If Your Long Runs Keep Feeling Harder 4 Weeks Before Your Next Marathon Training Cycle, Read This Before Adding More Miles
- Marie Whitt
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
You’re proud of the 1-2 marathons medals hanging on your wall.
And you’re about four weeks out from starting training for your next one.
But the problem?
A recent string of bad runs has almost ended with your running shoes in the garbage can.
So naturally, your dramatic running brain decides on this obvious solution:
“I should probably run more right now.”
Because runner-logic is:
"If you can just build more mileage before marathon training starts, then training will feel easier. You'll feel fitter going in, and long runs won’t feel so hard this cycle."
This is the dangerous “I should be doing more” loop.
You look at your current 30+ mile weeks and think:
“Maybe it’s not enough.”
“Maybe I need higher mileage before training starts.”
“Maybe my long run isn't long enough so I’m behind.”
Because we assume more miles NOW, automatically means more prepared later.
Because here’s the nuance that get's lost in 12 sec tiktok or instagram videos:
More mileage does help marathon performance.
Building your aerobic base matters.
Long runs matter.
Consistency matters.
None of that is wrong.
But as runners, we need everything in balance.
If your body doesn’t have the muscular strength and endurance to support increasing mileage, then trying to force confidence through extra miles backfires.
Instead of feeling fitter, your runs start feeling heavier.
Recovery gets harder.
Little aches and niggles start piling up.
And suddenly you’re entering marathon training already feeling behind, fragile, or one bad run away from spiraling.
So no, this isn’t about replacing running with strength training.
It’s about supporting your running with the kind of strength training, strength fitness, that helps your body actually tolerate the mileage you’re trying to build.
Because your goal isn’t just to survive higher mileage for a few weeks.
It’s to become the kind of runner whose body can consistently handle training without constantly flirting with burnout, injury, or exhaustion.
So what do you say to a strength workout that helps make that happen?
Strength Training for Runners: How to Support Higher Marathon Mileage
1 Circuit: 2 supersets*
*mini circuits
SUPER SET 1:
skater jump plyos
3 sets x 5 ea leg
Off-set elevated squat with shoulder-racked weights
3 sets of 8 ea leg
SUPER SET 2:
Cross body step up into high knee (shoulder racked weights)
4 sets x 6 ea leg
Elevated glute bridge (weighted) with alternate high knee marching
4 sets x 8 ea leg
Your Marathon Fitness Isn’t Just About Mileage Anymore
SUPER SET 1:
This is especially for the runners who say "my glutes won't turn on!". Well, they will now.
THE REASON: I'm getting sneaky with slowly easing you into more and more single leg exercises. (read: do NOT now only do single leg strength exercises. your legs will fall off). It's always about balance. I like this offset squat because it's this excellent middle ground of a bilateral (2 legged exercise) while still encouraging more work to be done on the elevated leg, specifically in your glute med.
FORM CUE: gradually increase the height of the step, plates, or text books you're using. If you don't feel much, stack things up higher. However, if you find yourself tipping forward, nose towards the ground, decrease the stack height. I want you squatting as if you're sitting into a chair behind you. It can be helpful when you're first learning this motion to literally place a soft box, bench, or kitchen chair behind you so your booty taps the seat.
But here me when I say: do not skip the plyometric. Both of these exercises combined do a wonderful job of training your frontal plane, or a side to side motion we don't explore much while running but does a great job of "activating" and strengthening our glute med, the most often villianized glute muscle for runners. So if you've ever been told "your glutes don't work because you're a runner", trust me. They work now.
SUPER SET 2:
Don't say I didn't warn you...
THE REASON: your quads and your glutes will be showing up to work today. I love the cross body step up because of how to combines both your quads and glutes working together with the addition to the high knee at the end to challenge your single leg balance? chef's kiss
But warning: there's a lot going on in one exercise. And more is not necessarily better. If you need to, please start with a small cross over step, meaning a small step or very low soft box. Build up the height as you feel more confident and stable. I want you to be able to control both the ascent AND the descent! Switching which arm is carrying the weight can also be helpful with keeping you balanced so don't be afraid to play around with that, too.
And don't forget: all these exercises look like your running stride, just in different positions. This includes the glute bridge. While it may not torch your hamstrings or glutes like the other ones do, it's still strengthening your core and reminding your body how to integrate your core and you're entire posterior chain. This is much more PT-ish, and delving into neuromotor control, or mind-muscle connection, but it's still important for building a strength foundation that can support high training volume/high mileage coming your way.
WRAPPING UP
So this is great and all, but WHEN am I supposed to do this workout?
Let's set this around the holy-grail running workout for marathoners: the long run.
We typically want to keep the day before, or even the 2 days before, a long as easy. This could include some easy miles, upper body strength, or core workouts.
I've had some brave runners do both their long run and a lower body workout like this in the same day, obviously running first, lifting second.
This works them. And they're focus is on keeping their hard days hard.
For those of us who need a little extra time between doing hard things...
I would suggest doing this strength workout AFTER your long run recovery day. You can even do it on none-running days if that feels best for you and your recovery time line.
It's always about balance: finding where strength AND running fit best into your schedule while still respecting the recovery time YOU need.
It may also help to remember, being a little sore from a leg workout is ok.
A lot of runners will shy away from strength training altogether because they worry about trashing their legs and ruining their long run. Valid!
However, don't miss the truth that the more consistent you are with strength training, the less sore leg day makes you, the stronger you get, and the easier long runs become.
This isn't meant to make you an elite hybrid athlete over night; this is just to provide you the context and the benefits of consistent, long term strength training and how it pays dividends your running performance in the long run.
So until next time running fit fam,
Dare to Train Differently.
Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit
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