I'm running my first marathon on March 1. My plan (4 Months to a 4-Hour Marathon) doesn't mention what to do about weight training and ab work during that time.
Three times per week, I do three sets of fifteen reps of each exercise, except for the wall sits and bench step-ups. (I do three sets of wall sits and three sets of ten reps of bench step-ups.) This is my current weight-training routine:
chest: 55 pounds on the chest press machine or flat-bench presses with 25-pound dumbbells
shoulders: overhead presses with 12.5-pound dumbbellss
back: 55 pounds on the lat pulldown machine
triceps: 50 pounds on the pulley machine for flat or V-bar pressdowns
biceps: curls with a 25-pound straight barbell
legs: 120 pounds on the leg press machine
40 pounds on the leg extension machine
80 pounds on the hip adduction machine
45-50 seconds for a wall sit
deadlifts with 30-pound dumbbells or a 70-pound barbell
65 pounds on the seated leg curl machine
60 pounds on the hip abduction machine
bench step-ups with 20-pound dumbbells
calves: toe presses with seated leg press machine set to 120 pounds
shins: heel presses with the seated leg press machine set to 120 pounds
Would it be wise to continue to do this while tapering?
Skip it the week before you race. Do it for the other week(s) of your taper.
Live long and prosper.
I cut out weight training about 4 weeks out from my first marathon. As a matter of fact, I barely did anything except run, eat and sleep!
I don't know if it hurt anything or not, but I was dialed in on the big prize those last weeks, and I suppose a little paranoid.
I love going to the gym so kept lifting through my tapers, except the last 2 weeks did it less intense, and stopped 3 days before.
During marathon taper, I'll also do weight training taper. I still do it, but with lighter weights. And no real weight training leg work the last week before the marathon.
Marathons are habit-forming...
"I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."
Philippians 4:13, NLT
Thanks for the input, everyone!