Sub 1:30 Half Marathon 2021 Edition (Read 448 times)

In strength related news, I started my leg strength focus.  Did a 5x5 of squats to almost-kinda-parallel at 105 pounds (47.5 kg).  That felt like work, but on the slightly easy side.  I'll go back on Friday and increase by 5-10 pounds.   I'd like to get back to squatting 135 pounds (61 kg), and I've got my work cut out to get there.

Hmmm, this is very interesting. Is that about how low you always go? I first did squats back in 2015. I don't know much about weightlifting now, but then I knew just about nothing. So that's about how deep I went for squats. I did that for 5 to 6 months, then took a break from weightlifting. The next year I started it up again, and a friend told me I was doing it totally wrong, and needed to go way deeper.

When I was going about parallel, I was never super sore (beyond maybe the first day), and I increased weight very quickly, getting to a very high amount of weight (can't remember exactly how much though). Then when I went down way lower, I had to start at a much lower weight, and barely increased over the course of 4 to 5 months. I was also a lot more sore two days after ever session. And this kind of gets to the point that you were making about soreness. I can't say that I saw any additional improvement in my running doing the lower squats. If anything, it could be the opposite. Maybe I should just go back to the way I was doing them originally? Maybe for running improvement, that's as low as you need to go?

Jmac - why would you do that to yourself 😂 On that kind of heat you either run at 5am or don’t run at all.

DW - Yeah, I’ve read everywhere that though body weight exercises are all you need for upper body, for legs you still need the weights (for max lift work anyway/explosive/power training)

The body weight exercises for legs are still excellent for balance, muscular endurance, coordination drills

Naturally you can use weights if/when they are available, in my case they rarely are, so just body weight it is.

Steve/Piwi - Who let the dogs out!

Steve - nobody calls a park a domain, this is probably something you and Mark invented to troll us 🤡

Now granted, his time as a pro was in the early 2000s, and things have no doubt evolved in some areas.   But I don't think I've ever seen a video of a middle/long distance runner squatting really deep.  (Sprinters - yes,  But it makes sense for them, since they do have a much larger range of motion).

My friend that told me I was doing it wrong was a 400m guy/ college football wide receiver. So if I'm taking advice from a single source, your guy and his experience wins out. I'm going back to doing them to just about parallel. I started weights again Monday after over a year off. It's hard to get back to it, but already feels good after two sessions.

Speaking of Badwater, does anyone want to put together a team for Badwater Salton Sea? 81 miles, mixed road and single track, teams of 2-3., with a hard requirement that everyone stays within 25m of each other (the real kicker).

uff-da. That sounds awesome and terrifying but is totally the wrong time of year (my 2 biggest races of the year are mid/late November) and I don't think I can take more time away from the family this year. It's on the bucket list now, I'm interested in 2022. 

DW i don't think I can get past parallel anyway. I already struggle to keep my feet flat on the ground in a squat as my hammies are so tight. I'm interested in your 5 sets ? I've only been doing 2 sets of 8 so far. My weight is still light at 30kg. I still haven't got a squat rack.

 

Our local Tauranga Domain also contains the local track 

So....I'm lifting for strength/power, not muscle growth.  My understanding is that 4-6 reps per set is optimal for those goals, with a weight selected that is heavy enough that the final reps are hard, but not approaching failure.  (I also try to explode a little on the "up" part of the lift for power - so controlled down for 1-2 seconds, then explode up).  When you do lower weight/higher reps, it shifts the focus towards hypertrophy, in my limited understanding.

I also understand that 5x5 reps is the classic beginner-to-intermediate structure for building strength - kinda similar to 6x800 being the classic default track workout for distance runners.   When I'm lifting after the track, I limit to 2-3 sets, but that's because I've already got a track workout on my legs.

Disclaimer - all I know about lifting comes from a) the personal trainers I've worked with on occasion, b) T-Nation articles, and c) "the New Rules of Lifting" book.  I am really very far from an expert, or even a knowledgeable journeywoman, on this subject.

Separately, I can confirm that the term "domain" is most properly used in the internet context.   You guys are all confused.

Googles hypertrophy  😳

😆

Thanks DW. Yes seems like high weight low reps. I will stay with lowish weights until I get technique and strength up.

I wore shoes with this mornings session which helped me at the lowest point of my squat because of the heel lift.

Going too low has the risk of rounding the back.

Re volume - it is supplementary training for a runner so lower volume is fine.  E. G. a powerlifter should do much more than 2 sets, but for a runner it is OK. 

Also 5x5, the first 2 sets are more like moderate warm up sets in terms of how hard they are.

I couldn't help myself and ended up buying a pair of the Salomon S/Lab Pulsar for this trail HM coming up.  I almost talked myself into the fact that I could probably get away with using an old pair of VF Next%'s, then I spotted these.  It's on mostly fine gravel with nothing technical so the VF's would probably do the job, they'll just get a little bit trashed.  But I kinda liked that trail race I did a couple of weeks ago, nice to be out in nature and a good change from the roads and can see myself doing more of them, albeit zero chance I'd run more than 30km.  Anyway that's what I told myself as a justification for buying the flash shoes.

Don't tell my wife.

(also: the reviews are great but could they pick a worse colour for a trail shoe?!)