What three exercises would you do in the weight room in support of your running speed and endurance (IM distance)? Please be specific, including the number of sets/reps.
I am nursing patellar tendonitis, and I am having to run pretty slowly, pretty much keeping it to the treadmill, following Dr.'s orders, etc. I am getting the aerobic workout, but I want my legs to be strong when I can finally “move out” again. (Granted, “moving out” for me is not particularly speedy).
hey monk, here’s an idea. i dont know if you’ve done this or not, but it’s definetly worth the 20$ or so to try it. get the original cho-pat strap. i had patellar tendonitis back in november and went to see my ortho and he recommended it. i thought it was a crappy idea at first, but reluctantly ordered one and used it. i ended up being able to train for and run a half marathon while using the thing. it really does help. good luck w/ the recovery! (also, another exercise i would recommend: straight leg raises. sit on a bench and straighten your afflicted leg to 180 degrees. then just raise it. there isn’t much range of motion, but it works the hell out of your rectus femoris. to add a twist to the exercise, do it on a stability ball instead of a bench. that adds in a bit of core stability as well. )
Just legs?
Squats 2 x 10-20 – work up to 20, then increase weight.
Stiff legged deadlifts 2 x 10-20
Calf raise 2 x 10-20
I just started following the routines recommended here:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/body-building/hardgainer-faq/
Dirtrunr–Thanks. I bought something “like” a Cho-Pat (the band under the knee one)–I find it helpful. I am ordering the Cho-Pat tonight. It must have advantages over the Durg-store version, or the Doc wouldn’t have recommended it–it looks different also. I’m taking Alleve, stretching, maintaining a strict form, and keeping to IM pace. Doc recommended leg extension–just the last few inches.
Synchronicity–Ten Yard penalty for exceeding THREE!
Robb–Yup–just legs. I have my routines down for upper body. I had thought that long bikes and long runs would pretty much handle the legs–I guess there is a gap in that theory because none of what we do mimics leg extensions, hence there is a little weakness around my knees. Couple that with never stretching and jumping a little hard into training after IMFL, I have my first injury. I was thinking today how nice it was when I only had to worry about how hard I was willing to work/suffer instead of how best to keep all the training going, meanwhile working though/around this knee issue. Unfortunately, I think it means no other races in between now and what I affectionately refer to as my “A” race in April.
RObb Durtrunner
I politely disagree. While lifting might not specifically increase your running endurance, it will in fact increase your overall strength and will definitely assist in your muscular endurance.
I’ll half agree about speed. Technically weight lifting can increase your top speed, but from a more sprinting perspective. So lifting will improve your top speed but this is a very tough translation to endurance running speed.
I agree that if you are only going to do three exercises to improve your running that it should be squats, deadlifts and calf raises.
But any general endurance sport lifting program will be of benefit, moreso from an injury prevention perspective (assuming you lift slowly and under control etc)
sorry man, i gotta respectfully disagree. i think weight training is essential to good endurance performance. first hand experience: after a winter of relatively low running mileage, after a winter of hard weight training, i was ran the whole section of a “mountain run” today. it’s essentially a 3.5 mile up, 2000’ elevation gain, and takes me about 45 min. i usually have to walk the upper parts. on another note, weight training helps create a muscle balance between your agonist and antagonist muscles which does wonders in keeping the athlete relatively injury free. in addition, beyond the age of 30, a person loses about 5% of muscle mass every decade. by weight training, people are able to retain this muscle mass longer and are known to have more independent lives as they get older (ie. they can bathe themselves and walk upstairs while others their age are on permanent bed rest.
Actually, work done in the weight room CAN make/help you run a faster Ironman marathon… If you do specific mobility and stability work you can increase your performance tremendously. I said this in a previous post about weight training. During your run training, especially Ironman run training, you put in miles, and those miles start to add up as what I call quantity of motion. By loging in those miles, you start to sacrifice quality of motion in order to maintain that quantity of motion. In turn you will start to develop compensatory movement patterns in order to overcome functional deficits. An example of this is how a runner will develop hip stiffness due to athletic participation. This is a result of the muscle hypertrophy and movement patterns that occur due to training. When the hips become stiff in the end ranges of flexion, extension and adduction, the lumbar spine will sacrifice its stability at the expense of greater mobility. Excessive flexion, extension and rotation will occur at the lumbar spine in an attempt to compensate for a relative decreased stride length during running caused by the stiffness in the hips. OR you maintain lumbar stability and keep that stiffness in your hip flexors. An athlete who has a slight decrease in range of motion may lose 2-4 inches in their stride (per leg) and they will compensate by using poor body mechanics. This compensatory movement pattern is a temporary strategy and, although straight-ahead speed may be maintained, the ability to maintain it efficiently over long periods of time may be altered. This situation will predispose the athlete to develop micro trauma, or excessive wear and tear on the body.
Imagine if your stride is shortened by 2-4 inches, and you run at a rate of 90 strides a minute. That is 2-4 inches per stride times 90 in a minute- now figure how many inches/feet/miles you can save or make up in an Ironman marathon. Doing mobilty and stability work in essence can give you free time on a marathon, covering more ground with the same effort with a natural ROM and not forcing a longer stride, but just doing what your body can do naturally.
What if I was to say it this way:
Doing weights won’t make you any faster, but will possibly prevent you from slowing down.
I like that better. One thing I notice right away from treadmill running is loss of toe-off. I am guessing/hoping that calf-raises will help diminish this loss, so when I get out on the road again, I won’t be quite as far behind the 8-ball. Leg extensions to strengthen the areas around the knees that running and cycling don’t get. Knee lifts against resistance to help with the leg drive (I tend to be a shuffler). Hamstring curls for the kick (because I have had to slow down a bit on the TM to avoid knee pain).
Thanks everyone–this has all been helpful. Its great when you guys all discuss something in detail, even though there may be different points of view.
I don’t think Jason and Synchronocity are that far apart as they may seem. Specificity is the key. I sure don’t think traditional squats, deatlifts, leg presses will do stuff all.
Speficic reistance and stability exercises will. Again my favourite… Lunges - start static and once you have that mastered move on to dynamic. Focus the whole time on posture, form, balance etc. Think about making each moving lunge a “biomechanical work of art” Stable pelvis, controlled step, sink into the lunge and brake the descent then drive up through glutes, quads, calves. To do 4 on each leg well with a light dumbell will be very demanding - build up as you become stronger at the movement.
one other exercise i forgot to mention, but it looks like you already covered are hamstring curls! patellar tendonitis is often the result of a muscle imbalance between the quads (front) and hamstrings (back). the hamstrings should have about a 50-60% less strength than the quads. often when solely running/riding, the quads get over worked while the hamstrings remain relatively underworked resulting in a muscle imbalance. by doing hammy curls, you should help your tendon immensely.
One advantage of doing compound movements instead of isolation exercises is that they tend to correct imbalances and leave your muscles in better proportionate strength. Something like squats or lunges will work pretty just about every muscle in your leg. Something like stiff-legged deadlifts will round that out.
What if I was to say it this way:
Doing weights won’t make you any faster, but will possibly prevent you from slowing down.
Nice credentials, do you coach any elite triathletes?
That is a little better! The whole point to any resistance training is not performance enhancement, but injury prevention- If you arre performing optimally, then you can get better, but if you are injured, or injury prone, then well, you dont perform optimally.
The credentials are good, they get the job done 
We work with a few elite athletes, male and female- we also have a few pro basketball teams that we work with that is on our client list. The most impressive athletes we work with are from West Africa in Mali. They will be next visiting NYC on the 20th of February for a 1 month training course (1 of 4 throughout the year).
There are a lot of strength exercises in “Runner’s World” this month. I can scan them and post them for you if you want.
jaretj
Jason–That’s a generaous offer of your time. It would be a lot easier for me to pick up a copy. Thanks though.