running advice

[NutFlea]

It could be wrong diet, lack of rest, poor training system, etc... but right away it sounds like overtraining. You're working HARD 6 days a week. Some professional athletes will only do that 25 weeks out of the year, and will snack on burritos for the other half. How long have you been doing that routine?

PS: I don't love the sound of that isolated body part split weight training schedule. Especially the legs being all alone. These days many like to focus on more most-of-the-body exercises...

Try taking one month off ALL of that. Do something totally different.

One idea: try high intensity interval training three days a week. Do tabata intervals as hard and fast as you can without worrying about or manipulating the scoring system like the crossfit geniuses do. Just try running almost as fast as you can for 20 seconds, then rest (walk) for 10 seconds, then repeat this 4-8 times until your distance really starts dropping off. That will take like 10 minutes out of your week, and after a couple weeks of that you might just see a difference in your original test performance...

For that month only, you can try taking 5g creatine with protein and sugar/carbs and water an hour before each workout, and then make sure to drink more sugar/carbs afterwards. This can give your muscles more oomph to meet the goal after the month.

Wow. Thank you so much for this thoughtful advice. I'm cutting/pasting this to save for further consideration.

I've been doing the running program since January. The lifting program started about a month ago. Before that, I was an avid crossfitter for about 2 years. But I started to feel like XF doesn't do enough strength work. I'm convinced that, to be an elite crossfitter, you should come to it with a lot of strength. So I wanted to go back to a more traditional strength-building routine and work towards building a higher single-rep max for key lifts like backsquats, deadlifts, and overhead presses. So, I did the 3-way split with a 3x10 rep scheme for 3 cycles, now I'm doing 3x8's for 3 cycles, working my way down to lower reps and higher weight to see how high I can go.

I'm already (I think) doing high-intensity interval training 3 times each week. I think that's why I've gotten so much faster than I was back in January.

I don't know anything about supplements. I try to watch my diet and get as much protein as possible, but I'm not methodical about it or anything. I know that's a key area for improvement, but I just can't stick with it. I did the Zone for several months and saw good results, but I just can't seem to sustain it.

 

[Loomy]

I took off this week, only ran once (a tabata sprint workout). I lifted legs once (Wednesday) and then didn't do anything leg-related since. So I go over this morning (Saturday), the day after my 41st birthday, and . . .

I DID IT!!!

It wasn't even all *that* hard. I felt relaxed and okay.

Well congrats, that was fast!!! :icon_chee

Re: supplementation... you only need something if you need something, if you know what I mean. Unless you find that you are missing something, all you need is the big three: hard work, good food, and good rest.

Really though it sounds like you do everything well. You just need to do everything well a bit less... Keep up the good work!

 

[Fwogz1]

800m repeats definitely sounds fun! Thanks for the suggestion. I'm gonna try that this week. 6x800 at 3:30? I imagine the first 3 or 4 will be no problem, but the last few will give me a challenge.

It doesn't have to to be at 3:30. I was thinking maybe start around there and try to drop like 5 seconds each one. Last one being at around 3 mins flat or faster. You could always start faster but your time wouldn't be dropping as much. Like if you started at 3 mins, doing 6 of them you might only drop 2 seconds each one. What ever pace feels comfortable to you works though. Just try to drop time with each interval. Remember you have 6 of them to do, try to make your last 2 the fastest. Something like 80% recovery between each one. mixing in long runs 6+ miles, the 800m repeats, and throw in some fast 200m workout. You should notice a increase in endurance and speed.

 

[Player2]

Congrats on making it. I'm pretty sure I would top out somewhere around the 75% mark. 5 min @ 6 min pace is hard enough without going through 25 other mins of running before that.