Hi, I am planning on joining the forces in a couple of months and have started long distance running a couple of weeks ago. At the moment I am running 7-10k every 2 days, is this too much or not enough? am I over doing it? I feel my body is handling it quite well, not even getting any aches that some people say I would.

And I also do weight training to build up muscle and strength. I do alot of Bench Press, Dead lifts, Heavy Barbell Rows etc. If I run this much will my muscle and strength decrease? or can I keep it if I eat enough calories and enough protein to keep the muscle?

Thx for your time guys and gals.

With muscles I believe it's very much a case of use it or lose it! As long as you keep using the muscles and fueling them properly, you won't have a problem.

Large muscle mass does however tend to be counter-productive to fast long distance running, usually large muscle mass will consist of fast twitch muscle fibres (used for quick, explosive bursts of power, such as heavy weightlifting or sprinting) obviously they're used less by long distance runners and therefore the muscle is simply extra weight to carry around. Long distance runners will tend to rely on slow twitch muscle fibres, and generally smaller muscles that are well toned for their purpose (lower power, long duration).

The distance of your runs depends entirely on you as a person - particularly your current level of fitness and natural ability to run! Some people would be green with envy at you being able to run that much that often, however to others it isn't a great deal at all! Perhaps it'd be worth looking into some training schedules that suit your current level of running ability?

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You should be fine! Sounds like you will defo beat the 1.5 Mile run need to do for the Army in under 14 Minutes no problem after that if your going Para/RM its around 9:30 they will then start building on you up once you have started your recruit training.

Peace

If you eat more than you digest you won't lose your muscles.
The reason why runners lose muscles (and fat) is because they digest more than they eat. If you are running 10km you should eat at least 3000 kcal to keep you muclemass.