Keeping Strength While Gaining Endurance

Training
1

So, I got talked into doing the Warrior Dash http://www.warriordash.com/ on June 20 this year. I haven’t really done much running since I got out of the military, so my endurance is only a shadow of what it once was.
I have been sticking to lifting weights, focusing on compound lifts mostly, for the past 2-3 years.
So, now that I am signed up for this race, I am obligated to do it.
Only problem is, I have a very competitive nature, and nothing would please me more than kicking the shit out of my coworkers who I will be racing with. I want to beat them all.

I used to be a decent runner when I was in the military, I ran did the APFT in 11:48, and ran the Army 10 miler in 1hr 13min, but that was about 30 pounds of muscle mass ago.

How would you suggest I construct my training regimine to increase my endurance, while holding on to as much muscle size & strength as possible?

Right now, I am deciding between two options:

OPTION 1

  1. Weights 3 X per week
    Each day will focus on one “core” movement (bench, squat, deadlift). So, in one week, I will be working each bodypart only once, but I will be able to go fairly heavy, maybe 5X5s, or 3X8 at the lightest.

Running 4X per week.
2 Days of longer, endurance runs, of at least 30 minutes (the race is only 3.17 miles), or 4-5 miles. The goal will be to either increase the distance run in 30 minutes, or decrease the time it takes me to run the 4-5 miles every session.
2 days of speed work, consisting of some sort of intervals one day, and likely 800 meter and 400 meter repeats on the other.

OPTION 2
The running portion will be the same as the first option.
The difference will be in the weight lifting sessions.
Here, I was thinking about maybe doing three total body workouts per week, instead of three movement specific workouts.

Which one do you think would help me keep my strength the best, 3 total body workouts per week, or 3 movement specific workouts (bench, squat, deadlift) per week?

To recap, my goals are as follows, in order from most to least important:

  1. Increase speed/endurance for 3.17 mile race
  2. Keep as much muscle size and strength as possible
  3. Maybe lose 5-10 pounds of bodyfat (summer is approaching, right?).

I plan on keeping a mostly high protein/low carb diet on cardio days, while on weightlifting days I will eat more carbs, esp. for peri-workout nutrition. This should allow me to keep my muscle, whilst burning some extra weight that I don’t have to run around with.

Any help is appreciated.

-Rick

2

What are you doing at the moment to keep your 30lb of muscle?

3

I’m keeping my caloric intake roughly the same, but dropping carbs off a bit and ramping up protein intake. Trying to keep the strength of my core lifts the same, lifting with moderately heavy weights and relatively short rest periods. I don’t expect to gain strength in the next couple of months, it’s kind of a trade off.

4

Why are you dropping carbs down? Wouldn’t they be better fuel for your running, as well as being muscle-sparing? I also would have thought that at least slightly increasing your calorie intake would be better, as surely you’ll be burning through more calories each week with either of your options above compared to however you were previously training?