bigirish, you can do both. If you are doing a marathon in October, you should start doing intervals once a week no later than 9/1.
The standard 3 weekly workouts for long distance runners are 1) the long run, 2) the tempo run (a moderate length, steady, high HR run), and 3) speedwork.
On top of that do enough miles to hit your target mileage for the week.
I think that whole thing about losing leg mass from sprinting is nonsense.
I can think of three people off the top of my head who have leg development I would DIE for. Two are weight trainers and sprinters. The other is just a sprinter.
The one who just sprints has phenominal leg development. The split between his quads and hammies is completely ridiculous. I think people lose leg mass from sprinting because they’re nutritionally stupid about it trying to get the most fat burning effect possible (myself included).
Weight training would be catabolic too if you ate practically nothing before and after doing it.
[quote]did Nate just say he wanted to do Goldbergs BUm too…???
what does the missus think of this Nate?[/quote]
Ah, no big deal. She thinks I’m gay anyway. But that’s okay because she’s gay too!
*Note: No, I’m not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Runing helps me shed pounds very quickly. Theproblem is, my legs inevitably get weaker and smaller as my weight goes down and my endurance goes up. Putting the LBM back on again is very difficult for me.
tekton good point about doing both.
When I was in college I observed some things hanging out with alot of D1 football players. I used to hang with alot of the guys my size (receivers, cornerbacks, and safeties)
2.) They hit the weights hard 3-4 times a week.
3.) The real secret: I looked at a copy of their conditioning work, and then realized how they always stayed so lean. They do lots, lots, and lots of consistent sprinting and condionting work every week.
This I think is the key.
I think even Michael Johson said it best, “it really doesn’t matter what you eat, when you are going to be on the track burning it up a few times a week.”
Not to say he ate total garbage, but I think the point is that with respects to getting very lean, the sprinting work is far superior than any type of dietary methods.
Sprinters have the best bodies to me at least anyways.
For fat loss and/or cardiovascular health and fitness purposes, I think GPP, sprinting and weighted GPP rules. The carryover is great for endurance and for health.
eleveneyes back to your original post I don’t know what low carbing has to do w/ bad knees.
But, if your knees are horrible or bad. Running is not the thing you want to do.
It will make it worse. Why don’t you try rowing its a great cardio machine and not too many people are on it. Which is a shame because its a better most of the cardio machine that are out there.
In Health,
Silas C.
I couldn’t agree more; for me at least, sprinting is the most effective, time efficient mode of cardio training. With traditional long duration/ moderate intensity cardio I lose leg strength and (I think) size. But with 10 sets of 100 yard sprints I have actually increased my 4-6 RM squat and deadlift with noticeably improved hamstring size & definition.
But my question for the forum gurus like Patricia & Timbo is… how much is too much of a good thing? Currently, I sprint two times a week (on two of my 3 days off from the gym). Does that sound excessive? When I transition to a fat loss phase, is it OK to increase the number of weekly sessions to 3 or 4?
what about plain ole sex, say 45 mins to 1 hour sessions daily? pop a T2 and a MD6 ang go at it. any thoughts on fat burning using positions that emphasize the mid section? or what about short bursts of say 10 mins with a 5 min break for 3-4 sets?
[quote]I think that whole thing about losing leg mass from sprinting is nonsense.
I can think of three people off the top of my head who have leg development I would DIE for. Two are weight trainers and sprinters. The other is just a sprinter.
The one who just sprints has phenominal leg development. The split between his quads and hammies is completely ridiculous. I think people lose leg mass from sprinting because they’re nutritionally stupid about it trying to get the most fat burning effect possible (myself included).
Weight training would be catabolic too if you ate practically nothing before and after doing it.[/quote]
I completely agree. If you eat enough calories, it won’t matter if you’re sprinting 3 or 4 times per week. Now if you’re on a hypocaloric diet a la ketogenic style, then leg mass loss could result. It also depends on what type of running you are doing (anaerobic vs. aerobic).
The only reason why I think leg mass loss might result from adding in running is because it is necessary to reduce leg volume weight training for recovery purposes.
Nothing beats skate-technique cross-country skiing HIIT.
Sprinting sounds like it would work well. Most of my running lately has consisted of a 20 minute jog. Great for cardio, horrible for LBM.
supplemental here for machine. i understand and agree with the points that you are making. however, would you classify a diet such as t-dawg 2.0 + IBUR sprinting 3 times a week as a situation such that you may tend to lose muscle mass and definition considering the restricted carb/calorie levels to the diet? its a concern for me since i am doing t-dawg 2.0 to lower my bf % while my current training cycle is working on some problem spots which include my legs (hams specifically).
side note: i dont know about you guys but ever since i have been strengthening my hamstrings alot my overall pace when sprinting has increased alot. no more slow white guy… just a somewhat slow white guy.
KILL WHITEY!!
Ha, jk. Strengthening your hams is great for sprinting. Think about Adam Archuleta and all the hammie work he did, and then think about how much he increased his speed in doing so. It’s ridiculous how much strong hamstrings tie directly to sprint speed.