As I mentioned last week, my current endurance goal is to break 2 hours in an upcoming half marathon in early March.  I ran this same event last year and turned in a time of 2:11 and change.  In the past when I have been training for endurance events like runs and triathlons I have totally abandoned any leg weight work exercises completely and just focused on doing the cardio.

Well I have been squatting pretty regularly for around 4-5 months.  I am by no means strong in squats but the motion is just very beneficial to overall body strength.  Any of you that have squatted before and then taken a break from squatting know that when you go back you will be in for some major muscle pain.

Well to hit my endurance goal I will need to do more than one long run a week on a Saturday.  What I normally would do is add on a treadmill session at the gym on a Wednesday as well.

This time around I am trying to have my cake and eat it too.  I started my work out off today with a squat session and then jumped on the treadmill and put in two miles at an 8:34 pace (7 MPH) which is faster than I would need to go to break the two hour half marathon mark which requires a pace somewhere around 9:10.

When I run on the treadmill I always make sure the incline is set at 1 percent.  Doing so supposedly will bring the effort level more on par with what you would experience running outdoors.

Running after squatting is obviously tougher than running without squatting.  I’m not sure what exercise experts would say about my odd training couple.  I guess I will see how it works for me as my training proceeds.