and other endurance athletes should do higher rep ranges to build muscle endurance, but current thinking is moving towards lower rep ranges to boost power, complementing the running which will already be building your endurance. Stacey Sims is very strong on the importance of women lifting heavy weights.

At the moment, the programme looks bitty - and that you're not doing any single activity with enough focus or structure to see improvement. I'd recommend replacing swim and combat with runs, and splitting up the mammoth weights session into 2 or 3 smaller sessions. You could be doing shorter runs - going out for 90mins or so is quite hard work, so you could replace one of these sessions with a shorter and more targeted intervals or hill-training session. I think it would also be beneficial to do a daily mobility routine: something like The Dynamic Runner. This will help ease the stiffness after weights.

My routine looks like this:

20-mins stretching/mobility every morning

Monday: weights (I do a 1 hr kettlebells class); short 4km run to aid mobility in legs after weights
Tuesday: 50-min intervals or hill-training run (this consists of 10-min warm up, 30 mins of intervals, 10-min cool down)
Wednesday: weights and short 4km recovery run
Thursday: long slow trail run (anything from 10km to 30km, depending on what I'm training for)
Friday: short recovery run
Saturday: 8-10km tempo run
Sunday: rest

HTH

I run, lift weights and do a lot of yoga. My weekly routine looks something like this...

Monday: recovery run/ yoga
Tuesday: medium distance run/yoga
Wednesday: leg day at gym. Mainly deadlifts and squats (heavy weights)
Thursday: recovery run
Friday: upper body day at gym/yoga
Saturday: speed/tempo run
Sunday: long run

Obviously the mileage increases if I'm in marathon training but usually would settle at 25-30 miles a week.

Each weights session is shorter and more focused than yours but also much heavier. My legs are ruined after leg day, hence why I put it on a Wednesday so I'm recovered by the tougher runs of the weekend.

In my view your sessions aren't focused enough to be driving improvements, but the timing of things at the moment is leaving you fatigued. It's unlikely that those weights are too heavy; more likely that you're not allowing recovery time between your Sunday weights and Monday jog.