Marathon or strength training? Pick one but not two?

Or is that bullshite?

The overwhelming majority of training sites (running or lifting) will recommend that you select one point of focus over the other. The claim is that if you try to do both, they’ll eat into the other’s ability to progress thus inhibiting you from ever getting good at either. You can’t - for example - maintain or build a powerful deadlift at the same time as running the miles needed for a marathon.

I’ve always subscribed to this thought and when I lifted six years ago, I didn’t run. When I a ran a marathon 18 months ago, I didn’t lift. As I got back into lifting, I dropped my miles. As I got serious about lifting programs and building a lot of strength, I cut back on running almost all together.

Over the past 6 months though (and especially this week), I’ve started questioning this mindset.

This post on the Fitness subreddit details significant displays of both strength and running from a rather famous poster there. He goes by nSuns and has a program named after him that has gotten popular. In the post, he discusses how he has a 6 plate deadlift (with video) and a ~16 minute 5K. He’s ready for a marathon that got delayed by corona, and he still looks jacked without being overly bulky like you’d expect from a 6 plate deadlifter nor skinny like you’d expect from a marathoner.

Even looking at a non-runner like the Rock, there are elements of concurrent training. Many sources say that the Rock starts his workouts with 30-50 minutes on the treadmill. Even at a modest pace with the minimum time, you’re look at ~20 miles of running per week along with what’s regarded as some of the heaviest, high volume lifting out there.

I watched a video of a guy named Joe Weller who transformed his body. He’s kind of a douche and I don’t recommend him BUT he talked about what worked for him was 30-60 minutes of cardio a day along with lifting 3-4 days a week. Again, that’s between 21ish and 36ish miles a week if we’re thinking in terms of long distance running.

We even had a resident poster here (can’t remember his name) who ran an ultra marathon and deadlifted 500 pounds in the same week.

All this is to say: it is certainly possible to push your body to both accomplish serious strength gains in the gym and challenging aerobic feats such as marathon running.

So what does it take?

I’m not going to say you can do both at a high level. A 592 pound deadlift isn’t feasible for many joes and a 16 minute 5K isn’t either. But getting stronger - like really strong for your body - and running far is doable for anyone and can be developed at the same time!

It takes the following:

1) Sleep and rest - as always, getting enough recovery is most important and you’ll get no where without it

2) Eat! - nSuns says he eats around 4000 calories a day. He’s 6’3 195 pounds. I’m sure you’ve all seen the Rock’s ridiculous dietary needs. You can’t bulk and cut on this kind of journey. You have to eat and use the fuel to push yourself to accomplish multiple forms of athletic events.

3) Mental Prep - you just completed an hour session focused on heavy bench press. Your chest and arms are tired. Your body is fatigued from anaerobic exercise. But your legs are not tired. Your aerobic capacity is not spent. Finding the motivation to move from the gym to the roads is tough but once you get there, you’ll realize that you aren’t as tired as you thought.

Anyways, I’m mostly writing this out for myself as I’ve entered month 2 of the Boring But Big 90 day challenge. I’m also getting back into long distance running at the same time. We’ll see if I can build my modest maxes to respectable while building up to 40 miles a week.