'But I'm a runner! How do I strength-train?'

The Question

Hi Casey! I came across your program, and I was very excited by the idea of a strength training program for someone who’s never done strength training before (extremely me). But here’s the problem: I’m a runner, I’ve been a runner for a long time, and I don’t want to give up running to become a full gym bro meathead. I love running! Please, how can I keep running but also get stronger? Am I allowed to do both? Can I do LIFTOFF only two days a week? Please help!

—Jen

The Answer

Since the time I developed a reputation for studying the iron arts, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve had variations on the following conversation:

“Casey, it’s so super freakin’ cool that you lift weights. I wish I could do that; you might even say it’s a dream of mine. [Wistful sigh accompanied by gaze out the nearest window]”

“Interesting! Do you work out another way?”

“Yeah [hangs head, kicks dirt with the toe of their shoe]. I run. I run one hundred miles every day. And I know I should be doing some strength training. I know it! Don’t arrest me, haha!”

“I wasn’t—”

“But I just have to run, you know? It’s like if I don’t run—what am I doing? If I don’t run—who am I? If I run less than a hundred miles, but I know I can run a hundred miles—why do that to myself?”

“What if—”

“I want to lift weights. I really want to. I wish I knew what to do.”

“Well—”

But it’s like I’m doomed, you know? Cursed by my own cycle! But I love it! I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it, right?”

“I—”

“Right??? Ahh, hell—[ambles toward the nearest windowsill and leans against it, so a sun and/or moonbeam catches their upturned face]—Fate—She’s a cruel mistress! If only it were possible to course-correct my own destiny of running, running forever, running eternally and without end. I am a wretched Prometheus, who discovered the fire of running, but now has his liver eaten every day, by the accursed eagle of also running! If only there were another way…”

[I slowly back out of the room]

There is often a lot going on with runners. And I speak from experience, as a former runner with whom there was a lot going on. If I may paint with a broad brush, they often seem to be to be caught up in this torrid one-way relationship with a sport, nursing an obsession with how much it has come to rule their life, for better and worse. (And I say “runners,” but it seems to happen often with cardio writ large; I absolve no one, categorically! Whenever I say “runner” in here, consider it interchangeable with a similarly obsessive cyclist, swimmer, sculler, mountaineer, ninepin bowler, etc.)