all posts post new thread

Other/Mixed Q&D Experiment

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)

jroberts1187

Level 3 Valued Member
I see a lot of people combining Q+D or A+A with long aerobic runs, and I thought I'd try an experiment to prep me for a 5 Mile Run test that I've coming up in January.

TLDR: Big, Strong, Fatty and somewhat experienced lifter

Background for the Experiment: I'm historically a lifter who never ran over a mile until I was 21 thanks to Southern USA Football. I'm now 26 and after a couple years of poor training thanks to working full time during grad school, I really wanted to up my unilateral training and endurance without a lot of running and naturally SF is a perfect fit. Starting in 2020, I followed about 3 months of S+S just as COVID got going followed by Dan John's 10k Swing Challenge (altered for no weights during COVID) and doing this really helped me nail my swing form. Running was interspersed throughout here, but nothing huge. Then, I got it in my head to bulk back up despite not being at a great bodyfat %. So I attended a Plan Strong seminar after a month back in the gym once they opened up and after 2 months I hit PRs in OH Press and Bench Press and was back to pre-COVID in the DL, BS, and FS. But I was about 17-18% BF, and I'm about to hit some seriously endurance focused military courses. So cutting for the last 6 weeks following Q+D and some sprints, 800s, etc with some assistance exercises, and I'm down from 199 to 187 at estimated 13-14% BF, and surprisingly I truly believe my arms, shoulders, and upper back are all actually bigger.



Experiment: Going back over the book again and hitting the first 2 weeks of a 7 week base-building (running below the MAF number) block followed by a 3 week glycolytic peaking phase, it occurred to me that there could be some serious mitochondrial biogenesis to be earned here combining Q+D with long slow runs after depleting free creatine in the muscles and assuming a solid amount of muscle glycogen (muscle glycogen levels not mentioned in the book). I'm a huge nerd and I actually loved the biochem in the book, and I see people talking about combining Strong Endurance with LSS running, but I've never seen anyone talk about combining them in the same training session. Additionally, training this fasted as the book recommends and as research says improves fasted cardio faster (LSS only from what I've seen).

So, I've actually done this for the past 2 weeks where I complete Q+D, rest 5-10 mins, then complete a LSS run starting at 20 mins and adding 2.5-5 mins every run depending on the number of series completed (anything less than 5 series gets 5 min added to the run). I'm now on week 3 and saw super quick progress super early so I'm starting to combine the Delta 20 principle on the runs as well as a bit of autoregulation to keep my mileage down a bit for lower leg adaptation and shin splint avoidance. Ex: Run 1: 40 mins, Run 2: 30 mins, Run 3: 43 mins, Run 4: 50 mins, Run 5: 35 mins, etc... I'll admit following Q+D the first 10-20 mins of the runs can be hard to keep the heart rate down and It's hard to go faster than even an 11min mile, but the later in the run I'm not sure if I'm improving running economy or if my body is adjusting, but it definitely speeds up.

Nutrition- I am completing this in a nice deficit shooting for a macro breakdown of: 28%- Fat, 34%- Carbs, 38%- Protein, but honestly, I've been undershooting the carbs by a good bit lately thanks to Intermittent Fasting. Obviously, not trying to lose much of the hard-earned muscle, but I'm hoping to get down to 180 and make all this running just that much easier.

I'll report back results after this next block of Q+D is over around Christmas for what hopefully turns into my new way to base build.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom