irishtwins1112 said:I am so excited and proud for my hubby! He got a job that pays twice what he makes now. We have been barely scraping by (living paycheck to paycheck) for a while now. This means that we may be able to stay in a hotel another night or two after the marathon, instead of driving all the way back home.
Okay, which one of you jokers posted the Iron Strength workout? I can barely walk! LOL And that's with only doing a very few sets of each and skipping the burpees completely
ETA: I mean jokers in the most loving, affectionate way possible
mwahahaha...
Ooh, ooh...I think that was me!
In all seriousness, I'd apologize, but I do think strength training has really helped me with running a lot. I hope it does the same for you!
I missed 3-4 Iron Strength workouts last month while battling a sinus infection and I could really feel a difference...and not in a good way!
WARNING: Not for the faint of heart (as you saw from wdwpluto's post and can see if you read the comments in the link below...also someone typed out the entire workout and shared it in a Google Doc, very helpful)!
The workout is supposed to take an hour and I only do half of that twice per week...and even that is a challenge! It does have a couple of plyo moves (plyo squats and lunges):
www.runnersworld.com/ironstrength
I really think that keeping up with this workout has helped my knees a lot...I had Runner's Knee in 2009 and only found relief when I wore orthodics in my shoes. I recently went to my local shoe store complaining of pain in the tops of my feet/upper ankles, and the guys suggested that I was most likely stronger now than I was before and probably didn't need the orthodics. I took the orthodics out and voila! No pain, except for what I mentioned earlier, when I recently missed 3-4 workouts due to being sick...I could totally feel it in my knees.
John VN said:
I do remember thinking that my legs felt stronger than I expected in the 2012 race overall and especially on hills, probably thanks to Iron Strength. Sorry if this doesn't really help/answer your question!
Ariel484 said:My times HAVE improved, but I think that was more due to losing weight (30 lbs+ and counting) over this past year. I think the strength training has helped more from an injury prevention perspective and probably helped with the weight loss as well.
Best example of pace difference...for a 10-mile race in 2011 and 2012 (same course):
2011 - 1:54:11 (11:25/mile)
2012 - 1:39:07 (9:55/mile)
Again I think this pace difference can mostly be explained by weight loss.
My times HAVE improved, but I think that was more due to losing weight (30 lbs+ and counting) over this past year. I think the strength training has helped more from an injury prevention perspective and probably helped with the weight loss as well.
Best example of pace difference...for a 10-mile race in 2011 and 2012 (same course):
2011 - 1:54:11 (11:25/mile)
2012 - 1:39:07 (9:55/mile)
Again I think this pace difference can mostly be explained by weight loss.
Ooh, ooh...I think that was me!
In all seriousness, I'd apologize, but I do think strength training has really helped me with running a lot. I hope it does the same for you!
I missed 3-4 Iron Strength workouts last month while battling a sinus infection and I could really feel a difference...and not in a good way!
In all seriousness, it's a great (but killer) workout! I definitely need the strength training - my quads and glutes are super weak and I had IT band problems/runner's knee while I was training for the Princess because of that. I'm going to stick with the workout for sure, but modify the heck out of it until I build up some strength. Right now I'm more silly putty strength than iron strength 
My times HAVE improved, but I think that was more due to losing weight (30 lbs+ and counting) over this past year. I think the strength training has helped more from an injury prevention perspective and probably helped with the weight loss as well.
Best example of pace difference...for a 10-mile race in 2011 and 2012 (same course):
2011 - 1:54:11 (11:25/mile)
2012 - 1:39:07 (9:55/mile)
Again I think this pace difference can mostly be explained by weight loss.
Your weight loss and time improvement are awesome. 
irishtwins1112 said:I am so excited and proud for my hubby! He got a job that pays twice what he makes now. We have been barely scraping by (living paycheck to paycheck) for a while now. This means that we may be able to stay in a hotel another night or two after the marathon, instead of driving all the way back home.
WARNING: Not for the faint of heart (as you saw from wdwpluto's post and can see if you read the comments in the link below...also someone typed out the entire workout and shared it in a Google Doc, very helpful)!
The workout is supposed to take an hour and I only do half of that twice per week...and even that is a challenge! It does have a couple of plyo moves (plyo squats and lunges):
www.runnersworld.com/ironstrength
I really think that keeping up with this workout has helped my knees a lot...I had Runner's Knee in 2009 and only found relief when I wore orthodics in my shoes. I recently went to my local shoe store complaining of pain in the tops of my feet/upper ankles, and the guys suggested that I was most likely stronger now than I was before and probably didn't need the orthodics. I took the orthodics out and voila! No pain, except for what I mentioned earlier, when I recently missed 3-4 workouts due to being sick...I could totally feel it in my knees.
.
Excellent reply.
Thanks all!
) butt cramp (Piriformis pain I guess?). I thought maybe strength training could help that - and I think it has (still flairs up occasionally but foam rolling has helped) - but I really wasn't expecting it to benefit my knees at all. That was just a bonus. 
I don't know if you watched the videos on the webpage but the guy says that the plyometric squats are the most important move a runner can do, and I really think those are what have helped me the most. Do you use a foam roller at all? That really helps the IT bands too. And I am TOTALLY modifying that workout (I worked my way up from 2 sets of 4 burpees to 2 sets of 8 burpees...baby steps!!) and LOL'd at silly putty strength! Thank you!! 
The Plyo moves he uses are similar to the ones in the P90X Plyo video. You should try that one. Mary Katherines are crazy and Tony makes you keep your arms in the air. I make the girls on my daughter's soccer team do them when I do endurance with them. Those and jump squats have them giving me dirty looks after every session. I will say they have won every game after endurance training with me so I guess my they're a good thing, LOL
I am VERY curious to try P90X...my husband is as well and we talk about buying it from time to time, but we both always end up balking at the price. That and I know I'd want to cut the workouts down from an hour (they are an hour, right?) and do them 2-3 times per week, so I definitely would not be taking full advantage of the program/follow it correctly. 
They just don't know what's good for them!
@wdwpluto Like I said, I had the same problems you did (Runner's Knee/ITB pain), so I hope that strength training helps you!
