running & strength training...the struggle continues

as some of you may remember (formerly r-n-j-t) im not new to lifting. once again i am finding myself with some slightly conflicting goals here. i just came back from a 4 week vacation. well its actually been 5 weeks since i've done any serious exercising. i started on the new rules of lifting program (just last night as a matter of fact).

i am happy to pursue this program to its fullest. however, i have a race in dec that i did not anticipate, & then my usual races in the spring. as i've mentioned before, i've had 5 weeks of just vacationing, so i do need to get some training in for the dec. race.

anyway my thoughts are on the following:

• mon - weight workout/intervals
• tues - off
• wed - weight workout
• thu - easy run on treadmill
• fri - weight workout
• sat - park run (will be harder than on treadmill)
• sun - off or very light exercising, more yoga &/or leisure walk in park

anyone else see my dilemma? i think fri's weight & sat's harder run workout are too close together, maybe?? any thoughts??

& i need to keep the weekends open for going to the park because in winter time here, it's dark at 4:30pm.

thanks

Depends on your personal work capacity, what your lifting entails - and how thorough you are with post-workout nutrition on your Friday lifting. If you're doing heavy squatting and/or deadlifts Friday you'll probably be feeling it in your legs come Saturday. If you're not looking to set a new squat PR Friday and then run fast Saturday you shouldn't be seeing much of anything in the way of negative side effects.

hmm, maybe i should go light on the lower body on friday then, there are some hills on the sat run. this is why my old 2 split/1 full routine was a little easier to handle. oh well c'est la vie.

and as far as post-workout nutrition, is my usual protein drink, then a big dinner afterward sufficient? hmm, maybe i'll throw a little casein before i go to bed as well.

i guess another good thing about the fri & sat routine, i can sleep a bit longer on sat morning if i need to for better recovery.

thanks again

 Should be adequate, though you might wanna add a few carbs to the post-workout drink for fast regeneration of muscular glycogen. It's not normally a concern for performance - if you aren't going to be lifting or running the very next day there's no particular rush to refill glycogen stores - but you might want to borrow some of Little's Waxy Maize :-P

 Oh, right - one trick I picked up from CCM; have a bit of protein drink before your workout as well. It makes for a small but noticeably useful difference in performance and recovery ;)

ok, not sure if i can find waxy maize but ill find something like it. & yes i remember you mentioning taking the whey before a workout too. will try that as well.

however, i think i've gotten a little ahead of myself. i'll have to ease into this schedule. after a 5 week break im a little more delicate than i remember. certain body parts are giving out. my calf is telling me no running tonight, just using the stepper, maybe. & i could only squat half the weight that i was up to, sigh.

thank

yay, im not doing that race, im doing a much shorter run so i dont need to worry so much about running until jan. since the race is shorter i can just focus on speed which means shorter running sessions. and i can concentrate on stage 1 till jan.

altho i'll probably need some extra running after 2 feasts on thanksgiving weekend.