Hey all, I recently ran a relay race where I ran 11 miles of it and used the Endurance Template along with Run With Hal training.
So before this I was doing Texas Method, and trying to distance run once a week and sprint train once a week, but as I ramped up mileage my legs would hurt like hell whenever I ran, so I had to quit dedicating myself to strength training and focus on my endurance training.
So the big positive is that my 1RMs on squat, overhead, bench stayed roughly the same. My deadlift decreased a little bit, but I imagine this is more of an adjustment to higher volume training on the lift than getting weaker. Overall, I couldn’t have asked for much more than keeping my lifts where they were at.
What you should know if you decide to purchase this template, is that the running/rowing program isn’t something you could use to improve if you’re a serious distance runner, cyclist, swimmer, etc. I don’t know about rowing, but I imagine there are also better programming methods for that too. For running (at least) to get faster you need to run longer and to run longer you need to run slower. I was amazed that running six miles at 15:00 min/mile finally brought my 5k under 30 minutes without me even training it.
Run with Hal is what I used. There are free templates on his website, but you can also pay for an app which scores you and adjusts your pace as you go. Overall the default 4-day a week programming looks like:
Two base short distance runs, one at a high RPE, one at a low RPE. one long distance run at a low RPE, and one intensity run which alternates between tempo running and interval training.
Interestingly, the interval training has a couple of miles warm up at the start and a cool off at the end, which seems like junk volume, but really adds in a whole dimension of mental challenge.
So the only con about the Endurance Template, in my opinion, is it assumes three day a week training and three day a week running. If you’re doing serious distance training, then the default from Hal is four days a week, and recommended even more than that if you can. So I started at three days a week, but halfway through increased to four days a week and combined my lifting days to accommodate this. So my lifting programming combined the Squat and Overhead on Day 1 + supplementals, Deadlift and Bench on Day 2 + supplementals, and then only supplementals on Day 3.
So for any trainers who are getting into Endurance activities but still want to keep strength-lifting a priority, I highly recommend this template.