Pairing Strength Training with Training Runs

In a perfect world you would want to keep your strength training days separate from your running days however, we don’t live in a perfect world. Oftentimes we are running multiple days a week and are trying to fit in 1-2 hard sessions along with 2+ easy sessions. Adding strength training into our already busy week further complicates things and we end up running out of hours in the “perfect world’s” week. The next best option is to find a way to strength train and run together even if that means on the same day. To maximize our recovery, it is usually best to pair our strength days with our hard days.

This brings up the question of which one should be done first? Going back to our perfect world scenario, the run workout should be done before the strength session. The reason the run should be first is because it has been shown that running post strength training can actually reduce your strength gains. When strength training is performed post run, there is a minimal to no effect on strength gains.

The issue that I have seen with strength training post run is there are other, mainly internal factors, that impact the effectiveness of this “perfect world” method of training. The main internal factor is motivation. Trying to stay motivated long enough to perform a hard strength session after an already hard run session can be a tough task. It can be very easy to persuade yourself to push the strength session back a few hours and then just never end up doing it. What I have found to be more effective is to perform the strength session when you know it will actually get done, even if that means before the run. My reasoning behind this is it is better to do something and get a smaller reward than to never do it and get no reward.