Half-Marathon Race-Week Strength: What to Keep or Cut

The short answer

During half-marathon race week, keep only strength work that is familiar, low-cost, and unlikely to create soreness or movement changes. Remove heavy tests, new exercises, high-volume eccentric work, and sessions that compete with the final useful runs. Race week protects fitness already built; it does not create new strength.

Endurance taper research generally supports reducing training volume while preserving some familiar intensity and frequency.1 Strength training can support running economy and endurance performance across a longer programme, but that does not mean a hard lift close to the race adds benefit.2 Your recent response to familiar sessions matters more than a universal race-week template.

Audit each exercise before keeping it

Use four questions:

An exercise can be good during the build and wrong during race week. The decision is about timing and cost, not whether strength training is valuable.

Sort the session into keep, reduce, or remove

Keep

• familiar mobility or activation that genuinely helps you feel normal;
• a small number of technically clean repetitions;
• low-soreness isometrics already used in the programme;
• light, familiar upper-body or trunk work that does not disturb running;
• brief strides or drills that belong to the running plan, not a separate strength test.

Reduce

• the same lifts used during the build, with fewer sets and no grinding repetitions;
• loaded calf, squat, hinge, or split-stance work that is normally well tolerated;
• plyometric contacts already familiar to the athlete, only when the coach has planned them and the cost is reliably low.

Remove

• personal-record attempts;
• new exercises, shoes, surfaces, or machines;
• high-volume eccentric work;
• sets taken near failure;
• a missed heavy session moved into race week;
• any exercise that creates pain or changes normal movement.

These categories are examples, not an individualized prescription. Athlete history, coaching, injury context, disability, medication, and the rest of the taper can change the decision.

Use a simple placement rule

Place any retained strength far enough from the race to observe its cost and adjust. The exact day varies because runners differ in training history, race schedule, travel, and soreness response.

A practical decision sequence is:

1. Review how the same session affected the last three comparable weeks.
2. Remove the exercise with the highest uncertainty or soreness cost.
3. Reduce total sets before changing familiar technique.
4. Keep repetitions controlled and stop well before failure.
5. Check the next easy run, walking, stairs, and normal movement.

If you do not have recent evidence for how a session lands, race week is the wrong time to discover it.

Protect the running jobs

Race-week running usually has three jobs:

• preserve familiar frequency;
• touch controlled race rhythm or strides;
• arrive with less fatigue.

Strength should not turn an easy run into a form check or the final race-rhythm session into a survival effort. If two sessions compete, protect the one that creates clearer race-specific information with less residual cost.

Concurrent-training research finds that strength and endurance can coexist, while programme arrangement and athlete context matter.3 It does not support a rule that every training quality must appear at full dose each week.

Use the next-morning test

After retained strength, record:

• sleep opportunity and sleep disruption;
• walking and stair comfort;
• resting symptoms;
• easy-run effort and movement;
• local soreness;
• whether race pace feels mechanically familiar;
• whether pain changes the stride.

Normal mild awareness is different from soreness that changes movement. Do not use pain medication to hide a response so the plan can continue; medication decisions belong with qualified care.

Three example decisions

The runner who lifts twice every week

Keep one short familiar session early enough to observe recovery. Reduce sets, avoid failure, and remove high-soreness accessories. The goal is to preserve movement confidence, not training load.

The runner who missed strength for three weeks

Do not restart during race week. Use familiar mobility if helpful, complete the running taper, and reintroduce strength after recovery from the event.

The runner with a new niggle

Do not use strength as a self-test or diagnosis. Reduce or stop the provoking work and seek qualified guidance when pain changes movement, persists, or raises concern.

Race-week strength checklist

• The exercises are familiar.
• The load and equipment are familiar.
• No set approaches failure.
• Total volume is clearly below the build.
• The session cannot create a personal record.
• The next run has a defined job.
• Travel and sleep opportunity are protected.
• There is a stop rule for pain or concerning symptoms.

The 2023 taper meta-analysis included different sports, athletes, and protocols.1 Its broad finding supports fatigue reduction, not a precise strength-session formula for every half-marathon runner.

Frequently asked questions

Should I lift during half-marathon race week?

You may keep a short familiar session when its recovery cost is known and low. Remove it when it is new, heavy, high-volume, or likely to create soreness.

How heavy should race-week strength be?

There is no universal percentage. Use a load you have already tolerated, reduce total work, avoid failure, and judge the next-day response.

Should I do plyometrics?

Only if they are already part of the programme and consistently low-cost. Race week is not the time to introduce jumps or increase contacts.

What if strength usually makes me sore?

Cut or substantially reduce it. Soreness that changes running or normal movement conflicts with the taper's purpose.

Can I make up last week's missed lift?

No by default. Training debt is not repaid in race week. Protect the final useful running and recovery work.

Safety boundary

Stop for chest pain, fainting, severe breathing difficulty, or pain that changes normal movement. New or worsening pain, neurological symptoms, or medical restrictions need qualified clinical guidance. A general article cannot diagnose an injury or clear someone to race.

This guide is educational and not medical advice. It cannot prescribe a safe lift, load, race decision, or return-to-training plan for an individual.

Use the half-marathon training hub, warm-up checklist, first-5K pacing plan, and taper glossary for the rest of race-week execution.

26weeks.ai adapts strength and running around completed work, recovery, and disrupted weeks. Start training now.

References

1. Wang Z, et al. Effects of tapering on performance in endurance athletes: systematic review and meta-analysis. 2023. (PubMed)
2. Ramos-Campo DJ, et al. Strength training and endurance performance determinants: umbrella review. 2025. (PubMed)
3. Huiberts RO, et al. Concurrent strength and endurance training: systematic review and meta-analysis. 2024. (PubMed)
4. Bosquet L, et al. Effects of tapering on performance: meta-analysis. 2007. (PubMed)
5. Spilsbury KL, et al. Tapering strategies in endurance athletes. 2015. (PubMed)
6. Dupuy O, et al. Recovery techniques after exercise-induced muscle damage. 2018. (PubMed)
7. Kong Y, et al. Sleep deprivation, sport performance, and perceived exertion. 2025. (PubMed)
8. Soligard T, et al. How much is too much? IOC consensus on load and injury risk. 2016. (PubMed)