Balancing Running and Lifting: Strategies to Improve Performance in the Off-Season and Training Cycles

Balancing running and lifting can be a game-changer for athletes looking to enhance their performance and reduce the risk of injury. Much of the groundwork for a successful training cycle occurs before you even lace up your running shoes. By establishing a solid foundation now, you can elevate your fitness ceiling, making it easier to break through barriers when race day approaches. This article will delve into essential strategies for building your aerobic base and strength, ensuring you’re not just prepared to run but also equipped to lift effectively. With the right approach, you can seamlessly integrate both disciplines, optimizing your training and setting yourself up for success in upcoming races.

Laying the Groundwork

Much of the work needed to improve your performance in a given training cycle happens BEFORE that training cycle ever begins!

Now is where you lay the solid foundation. Raise the floor so you can more easily break through that ceiling!

Now is where you build your aerobic base, increasing your cardiovascular system’s capacity for improved fitness once you hit that training cycle.

Now is where you build volume wide before you build up. For example, if you are planning to run 4 days per week in your race prep but are only running 2 days per week now. Start spreading your current volume across more days building from there so that you aren’t piling on increasing distance per run and runs per week at the same time when training “starts.”

Now is where you build strength. If you aren’t in a habit of strength training now, this is where you start building that habit. If you have a somewhat consistent habit, this is where you start building toward max strength efforts.

Going from zero to race ready in just 12 weeks, especially for races like half and full marathons, every cycle is holding you back (and likely setting you up for those overuse, aka. “too-much-too-soon,” injuries)!

Let’s cover some timelines and expectations for “big race” training, some key things to consider working on before you officially start that training block, and how to adjust your strength training to support your running before and during that training block by balancing running and lifting.

Timelines and Expectations

The time needed to safely and strategically build the volume needed to hit a specific race distance target is as follows:

• 5k: 8-12 weeks
• 10k: 10-12 weeks from a mile base
• Half Marathon: 12 - 16 weeks from a 10k long run and 15 - 20 miles per week base
• Marathon: 16 - 20 weeks from a 8 - 10 mile long run 18 - 25 miles per week base 

Where it says from a “…..” base, that means it should take you at least the number of weeks listed to train from a place where you can already confidently complete that volume of running.

The table below shows you what that timeline looks like for some of the more popular spring/summer marathons in 2025.

What to Do Before Training Starts

This is where balancing running and lifting really begins:

• Work on building or maintaining volume as needed with a solid aerobic base.
• Make runs mostly easy with purposefully dosed hard. This idea of purposefully dosing hard with an aerobic base to improve overall fitness was the topic of this week’s podcast episode. You can give it a listen here.
• Spread your base wide before you pile up on top. Decide how many days you plan to run in your race training block and get consistent with that. Spread your current volume across those days before building up.
• Work on building or solidifying your habit with strength training.
• Commit to at least 2 days per week. This can decrease as you get closer to peak volumes in your training block but start here for a solid base.
• If you do not currently have a strength training routine, focus on creating and getting consistent with one.
• If you already have a strength training routine, focus on building toward max strength. Shift away from the 3 sets of 10 schemes and start working toward 4 sets of 6 - 8 then 5 sets of 5 heavier lifts.
• Tighten up your nutrition habits.
• Fueling well is the cornerstone of all training. Make sure you understand and are prepared to meet the energy demands of training.

Balancing Running and Lifting: Meet Your Needs With Strength Training

Adjusting your strength training to meet your needs before and during a training block is an important piece of getting ready for race day!

Let’s start with a few foundational ideas:

1. We can break running up into seasons.
2. The overall stress that running puts on the body increases with volume and intensity.

I like to look at it through the lens of having 4 seasons:

• Off season - This is when running volume and intensity is decreased.
• Base maintenance - This means holding running volume and intensity mostly steady (when it comes to strength training recommendations I usually lump in gentle base building here too)
• Building - This occurs early in the training block. You are building volume and intensity but not yet peaking.
• Peaking - This is your highest mileage or intensity window of a training block (when it comes to strength training recommendations I usually lump taper and racing in with this as well)

As you move through the seasons, the stress that running puts on your body will increase.

AND therefore the opportunity to stress your body with strength training will decrease.

In other words, we can really lean into the stress from the strength training in the off season, maintenance, and early building to lay a solid foundation. Then, we pull back the reins on the stress from strength training in the later building, peaking, taper, and race seasons.

This does NOT mean that you should just do a bunch of strength training in the former and then stop in the latter. I recommend strength training in some way throughout ALL the seasons. It’s the strategy behind the sessions that changes.

By the way, if you're sitting there thinking, “why do I even need to strength train in the first place,” this blog post will go into more of the benefits for your running.

To understand that strategy, it helps to understand some key variables and how they contribute to the stress the body experiences with strength training: volume, speed, and tempo.

Volume

Volume is the total reps and sets. More volume = more stress. As you move into seasons of more stress from running, reduce your strength volume accordingly. While in the off season and maintenance seasons,  you have the opportunity to really build strength with more volume.

Another thing to consider is eccentric vs concentric contraction contribution. Eccentric is when the muscles are lengthening with the load (think sinking down into your squat or shifting back into your hinge). Concentric is when the muscles are shortening with the load (think pushing out of that squat or hinge). More eccentric = more stress.

Speed

Speed is how we can alter time under tension with each rep. Slower movement = more time under tension = more stress. As you move into seasons of more stress from running, you can move faster in your lifts to reduce time under tension.

We manipulate the ratio of eccentric and concentric and the speed with strength training by changing the tempo of the lift.

Tempo

Tempo deals more with how you break up the speed of your eccentric and concentric movements. Tempo prescriptions use the following formula:  Eccentric Count - Pause Count - Concentric Count. Using a squat as an example, eccentric would be as you lower down, pause would be a hold at the bottom, concentric would be pushing out of the squat back to standing.

For example, a 4 - 2 - 1 tempo with a squat would be a 4 count as you lower down, a 2 count pause at the bottom, and a 2 count to push back out of the squat from standing.

I use 3 main tempos with lifts:

• Slow with eccentric focus: 4 - 2 - 1
• Slow without eccentric focus: 2 - 0 - 2
• Moderate: 1 - 0 - 1

Minimize or cut out eccentric work in the peaking/racing phase by adjusting tempo in your lifts. Additionally, when it comes to more dynamic/plyometric movements choose concentric power (powerful jumping) over eccentric yielding (sinky catching/landing) in your more dynamic movements. While in the off season and maintenance seasons, you have the opportunity to build more strength with more eccentric focus.

Balancing Running and Lifting: Putting it All Together

Here are some season by season guidelines for each variable.

Off Season and Base Maintenance (including Early Building)  = Strength Building

• Work up to heavy lifts (strength building)
• Higher volume is possible. You might need to start with 3 sets of 10 type schemes, then 4 sets of 6-8, and consider working up to 5 sets of 5 near 80-85% max.
• 2-3 sessions per week
• Eccentric work (muscle building) and slow tempo (4 - 2 - 1)

Later Building = Strength Maintenance

• Strength maintenance. You can and should still lift heavy.
• Reduce volume a bit by moving to 2-3 sets at 6-8 reps per set (compared to that 4 sets of 6 - 8 reps as an example)
• 2-3 sessions per week
• Reduce eccentric work but maintain a slower average tempo (2 - 0 - 2)

Peak Mileage/Race Prep = Low Stress Strength Maintenance

• Strength maintenance. You can and should still lift heavy. You want to maintain that force production capability!
• Reduce volume a lot moving into something like 2 sets, 5 reps per set. You are leaving reps in the tank to reduce the stress but still getting some work with that heavy lift for force production.
• Potentially reduce to 1 session per week (monitor fatigue and recovery from main run workouts)
• Eliminate eccentric work and increase tempo of the lift (1 - 0 - 1)

One other variable you can play with over the seasons is in the movement patterns you choose. Use more big movements in the sagittal plane in the lower run stress, strength building seasons and using more frontal and transverse planes and change of direction work in the higher run stress, strength maintenance seasons. You can sort of think of it as working more of the movement patterns your body isn’t getting directly from the running in those later seasons. This could be a whole topic itself.

Bottom line is, as you build run volume and get closer to racing, you still want to be lifting to preserve your capacity for force production but you want to reduce the added stress from your strength training by playing with the variables mentioned.

Reduce volume.

Phase out eccentric work.

Reduce time under tension.

AND make time in your season for times where you focus on this stuff!

If you tend to get burned out from your training, it can be very helpful to zoom out and use more of this seasonality strategy. It definitely requires some planning ahead with a heavy dose of consistency and patience.

Next on Your Reading List:

4 Components Every Runner Should Add to Their Home Strength Training Program

How To Deadlift Correctly & Why "Hinging" is Important For Runners

Running Injury Prevention: Strategies for a Stronger, Safer Run