Gain 20 lbs - Stop Running?

why else do you want to gain all that muscle? if it's only to get faster at running, then you're obviously better off sticking to running and taking whatever weight the lifting gives you. i'm not sure it's true otherwise, it seems like if you run more, you just have to be sure to eat more as well.

Marrow2000 wrote:

My goal this year is to put on 15-20 lbs of muscle.

It would help to understand why you want to do this - running goal, other athletic goal, appearance goal, other?

15 lbs of muscle sounds like a lot to add. Have you had your body fat percentage tested - using the immersion method?

Well your trainer is coming from the perspective that you need to have a calorie surplus to gain weight...So yes stopping running will result in less metabolized calories. But you could also consume more and continue running. Adding weight will slow your 5k time unless you are very underweight...which you don't seem to be.

You'll have to cut back on running, for sure. I'd look into other sorts of cardio exercise that don't have the same muscle wasting affect as running (biking, XC skiing, swimming). Your running should be something like one "long run" a week (60 mins max), a short, hard run (30-40 mins) and an interval session. Low mileage, but you can still bust out a decent 5k.

And, of course, lift weights, sleep enough, eat enough. Plenty of protein. 2 grams per pound of BW is NOT too much!

I don't want to put on the weight for running purposes, I want to do it for appearance/strength.

I haven't had my body fat tested this year, but two years ago it was 8%. I'm assuming it's about 10% right now.

I love doing intervals/tempo runs and hate long runs, so maybe I could keep doing two days a week of fast tempo runs?

Thinking it over, I think I am seeing that it's either one or the other (weight gain vs 5k time) in which case I would choose the weight gain.

2 grams of protein per pound?? I always heard 1 gram. I don't know if I could have 300 grams of protein... What does one eat for that?