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Is it possible to build muscle and increase strength whilst simultaneously training for a half marathon?
… honestly, I have no idea 🤷🏻♂️
But today we found out!
For the past 6 months @danvlife has been been in the gym, periodically following our hypertrophy/strength based training programs. I’d say this has been relatively successful (Exhibit A ☝🏼)
Alongside this he’s been following a half marathon running program. Heroic… I know!
We had to be extremely savvy in programming to ensure the running wasn’t effecting gains, and on the flip side his gains weren’t hindering his running (nutrition/recovery also playing key roles here).
Prior to today, Dan had already racked up a 10 mile run, but today he went a step further and potentially proves that building muscle mass and cardiovascular endurance can be done simultaneously. Hybrid, init!
The Sheffield half marathon has been a target for at approx 5 months. Dan hadn't ran more than 10k prior to this. So adaption had to be quick.
It's with great pleasure I can confirm that today Dan completed the Sheffield Half Marathon in a time of 2 hours and 1 minute. A phenomenal achievement for a guy who weighs 90kg and a year ago sat at 116kg.
It's also worth mentioning that Dan is a dad of 3. Fitting all this training in around his extremely busy lifestyle wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible.
I'm a stickler for planning and routine. If you want to maximise the time you have available and essentially do more in life, you have to plan and have schedule that you're sticking to. This is one of the biggest secrets as to why Dan has been able to do what he's done in the past year.
Couldn't be more proud and inspired mate!
New goals have already been set as Dan now sets his focus on a Hyrox competition in Birmingham in October. We've mapped out a 6 month plan and as of next week he'll start a new weekly training split. He's excited to get started and I'm even more excited to see how much further I can push him.
We'll keep you posted!
~ Ryan