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Or get your hybrid score firstHow to Train for a Marathon Without Losing Your Squat and Deadlift
My deadlift was 300 kg before I ran a marathon. It's around 200 kg now. I'd rather lead with that than pretend a marathon block is free.
But most of that drop wasn't the marathon. It was the first year of learning to run at 90 kg body weight, when I cut lifting to almost nothing because everything below the knee hurt, and lost weight without meaning to. The block itself — the 16 weeks in front of the race — is a different story. Done right, you finish it squatting and pulling within 5–10% of where you started. Here's how I'd structure it now.
What actually costs you strength in a marathon block
Not the running, mostly. Three things do the damage:
1. Dropping lifting to zero. The most common mistake, and the most expensive. Strength holds surprisingly well on a fraction of the volume as long as the weight stays heavy — trained lifters have kept their numbers for months on about a third of their old volume, and even one hard set per lift per week holds a lot. Stop entirely and it goes fast.
2. Eating like a runner. Fifty kilometres a week burns a lot. If your bodyweight drifts down 4–5 kg across the block, your squat drifts with it. I lost bench along with bodyweight in my first year and it had nothing to do with interference. Eat at maintenance. Weigh yourself weekly.
3. Stacking hard days. Deadlifts the day before the long run. Intervals the day after squats. Each one turns a session into a half-session, and across 16 weeks that adds up to a lot of missed training in both lanes. The interference effect is real, but it's mostly a scheduling problem.
Fix those three and the physiology is on your side. Muscle barely changes under endurance training; it's peak force that dips, and it comes back within weeks once the running volume drops.
The two-day lifting template
Two sessions, 45 minutes each, the whole block. Compounds only.
Day A — squat and press
- Back squat: 3×3 at RPE 7–8 (about 80–85% of your pre-block max)
- Bench press: 4×4 at RPE 7
- Barbell row: 3×6
- Done
Day B — deadlift and pull
- Deadlift: 2×3 at RPE 7–8, then 1×5 at 70%
- Overhead press: 3×5 at RPE 7
- Pull-ups: 4 sets, 2 reps short of failure
- Done
No leg press, no leg curls, no lunges. When recovery is the limiting resource, spend it on the lifts you want to keep. I dropped every accessory months before my first marathon and the compounds didn't miss them.
The load stays heavy. This is the rule. 3×3 at 80–85% is what tells your nervous system the strength is still needed. Dropping to 3×10 at 60% "for endurance" is how lifters lose 20 kg off a squat in a block — it's a different stimulus, and it's not the one you're trying to protect.
Every fourth week: 2×2 at the same weight. Same intensity, less volume. It lines up with the running cutback week, and it's what a taper looks like in miniature.
Where the lifts go in the run week
Four runs, two lifts, one day off. The order is the whole trick.
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Mon | Easy run, 8–10 km, zone 2 |
| Tue | Quality run — 6×1 km at 10k pace early in the block, 2×20 min at marathon pace later |
| Wed | Lift A (squat) |
| Thu | Easy run, 8–12 km |
| Fri | Lift B (deadlift) |
| Sat | Off, or 30 min walk |
| Sun | Long run, building from 20 km to 32 km |
Check the gaps. The deadlift is 48 hours before the long run. The long run is 48 hours before the quality run. The squat sits the day after the quality run — lifting on run-tired legs is the cheaper compromise, because you can lower the bar and hit RPE 7 regardless, while running intervals on squat-tired legs means missing paces and, at 90 kg, an argument with your shins.
Never flip Friday and Sunday. Deadlifts the day before a 30 km run was the single worst scheduling mistake I made in marathon prep, and the rules I ended up with are two lines long: never heavy lower body the day before a long run, never intervals the day after deadlifts.
The block, phase by phase
Weeks 1–4: base. 35–40 km a week. Long run 18–22 km. Both lifts at full 3×3. This is where you'd add a third lifting day if you have it — you won't later.
Weeks 5–12: build. Volume climbs no faster than 10% a week, in a three-up, one-down pattern: 44, 48, 52, 40, 55, 58, 62, 46. The long run reaches 30–32 km twice. The quality run shifts from 10k-pace intervals to marathon-pace blocks.
When the week passes 55 km, the lifts drop to 2 sets each — 2×3 on the squat, 2×3 on the pull. Same weight. This is the cut that people resist and it's the one that keeps the block honest: the running is the goal, the lifting is the thing you're preserving, and preservation costs very little volume.
Weeks 13–14: peak. Highest volume, 60–70 km if you're an experienced runner, less if this is your first. Two sets on the lifts, RPE capped at 7. If a lift feels heavy at 80%, take 5% off and move on. The race doesn't care about your training-week squat.
Weeks 15–16: taper. Running volume comes down 40–50%. Lifting: same weight, fewer reps — 2×2 in week 15, one session of 2×2 five days out in week 16, then nothing. I wrote the exact numbers I used into the taper post; the logic is the same as for the running. Cut volume, keep intensity, arrive fresh.
I run this kind of block in HybridX, partly because I built it and partly because the scheduling is the thing that goes wrong by hand. The plan knows Friday's pull is 48 hours from Sunday's long run and keeps it there, and when a week gets broken — a missed session, a bad night — it rebalances what's left rather than piling the missed deadlift onto the long-run day.
What to expect at the end
Realistic outcome, for a lifter with a few years of training who follows the two-day template and eats enough: squat within 5–10% of the pre-block number, deadlift within 5%, bench nearly unchanged. The squat takes the bigger hit because it shares the most tissue with the running; the hinge recovers faster. Four to six weeks of a normal strength block after the race brings most of it back.
My own numbers across the whole transition — not one block, but years of running-first training with a newborn in the house — are in the origin post. They're worse than 5–10%, and they're honest about why: I chose the marathon, I was undersleeping, and I let the lifting go to zero for stretches. Don't do that part.
If you want a baseline before the block starts, the Hybrid Athlete Score gives you one number for strength and running combined, free, no account. Run it again after the race and see what the block actually cost. And if you'd rather have the sixteen weeks written around your days and your watch — start free; the long run lands on Sunday and the pull stays 48 hours in front of it.
FAQ
Should I stop lifting during marathon training?
No. Cut to two short sessions a week and keep the weight heavy — 3×3 at 80–85% on the squat and deadlift. Stopping entirely is what loses strength; a third of your old volume at full intensity holds it for months.
How many days a week should a runner lift during a marathon block?
Two. Three in the base phase if you have the time; never more than two once weekly volume passes 50 km. Each session is 45 minutes of compound lifts, no accessories.
Will I lose muscle running a marathon?
Very little, if you eat at maintenance. The research shows muscle size barely changes under concurrent training — it's peak strength that dips, and it comes back within a few weeks of the race. Most of the "muscle loss" people see is bodyweight lost to under-eating.