Year break from competitive running - Lifting weights.... skip leg day?

Keep lifting for legs. I wonder, though, what is your workout style? Are you a high rep/low weight guy? High weight/low rep? Do you do a lot of accessory work? Compound lifts or isolation lifts? That could all matter.

Anyways, on to my anecdote. I ran in high school, raced bikes for most of college, ran a bit in grad school, and then got into other things. To stay fit, I spent about 5 years lifting weight and focusing on getting stronger. Went from high 140s to low 180s in weight. It was fun. I learned a lot about my body and it felt good being strong all over.

A little over a year ago I got back to running. I got going slowly, just 20 or 30 MPW for a few months. Had a small injury. Got back going again this summer. Mileage has been consistently in the high 40s and low 50s. Doing that over the summer brought on some rapid changes in my body. I lost a ton of fat and quite a bit of muscle. I kept lifting 2 days a week to maintain some strength (but I'm nowhere near as strong as I was earlier).

So depending on what you're doing, maybe alter your leg day, but don't skip it. If you're only lifting for a year or two, your body will get back to it's running size/shape in no time. But you might be stronger overall. I do feel like I run better now than I did years ago.

In my experience, weightlifting with mass gains hurts long distance running, even if no discrete lower body work is performed. For me this was actually a good thing. I initially ran longer distances in Middle School then made beginner gains like yourself over a summer, training only upper body as is typical of beginners. My 5k times got worse, but my sprints improved. Gradually, I incorporated Olympic lifts, Squats, and Deadlifts, and ran mostly the 100 from that point. In my case, I discovered I was much more suited for fast-twitch events - with an eventual 100 PR under 10.9. Perhaps you'd care to lower your preferred distances...

You gained at most 3.5lbs of muscle. It is almost not possible to gain more than.5 lbs of muscle in a week. You feel slow because you put on 18.5lbs of fat.

mmmm cheeese wrote:

You gained at most 3.5lbs of muscle. It is almost not possible to gain more than.5 lbs of muscle in a week. You feel slow because you put on 18.5lbs of fat.

this.

PS why do noobs always think its a good idea to lift upper body and not lower body? For running obviously you need the opposite.

what a winy turd wrote:

mmmm cheeese wrote:

You gained at most 3.5lbs of muscle. It is almost not possible to gain more than.5 lbs of muscle in a week. You feel slow because you put on 18.5lbs of fat.

this.

PS why do noobs always think its a good idea to lift upper body and not lower body? For running obviously you need the opposite.

Maybe I overstated that "most of it muscle" part. I gained a little fat. Noob gains are a real thing though, and for the first couple months, more than 0.5 pounds per week is doable. Definitely some water weight in there as well (i.e. 5 pounds in the first two days).

But you're missing the point. I'm not trying to whine about not being able to run as well. I expected that, and besides, if all 22 pounds WAS lean muscle, most of it wouldn't be functional anyway and I'd still be slow. What I AM asking about is how to best set myself up to transition back into running a year from now, and whether avoiding leg hypertrophy will make that transition easier.

You "feel like you run better now". Does that mean you're faster on paper? Or you just qualitatively feel stronger while running? What weight are you at now? How did your joints handle the extra weight when you got back into running? What was your injury?

I do the big compound lifts and isolation lifts too. I do splits of:

Monday: Chest/back (heavy)

Tuesday: Arms (heavy)

Wed.: Legs/Shoulders/Abs

Thursday: Chest/Back (hypertrophy)

Friday: Arms (hypertrophy)

I feel better subjectively, for sure. Smoother, stronger, less likely to get tired holding good form, etc.

I am also faster. However, this probably doesn't matter as much to you as I can only compare my high school times (and i had a rather bad training program) to how I am training now, which is much better. I am also running longer stuff now then before. So I did a 38 minute 10k pretty recently, whereas my pre-lifting 10k was a 42. Again, though, the training was so different, and I wouldn't even say I trained for that 42, I was just running and did a 10k race on a whim. So not a ton of data there, sorry.

At 6'1" my weight is currently 152. So about 5 pounds more than when I was previously a runner/cyclist. I have a bit more muscle, but I also believe I am leaner (again, subjective as I have not had a dexiscan or anything like that).

I don't recall any issue with my joints when I returned to running. I never really had joint problems while lifting, either. I didn't run a classic bodybuilding split, which yours looks to be. I lifted more full body through the week. So squats 2-3 times a week and deadlifts 1-2 times a week. Reps were low, weight was high (relatively speaking). Also lots of presses, pullups, rows, etc.

My injury was a twisted knee and minor meniscus tear. I also kept running for a few days after the initial "ouch that hurts" moment, so that didn't help. Once it really started hurting I needed a month off, then built back super slowly.

How did you select your current program? And what are your current lifting goals for this year? Also, do you know what your return to running goals might be?

Admit that you gained 18 lbs of fat and i will give you a serious answer. Also if you gained 5 lbs in 2 days its because you forgot to take a shit.

"Noob Gains" or what ever you want to call them are a thing because someone who is 8% bodyfat decides that they are going to start lifting and eating more. In the process they gain several lbs of muscle but they also go from 8% body fat to 13% body fat. On a 150lb person that is 7.5lbs of fat gained however there is hardly a difference in how that looks on a person. So after 5 weeks of lifting ( 2.5lbs of muscle gained best case scenario ) + 7.5lbs of fat they have gone from 150lbs to 160lbs. They may reasonably believe that they have gained 10lbs of muscle since their lifts have increased drematicaly however most of that is from neuromuscular adaptations.

Harmful gains? wrote:

I've been lifting weights 5 days a week, running 4 miles 3-4 days a week, with an 8-10 miler on most weekends.

Thoughts?

Doosh. Fat doosh.

I'm not calling you a winy turd, its from a different thread.

Anyways, the answer is no, skipping legs will not make the transition easier. It will make it worse. Skip upper body if you want to make the transition easier.

Why are you lifting legs? Do you want more bulk there? Surely they have all the specific fitness you want from them. I always preferred throwing in some speed workouts on a bike to address legs.

I read a couple of articles recently citing the "best" workouts for sprinters for the lower body. The exercises were quarter squats, jump squats, and hip thrusters (or bridges). I'm adding these to my leg routine.

anectoday wrote:

Why are you lifting legs? Do you want more bulk there? Surely they have all the specific fitness you want from them. I always preferred throwing in some speed workouts on a bike to address legs.

A better question is why the OP is doing "hypertrophy" for upper body. That's more detrimental for distance running than any muscle he might gain on legs.