Struggling to get through to my BIL about is running/lifting training and the results. He's had both great and abysmal results, and I don't come from a heavy lifting background so my advice to him isn't getting past the Youtube "advice" he seems to be relying on.
His background: 26 years old good athlete, former high school football standout, he's 4 years out of college and maintained an active lifting routine through college, running was limited to treadmill cardio(10 to 15 minutes) before and/or after workouts. Took up serious running ~1.5 to 2 years ago as he wanted to run a half marathon.
Attempt #1: Half was in late October '22 and he began training in earnest the Spring before. I had a chance to run with him in the Summer down in the Panhandle Florida while on a family vacation. He was doing solid 6-7 mile runs in the low 7 minutes, which was great given the Florida heat and humidity. He also threw in a few weight sessions during the week in the condo gym later each day. Which seemed to be is standard training routine. He ran a 5K race on 9/11 and finished in 3rd with a time of 20:23(6:33/mile). Said he felt great and could have easily kept that pace going. Longest run before the half was 10.5 miles, but he did plenty of 8 and 9 milers at race pace. He had a great race for the half, finished 5th overall 1:26:54(6:37 pace), but shortly after finishing started to fill light headed and ended up in the med tent and they gave him an IV. Later that afternoon/evening he got nauseous and had major migraines and had to be taken to the ER. I don't recall if they ever gave a definitive cause for anything. But going over everything pre race/race day with him it almost sounded like hyponatremia to me. But his overdrinking was all electrolyte drinks(multiple the day before, 2 the morning of, and hit every water station during the race) and I thought that was more of a too much water/not enough electrolytes.
Attempt #2(same half race in Oct): Shortly after the first half their son was born so he did minimal training over the winter/early spring, but picked up fully in late Spring. Probably did the same training routine during the summer, ran the same 5K in Sept, this time finishing 3rd in 19:11. Multiple runs on the course leading up to the race of 8-9 miles at race pace and some tempo runs of 10-12 miles. His week before race week was suspect. He had a college friend running a research program that he helped out. That was a weighted vest treadmill run till exhaustion. Then he tweaked his ankle the Saturday before race day and took the rest of the week off only doing a 2 mile easy run the day before the race to test out his ankle which he said seemed fine, but he was still a little worried.
Race day weather was mid 60's at the start and pushed up to low 80s by the afternoon, so a little warmer than usual. His hydration seemed better but I have doubts about his electrolyte mix(decent sodium content, but half the carbs/ 0 sugar compared to gatorade). He hit most of the aid stations but not all. Breakfast was a bagel, coffee and an electrolyte drink( i think that was it, so definitely went too light by my standards here). For the race he started off strong, 6:20 avg pace for the first half and was hanging with the 2nd place guy able to have conversations with him while running. By the 8th/9th mile he started to feel slightly dizzy and eased back letting the other guy pull ahead. Dropped to 6:30-6:40 pace. Mile 11/12 paced dropped to 6:50 but it also had a slightly steep uphill segment, so effort seemed constant. Just after mile 12 he blacked out and hit the pavement. He was unconscious and unresponsive when the ambulance arrived. Luckily only 1/4 mile from the hospital. They almost had to intubate, but he started to come around. Really high blood pressure, and they expected kidney damage, but found none with later tests. ECG and ECHO also came out ok. but it was multiple hours before he could communicate and talk. Week later he seems back to normal.
A talked with him about his competing tracks - lifting vs running, his body composition(heavier muscle mass runner), high protein diet(both foods and supplements, even eats these high protein potato chips), lack of long time running development, but he is of the mind that these other guys can do it so he can to, and he is highly competitive.
Just can't figure out if he's just screwing up race day nutrition or if its his whole approach/training plan. But batting .500(just barely) for your A race to me says your doing something massively wrong. Anybody else do one of these heavy lifting/running training plans? Any thoughts?
His background: 26 years old good athlete, former high school football standout, he's 4 years out of college and maintained an active lifting routine through college, running was limited to treadmill cardio(10 to 15 minutes) before and/or after workouts. Took up serious running ~1.5 to 2 years ago as he wanted to run a half marathon.
Attempt #1: Half was in late October '22 and he began training in earnest the Spring before. I had a chance to run with him in the Summer down in the Panhandle Florida while on a family vacation. He was doing solid 6-7 mile runs in the low 7 minutes, which was great given the Florida heat and humidity. He also threw in a few weight sessions during the week in the condo gym later each day. Which seemed to be is standard training routine. He ran a 5K race on 9/11 and finished in 3rd with a time of 20:23(6:33/mile). Said he felt great and could have easily kept that pace going. Longest run before the half was 10.5 miles, but he did plenty of 8 and 9 milers at race pace. He had a great race for the half, finished 5th overall 1:26:54(6:37 pace), but shortly after finishing started to fill light headed and ended up in the med tent and they gave him an IV. Later that afternoon/evening he got nauseous and had major migraines and had to be taken to the ER. I don't recall if they ever gave a definitive cause for anything. But going over everything pre race/race day with him it almost sounded like hyponatremia to me. But his overdrinking was all electrolyte drinks(multiple the day before, 2 the morning of, and hit every water station during the race) and I thought that was more of a too much water/not enough electrolytes.
Attempt #2(same half race in Oct): Shortly after the first half their son was born so he did minimal training over the winter/early spring, but picked up fully in late Spring. Probably did the same training routine during the summer, ran the same 5K in Sept, this time finishing 3rd in 19:11. Multiple runs on the course leading up to the race of 8-9 miles at race pace and some tempo runs of 10-12 miles. His week before race week was suspect. He had a college friend running a research program that he helped out. That was a weighted vest treadmill run till exhaustion. Then he tweaked his ankle the Saturday before race day and took the rest of the week off only doing a 2 mile easy run the day before the race to test out his ankle which he said seemed fine, but he was still a little worried.
Race day weather was mid 60's at the start and pushed up to low 80s by the afternoon, so a little warmer than usual. His hydration seemed better but I have doubts about his electrolyte mix(decent sodium content, but half the carbs/ 0 sugar compared to gatorade). He hit most of the aid stations but not all. Breakfast was a bagel, coffee and an electrolyte drink( i think that was it, so definitely went too light by my standards here). For the race he started off strong, 6:20 avg pace for the first half and was hanging with the 2nd place guy able to have conversations with him while running. By the 8th/9th mile he started to feel slightly dizzy and eased back letting the other guy pull ahead. Dropped to 6:30-6:40 pace. Mile 11/12 paced dropped to 6:50 but it also had a slightly steep uphill segment, so effort seemed constant. Just after mile 12 he blacked out and hit the pavement. He was unconscious and unresponsive when the ambulance arrived. Luckily only 1/4 mile from the hospital. They almost had to intubate, but he started to come around. Really high blood pressure, and they expected kidney damage, but found none with later tests. ECG and ECHO also came out ok. but it was multiple hours before he could communicate and talk. Week later he seems back to normal.
A talked with him about his competing tracks - lifting vs running, his body composition(heavier muscle mass runner), high protein diet(both foods and supplements, even eats these high protein potato chips), lack of long time running development, but he is of the mind that these other guys can do it so he can to, and he is highly competitive.
Just can't figure out if he's just screwing up race day nutrition or if its his whole approach/training plan. But batting .500(just barely) for your A race to me says your doing something massively wrong. Anybody else do one of these heavy lifting/running training plans? Any thoughts?