Weekly Running Chat, March 4

Monday, March 05, 2012 · Mike Davis

Running Chat March 4, 2012

It’s Sunday evening and I just got home from the base where I worked for a good part of the day. I was able to run this morning before going in and completed my long run for the week. Not pretty, but I live for another week! Unfortunately my middle toe looks pretty bad and could make the days ahead quite difficult. The idea that a toe could affect my training is frustrating and unthinkable.

I’m going to discuss one of my favorite subjects this week and it will not be running. While running is a great way to stay in shape and burn some calories, a well-rounded daily diet along with strength training are all equally as important. More than ever people are going to gyms and doing cardio type exercise, but that’s not enough. Dropping weight does happen when we reduce our caloric intake and increase our cardio, but if we leave out strength training, will work against us in multiple ways.

The first way omitting strength training from your routine will affect you is the weight you lose initially is muscle mass. People get excited when they see the scale indicate a drop in weight as a result of their diet and running, however chances are those first pounds that dropped were muscle. Some might say; I’ll take whatever weight lose I can get! You might even get down to that goal weight using this method and many people do. What follows the frustrating part, the weight comes back despite a large increase in calories. It doesn’t make sense! Well, you first depleted your muscle mass and then body fat came down after, but what do you need to burn the calories that you are now taking in? You guessed it; you need that muscle mass that jumped ship first. Without it, even a reasonable diet won’t keep the weight off.

The second result of ignoring strength training is you end up looking like my friend Bill. Bill has run a bunch of marathons, but looks like he’s lacking any muscles. Meanwhile Bill battles injuries and running efficiently. As I have discussed numerous times, building a strong core, will enable you do maintain your running gate (form) as your body begins to tire. As we do any type of cardio, especially running, we are usually okay for the first 5 or 6 miles, but then as we tire, our core if not strong will alter how we run. Sometimes all it takes is a slight change to our running gate and bang; we are suddenly struggling with an IT Band issue or something worse. Then we work on the IT Band and it gets better, only to have it come back because we didn’t solve the real problem, our core.

A good balance of cardio (running) and strength training will pay huge dividends with weight control and healthy running. Ideally, if you are doing cardio regularly, you will do at least 2-30 minute sessions a week of strength training. If you aren’t running regularly, try and get 3-30 minutes sessions of strength training in a week. I have created a monthly strength training plan on our website and I believe it should work for most anyone. If you would like something more fitted for you, please just let me know. Even if you only do some pushups three times a week, that would be something. Get in a routine and have fun with it!

Mike