REAL Mini Marathon Training

Marathon training

Today, I’m pissed off.

How can I be pissed, you ask?  I’m two days out from vacation.  I shouldn’t have a care in the world!

Today, all I wanted to do was write my Random Friday blog post, as I had about 8-10 great points to throw in there.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Today, I’m going to talk about how silly some people make strength training out to be for endurance athletes.

It all started yesterday, as I was reading a piece in the Indy Star about how people train to prep for the Indy Mini marathon.  As I was reading the piece, I came across this photo:

DB Upright Row on a Physioball (sorry I can’t put it in here directly)

Pretty silly, isn’t it?

But now, that’s how 1/2 the people who run the Indy mini-marathon feel they need to lift weights!  ‘Cause after all, if it’s in the newspaper, it must be right!

At IFAST, we typically have at least a 1/2 dozen people every year who run the Indy mini.  I could tell you about Rich, who does step-ups with a 40# X-vest on for 2 series of 20 minutes to help build his aerobic and endurance capacity.  The guy leaves our gym in a puddle of sweat after every workout, and I know he’s going to have a great time this year.

I could tell you about Brian, who 8 months ago came to me after being in pain for 8 YEARS.  He couldn’t so much as run around the block without hip pain, let alone run 13.1 miles.  After several months of dedicated and specific strength training, he’s more stable and running anywhere from 25-30 miles a week to prepare.

Or I could tell you about Josh, who has lost 30+ pounds the last year by performing metabolic strength training twice per week, running, and cleaning up his diet.

But this doesn’t look cool.  This doesn’t make for a sexy story.  Someone doing a ridiculous exercise on a Bosu ball, that’s what makes the print.

I’m sorry guys, but it pisses me off.  When you train real people and get real results, you start to see through the smoke and mirrors.

Hopefully some day, people will realize that strength training should actually be used to develop strength.  After working with more than a handful of endurance athletes over the past 10 years, I can tell you with the utmost conviction that many of them need it.

They may not need 1-RM’s and maximal effort work, but some intelligent strength training can go a long way to helping endurance athletes not only perform better, but stay healthy and injury-free as well.

I hope some day, the mass media will catch on to this fact.

Stay strong

MR


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