How I stumbled into running
The first time I ran for more than 10 mins was the worst experience of my life.
That was in 2019.
My world at that time centred around the endless pursuit of ‘getting big’, and so naturally, I was allergic to the idea of running…
That first time I went running with my mate Charlie (who is now bloody good at running 💨) took about 45 mins to run 5km, and naturally needed to end in the pub.
(n.b. my Wednesday Putney Running Club runs always finish in the pub 😂)
Fast forward to lockdown in March 2020 and we were only allowed out once a day, briefly.
I still was obsessed with getting in my steps though, so running seemed like the only way…
I started off running about 15 mins, then walking 10 mins, then running 15 mins again.
Gradually, I was able to run longer and require less walking rests until I managed 5km in one go about 2 weeks later.
The big mistakes I made
This was back during lockdown, so naturally, I had plenty of time on my hands to fit this new activity in and make sure I get it right.
But of course, looking back, here are the big mistakes I made when starting out with running:
- I smashed two programmes together
- I just went out and ran
Putting two programmes together overloaded what my body could handle in a week.
As much as it’s glorified to ‘work harder’, what you should really be doing is working smarter so that you can work hard at what matters.
Our body has a performance and a recovery capacity that can grow over time but today, you need to respect what that 100% capacity looks like.
Also, whether you like it or not, your strength and endurance elements do interact with each other.
This means that the order that you place everything in can be the performance difference.
Speaking of performance, having purpose for every single session matters even more when introducing running into the mix.
It means that you’re not going out at a random pace – you’re going out at a slow, easy pace to improve your aerobic base
Or you’re going out for some fast intervals to improve lactate threshold and leg speed, etc.
Cut out the crap and focus on what delivers results
Training the hybrid way will give you millions of things that you can fill your weeks and workouts with.
A very freeing feeling but it can be dangerous.
The key is remembering that you only have 100% to play with, so you can only pick the elements of training that deliver best.
Knowing what this 100% figure is (how many times you train and how intense) varies for everyone but it matters.
If you’re going to make time to train hard, you will need to make time to recover hard too.
This means that you need to be super clear on your training goals to understand what kind of exercises help achieve that goal.
In my case, I’m training for a marathon while maintaining a high base of strength and muscle.
In practice, this means cutting out excess miles, unnecessary exercises and sessions from your programme.
For example, I would place a lower emphasis on training my arms and sprinting ability.
How to introduce running for the lifter
When you introduce running into a purely strength/muscle building programme, you need to be at peace with the fact that you won’t be able to get as ‘big’ as you could without running (not impossible, just impractical).
The best way to get the best out of both worlds (like Hannah Montana would) is with clarity over your goals, simple programming and good intention to implement.
Let’s walk through the steps:
- What are your goals?
What distinct goals are you working towards?
A triathlon, bodybuilding/marathon, strength/5K, powerlifting/half marathon, etc.
You don’t have to be training for a race/competition, but it helps.
Sit and think with this – figuring this out will be your north star that dictates what falls into place.
- How often do you want to train?
There’s nothing that says a hybrid athlete MUST train x times a week, twice a day.
This is completely personal to the athlete and their lifestyle.
How many times do you want to train each week?
What times and days work best for you?
What are the non-negotiable life things that dictate your availability?
Work times, family and friends commitments, etc.
What is the fewest amount of sessions you think you can commit to each week?
The early consistency is what matters – you can always add more later.
- What are the most important elements to achieve your goals, given time constraint
To achieve your goal you worked out in step 1, break down the elements that will help you achieve that goal.
e.g. to run a marathon and maintain strength, you would make sure you at least have a long run, speed work, tempo work, squat, bench and deadlift.
Write down absolutely every exercise / session type you think contributes to that goal, prioritise the most important and map them onto your pre-determined sessions in step 2.
If you don’t know what kind of exercises / sessions you need to be doing, drop me a message and I’ll do my best to help.
- Distribute your training across the week following the intensity first principle
- More intense work at the start of the week
- More voluminous work at the end of the week
- Workouts to be organised with the highest skilled, highest intensity work first, then the lowest skilled, lowest intensity work last (explained next)
Bonus points
- Increase your calories to account for extra energy expenditure – I burn about 800 kcal per hour running…
- Recover as hard as you train – feet up, ice baths, and generally lazy chill time
What must be performed fresh vs what can be performed fatigued
When organising my weeks and individual workouts, I follow a simple system that prioritises the highest skilled, highest intensity work.
This is because the benefits we get from that kind of work are only realised when our muscles and mind are firing fresh. [ref to study]
This tends to be the heavy explosive lifting and sprints.
On the other hand, the slow easy endurance runs can be performed with fatigued legs because the benefit we get from it is almost completely from your cardiovascular system.
| Priority | Intensity | Skill | Workout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High intensity | High skill | Run drills |
| 2 | High intensity | Low skill | 10 x 60s intervals @ 5k pace |
| 3 | Low intensity | Low skill | Shoulders & arms workout |
| 4 | Low intensity | Low skill | 20 mins cool down run |
How you can start running
If you’re completely brand new to running or any cardio, you need to accept that it’s going to start small.
It’s the same way you adapt to higher weights and reps – every session and week is an incremental improvement at the edge of your capabilities.
Instead of starting on bodyweight exercises and machines, you would start by doing run-walk-run intervals.
- Pick an amount of time you can just about run at a conversational pace, walk for double that interval, repeat 4-5 times
- Gradually increase the running interval time, and reduce the rest until you can run for 20 mins in one go
- Include both run-walk-run and just running-runs until you can run 60 mins without stopping
- At that point, you can start to include speed intervals, structured in the same way as run-walk-run, just faster intervals that challenge you
Race-specific targets help
If you feel like you need an extra dose of motivation and accountability, signing up to a race is a great way to get your arse in gear.
It’s not mandatory if all you want to do is improve your cardiovascular fitness.
But on the days where you really cba to workout – you know you kind of have to do the work regardless of how you feel.
That’s discipline.
Getting started with running from a lifting background is hard.
However, I hope I showed you that it doesn’t need to be complicated.
And soon you’ll go from brick wall to Nick Bare.
Being super clear on your goals, applying some simple programming principles, focussing on what delivers results for your goals and patient progression is all it takes.
I hope you found this useful.
If you did, share this with a mate or on socials.
And if you’re a lifter wanting more help with getting into running, email me directly:
📥 lawrence@lawrencepowell.co.uk
Lawrence
