Balance

Balance between running and strength training has proved to be more difficult and frustrating than I ever imagined. The contributions of both to overall fitness/health are positive, so I can't really go wrong for my long term health goals with either. But from a competitive standpoint there is a trade off between the two - or at least there was for me up until recently.

When I starting running regularly just about two years ago I followed a 13-week run/walk beginners program to ease into running and racing. I was doing strength training at the same time but my focus & energy shifted toward running more and I saw some solid gains in endurance and speed. Then I shifted back to strength training....and then back to running...and the pendulum continued to swing with gains going to the activity where I put more focus, energy and time. It's like the old saying that you play like you practice - skimp on training for a race and your performance will likely suffer. Same can be said of strength training - skip sessions or fail to push yourself and you should not be surprised to see a decrease in gains and/or strength.

So fast-forward to the present. In preparing for the CGI Unite Half Marathon at Rutgers I had to put in the preparation...my focus and energy went into adding miles and building a solid base to tackle a distance I had never before ran. It was not easy and I learned along the way that I'm not a huge fan of long distance running. I far prefer races 5 miles and below - but back to my point. All of the energy I poured into running longer distance - at a sustained, steady-state pace - absolutely killed my strength training. My explosiveness, of which I didn't have a ton of to begin with, seemed totally fried. Weights I previously handled with ease crushed me and I had no power behind anything.

Much of this is my own fault - I failed to do both properly and commit energy into speed work along with the base-building miles. Some athletes can probably handle this with easy but I could not - at least not without really thinking and focusing on goals for both running and strength training.

After the Half Marathon I strongly considering ditching running completely and focusing on getting strong as an Ox. But I enjoy running - I can get out in the morning before my wife and kids are up, run for a half-hour or so and be back home to make breakfast for everyone. I enjoy races and I've started to get a little more competitive - I've never been much of a competitive athlete - even in my beloved basketball. I am pretty easygoing in life and I've usually had the same approach to sports. This is not to say I haven't gotten fired up, talked trash or made a complete ass of myself on a basketball court or some other sport....because I have.

Just after the Half and after seeing how poor my strength training performance had become I put more focus into building explosive power. Maybe I had lost focus in general or maybe I was not pushing myself hard enough - maybe the running had nothing to do with it - but concentrating my focus on week-to-week gains in weights used and thinking during each exercise/repetition to work hard and utilize perfect (for me) form has paid off. I am nearly caught up to my personal record highs for most of the big lifts - bench press, deadlift, squat, etc.

After seeing the progress in strength training I took a hard look at my running. I've basically gotten slower over the last year or so. Was I not pushing myself? Was I focused too much on base-building, long runs over speed work? Probably a combination of the two. So I set back out with a new goal - get faster. I started with a two-mile loop out & back from my house through New Brunswick and tried to beat my time each time out. Then I started adding some miles and tried beating the different mile increments. The work has already paid off in a few weeks.

Case in point - I ran the Highland Park 5K this past Sunday. Last year I ran it 28:40 but I was running along side a friend pushing at a pace that I could not sustain and had to stop and walk for a few steps. I was pretty burned out after that race. And the hills on the course killed me. This year I cruised through to a 28:20 (according to my Garmin, website time has me at 28:27) - despite some back spasms that slowed me down mid-race (poor warm up by me). Some people may look at say 'big deal, 10-20 seconds faster' but last year was not indicative of my speed or 5K pace - I was much more a 10-minute per mile runner and the pace I ran last year really knocked me out. This year was smooth.

Right now I seem to have a decent balance between the strength training and the running....hopefully it continues.