STRENGTH TRAINING for DISTANCE---PLEASE HELP

haha probably not.

Are you guys lifting high weights or is it light toning weights?

And you can add abs in yourself, you don't need a weight room to work on abs.

On the same note, i don't know why you would bench lol.

You can lift year round. Peter Coe is quoted as saying the one thing he may have changed is in keeping the weights going for seb all year, although he also said the performnace might have become worse, not better, if he had. He didnt know.

One certainty though, is not to do weights close to any big races. 2weeks away at very least. Ideally replacing the weights with more plyo exersices earlier than this... lifting and racing is going to make you race well below your best for sure. You just wont be rested enough.

Legs, stomach and back should be the focus. bench shouldnt really be a key exercise for you at all.

Lifting twice in the week of a race is just crazy. You might as well race with a ball and chain around ankle.

we have heavy days and light days. my understanding as long as i've been a runner which is a long time is that we do low weight high reps to tone. on heavy days we sometimes do as little as 4 reps per set at too high of a percentage of our maxes i.e. >57.5%. We also do abs by ourselves but the fact that they aren't a huge part of the workout for us shows his lack of understanding. I had 2 warm up sets of 4 reps of bench today at 50% and 55% then THREE hard sets of 9 reps at 57.5%... conducive to my sport? i don't think so

thank you. that's a response that i can show my coach

4 reps?!

That is ridiculous.

here is an example of my lifting routine.

1x8 and 2x16

Preacher Curls: 12-15 lbs (dumbbells)

Lunges: 20-25 lbs (dumbbells)

Calf Extensions: 20-25 lbs (dumbbells)

Pushups

100 sit-ups and 30 back exercises.

we actually emailed him an ultimatum a couple weeks ago. we said that we wanted to see changes and outlined what they were and why. we said that we would stop going if the changes weren't met. they weren't and now a lot of the upperclassmen and skipping. now i am only a freshman and am allowed 2 misses before i am kicked out of the weight room and i don't think that it would be the best move a freshman, i currently have two misses....so next week i'm basically screwed

Do they observe you as you do the lifting?

If not, just skip things you know are wrong.

Or just lighten the weight.

we do both

we actually completely skipped squats one day. the next day (monday) we were intensely monitored.... 45 front squats total. legs are still soar.

You guys are gonna lock up towards the end of every race.

THIS WAS THIS MORNING'S WORKOUT:

Bench: 4-50% 4-55% 3x9-57.5%

Split Squat: 3x9-50lb

Pull Ups: (we rarely do these) 3 sets until failure

Medicine Ball Hip Buck: 3x9reps

split squat and hip buck before a 10x1000 pace workout???

if it makes us soar for practice it's not helping us run faster!!!!!!!!

High reps don't "tone" your muscles. Your muscles either grow, or they don't. Muscle tone is just a result of body fat percentage.

Ever heard of sandbagging? Just because you have to do the workout doesn't mean you have to really workout.