Running and strength
Where should strength training go around a long run?
Place lifting around your weekend long run without letting sore legs dictate the session. An illustrative week and practical adjustments.
If your long run is on Sunday, put the more demanding lower-body lift earlier in the week and keep Saturday clear of unfamiliar or high-volume leg work. The aim is to arrive at the run able to hold its intended effort. A shorter, familiar strength session can sit closer to it if you know how your legs respond.
This is a scheduling decision, not a universal rule about the number of hours between sessions. Your long run’s purpose matters: an easy social outing leaves more room for flexibility than a race-specific session with sustained pace work.
Why does lifting timing matter before a long run?
A systematic review of acute strength training in runners found increased soreness and perceived effort after lifting, alongside reduced peak torque. Its findings on submaximal running were less dramatic. That distinction matters: sore legs do not automatically ruin an easy run, but they can make a planned progression or sustained race-pace segment harder to execute.
Think about the lift itself before moving it on the calendar. Three familiar sets of squats differ from a first session of heavy lunges and high-repetition calf raises. Novelty and total work belong in the decision alongside the day of the week.
Where does strength fit in a Sunday long-run week?
This is an illustrative week for someone already comfortable with three runs and two lifts. Adjust the volume to your training history rather than copying the table as a prescription.
| Day | Session | Scheduling reason |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rest, walk or easy mobility | Recover from Sunday’s run before loading the legs again |
| Tuesday | Full-body strength, with the main lower-body work | Leave several days before the next long run |
| Wednesday | Easy run | Keep the running effort controlled after lifting |
| Thursday | Quality run, such as intervals or a steady progression | Protect the run that needs concentration and pace control |
| Friday | Shorter strength session: familiar movements, fewer lower-body sets | Keep strength in the week without chasing soreness |
| Saturday | Rest or an easy walk | Give Sunday’s run room in the diary and in the legs |
| Sunday | Long run at the planned effort | Run for the session’s purpose, not to compensate for missed workouts |
If Friday lifting repeatedly leaves your legs heavy on Sunday, move that lift to Wednesday after an easy run, reduce its lower-body volume or make it an upper-body emphasis. There is no prize for preserving a neat calendar when the key run keeps deteriorating.
For the broader exercise selection and progression, see our strength training for runners guide. This article is about protecting the long run, not prescribing a gym programme.
Should you lift after the long run instead?
For a Sunday runner with limited weekday windows, lifting after the run can keep Saturday free. It is a demanding pairing, so start with a brief familiar session and judge whether technique and recovery remain sound. If the run is unusually long, includes hard pace work or leaves you depleted, move the lift rather than forcing it through tired legs.
A 2024 review of strength–endurance training order found small, inconclusive differences in longer-term endurance outcomes between doing endurance first and strength first. It does not establish that every same-day pairing feels equally good, or that a heavy lift after a long run suits every runner. Choose the order that protects the session you care about most and that you can repeat.
If you need to combine sessions regularly, our guide to running before or after lifting covers the same-day choice in more detail.
What changes when the long run gets harder?
An easy long run with friends gives you leeway. A long run with the final section near race pace deserves fresher legs. In that week, keep the main lower-body lift early, trim Friday’s sets or skip that session if recent training has already been heavy. Save unfamiliar exercises for a less specific block.
The same logic applies when the long run shifts from Sunday to Saturday: move the demanding lift earlier with it. Avoid treating an exact gap as a guarantee. Use your warm-up, soreness, recent training and the quality of the previous key run to judge whether the placement works.
When the long run grows, food and time become part of the constraint. A rushed Thursday interval session, Friday lift and underfuelled Saturday run is a different week from the tidy version on paper. Our fuelling guide for running and lifting helps plan the food around that workload.
How Telos can help organise the week
Telos Fitness lets you choose your sports, available hours and training focus, then builds day-by-day sessions across running and strength. Its 14-day blocks use recent training, adherence, recovery and performance signals when planning the next block; sessions can also be reordered around your schedule. That gives the long run and the lift a shared plan instead of two competing calendars.
Start by marking the long run’s purpose, then place the harder lift where it leaves that session intact. Review how Sunday’s run actually felt before repeating the arrangement next week.