Keep Lifting As Your Miles Go Up

The first thing most runners cut when mileage climbs is the gym.

It makes sense. You only have so many hours, and your legs can only take so much. The running is the thing you're actually training for. So the lifting gets skipped once, then twice, and then it's October and you haven't lifted since June.

The problem is that strength training does something running can't. It improves how much load your tissues can tolerate. If you drop it right when your running volume is going up, your capacity stays flat while the load keeps rising. That's usually where the nagging stuff starts.

Keeping the exact same program you had in the off season doesn't work either. Strength training is load. It adds to the same total as your running, your time on your feet, and your life stress. Three hard sets of split squats on Thursday are still in your legs on Saturday.

So the lifting stays in. What changes is how you do it.

Keep the frequency, cut the volume.

Two sessions a week is enough for most runners during a build. What comes down is the number of sets, not the number of days. If you were doing four sets of your main lifts, do two. If you had six accessory exercises, keep the two that address your actual weak spots and drop the rest. Lifting twice a week keeps your tissues used to the load. The volume is what makes your legs tired, and that's what you can't afford right now.

Keep the weight heavy and stop well short of failure.

This one feels backwards. Lighter weights taken close to failure are usually more fatiguing than heavier weights with a few reps left over. Heavy sets of 4–6 that you stop early will hold onto your strength and cost your legs less than sets of 15 that leave you shaking.

Don't add anything new.

New exercises make you sore. A movement your legs haven't done in months costs you 24–48 hours of stiffness, and that's fine in January. In the middle of a build, that soreness shows up on a day that mattered. Keep the same lifts you've been doing and change the numbers. Save the new stuff for after the race.

Lift on your hard days.

Put the hard work on the same day instead of spreading it out. If Tuesday is your workout, lift Tuesday, a few hours after the run rather than before it. Your easy days stay easy and you get an actual recovery day. If the schedule only works on an easy day, keep that session short and keep it away from your long run.

How you'll know you got it wrong.

• Paces slipping on quality days

• Legs heavy on easy runs more than a day after lifting

• Sleep or appetite off

• Resting heart rate up across a week

• Motivation draining before you get to the workout

• 
  

One of those on its own is usually nothing. Two or three of them together for a week probably means your total load is above your capacity, and the lifting is the easiest place to take some off.

Building strength takes volume. Keeping it takes much less.

-Eliana

P.S. If your mileage is going up and your struggling to figure out lifting, you can book a free discovery call here.