How beneficial are heavy squats and deadlifts for marathon running?

The marathon is 99% aerobic. Injury prevention aside, spending time and effort maximizing that 1% is essentially inconsequential to your finishing time.

You don’t like a 2-6% improvement in running economy is going to change your marathon time? I got to disagree…..

have no clue why you think the % of the marathon being aerobic has anything to do with why someone lifts…

At least 6 beneficial

I don't buy for a second that weight training actually prevents injury. The African runners do little to no weight training compared to the USA.

I'm not sure specifically as to numbers or the physiological aspect of the improvement, but I definitely feel better in training and in the race. My lift numbers are very similar to yours, as is my marathon time. When I wasn't lifting I felt less in control in a way; hard to describe. Curious as to what kind of weight lifting program you're following.

I pound the table for athletes up to 800m and weight training. There is no way around it for sprinters to 800m, jumpers and throwers. Weight training is s.o.p. for college XC runners and the entire track & field team. I look at weight training as a performance booster more than injury prevention but there is an injury prevention element.

There are numerous reasons why hamstring strains and tears occur. My college T&F team charted ratio of hamstring curls to quad extensions for jumpers and sprinters. When quad extension to hamstring curl ratio was too unfavorable, athlete's name was circled and he was told he is danger of hamstring strain &/or tear. There are other examples. But know: Weight training has it's own injuries.

Running & weight training will help lower percentage of body fat if you care about body fat percentage.

Do half-squats instead. How beneficial are full, ass-to-grass, squats for running?

Think about your typical running gait. You’re not going to exceed the range of motion of a half-squat, so why go further? It’s counter-productive towards your activity.

if anyone gives you crap about half-squatting at the gym, remind them that they only do 10 minutes of cardio every other day.

even the sprinters are quarter squatting lol

Whoops, I guess I don’t know my terminology. Those quarter-squats are exactly what runners should be doing.

I’m a big believer in lifting for distance runners, at least during certain parts of the training cycle. I generally have high school track runners lift 2x per week Dec-March. April-early May, it moves to more like 2x every 10 days, then max 1x per week late season. It doesn’t hurt their running, seems to help with injury prevention, and contributes to overall health.

Despite that, I’m not convinced it will actually make you faster. Up to a certain point, strength seems to help prevent injuries, but that probably has more to do with strengthening connective tissue and stabilizer muscles than the primary strength gains. If you’re comfortably squatting 200lbs, you’re probably to the point where adding more weight won’t help your running much.

5x5 is a solid training protocol, but a little too much volume for a runner imo.

What ratio do you think is ideal? When does an athlete start to enter the danger zone? I'm genuinely very curious.

This isn't what I think, this was the opinion of my T&F program.

3:2 leg extension to leg curls, normal. If 2:1 in danger zone.

Is that 1 rep max? What measurement are you using to compare?

Are you concerned your biceps femoris are weak or not? I did more damage than good when I was 49ish. Probably just do the hamstring curls, (12 to 15) reps and get your biceps femoris stronger. Did my T&F program have the jumpers and sprinters maxing out? Yes. If you are over 35, I wouldn't worry about maxing out.

Getting stronger allows your maximum force you can exert to go up, which means your old max effort is now a more controlled effort. You want your body to be as strong as it can be for its weight. Then you can run at faster speeds at relatively lower effort. Running in general is the most important thing if you’re not already running a lot, but eventually doing more lifting is the easier way to improve than doing better running training

You can post some videos on Insta

Do you really think that a heavy routine once or twice a week is not gonna affect running on the other days? Yes, sprinters need to be strong. So, it makes sense for them as they do very low volume but for distance running it’s not gonna help.

I’ve never heard of Kenyans or Ethiopians squatting heavy.

Look at the hey day of American distance running, those guys couldnt do 100 push ups between them. The fact that times from back then would still be competitive on a national scale tell you all you need to know about lifting weights.

Marathon running is about running. You wont squat your way to a PR. Take that time and run more.

If you want to do a weighted exercise that helps running, do kettlebell swings.

I honestly doubt that heavy squats & deadlifts do marathoners any good.