Marathon Season Meets Leg Day

Miles: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Full Spectrum Fit. Amara: We're back, and Miles, my legs are still filing a complaint from Sunday's long run. Miles: How far'd you go? Amara: Fourteen miles. Felt amazing till my 11, then it was just survival. Miles: Relatable. My week was actually solid. Hit 305 for a double on back squat Tuesday. Amara: Wait, seriously? No way. Miles: Yeah, yeah, knees grumbled a little, but it moved fast. Amara: Okay, so get this. Meanwhile, I'm just trying not to die on hill repeats. Miles: Last week, we were deep in Games Floor Territory. Hybrid athletes, CrossFit chaos, all of it. Amara: Right, the whole, can you be strong and fast at once question. Miles: This week, we're bringing Matt down to your level because a bunch of you just signed up for a fall marathon or a Hyrox race. Amara: And now you're wondering what that's going to do to your squat. Miles: Spoiler, something happens. We'll get into how much. much and why the old fear might be overblown. Amara: We're also building an actual training week together – squats, hard runs, long run, the whole layout. Miles: And fueling, because most runners eat way less mid-race than they should. Amara: Then we close with the recovery stuff nobody budgets for and one real decision for this week. Miles: Big one. So Amara, what's actually on the fall calendar this year? Amara: Berlin, Chicago, New York, a couple high-rock stop-stop. Up stacked right on top. It's a lot. Speaker 3: It really is. Let's start counting weeks! My knee's still cranky after Sunday's long run, but Thursday's squat session, no bar speed loss at all. Amara: Meanwhile, I did zone two for 90 minutes and it was the most boring 90 minutes of my week. Speaker 3: Any fall race on the books, or are you just torturing yourself for fun? Amara: Chicago, you? Speaker 3: New York. Honestly, after last week's games episode, watching those hybrid athletes, I caught the itch too. Amara: The itch or the ego? Miles: A bit of both, sir. Amara: Okay, let's do the math nobody wants to do—Today's Tuesday, July twenty eighth. Speaker 3: Berlin's Sunday, September twenty seventh, that's from The5krunners' rundown of the remaining Abbott majors. Amara: To that—eight weeks! Speaker 3: Chicago's October eleventh, ten weeks. Amara: And New York, November first, gives you thirteen. Speaker 3: Sounds like plenty until you remember these aren't small races. Amara: Right. The5krunner notes Berlin alone pulls something like sixty thousand Speaker 3: Wow! Amara: entrants across its events. Speaker 3: That's insane, and New York Road Runners reportedly got over 240,000 applications in this year's lottery. Amara: 240,000 people fighting for one starting line. Speaker 3: This isn't an elite problem, it's a mass participation traffic jam, and you're in it with eight weeks to build. Amara: And it gets worse if you're doing Hyrox, too. Speaker 3: Don't remind me, D.C.'s September 3rd through 5th. Amara: Salt Lake City's right behind it, September 18th through 20th. Miles: twenty f Speaker 3: So some of you are racing a Hyrox week and starting taper mouth the same Amara: Right. Speaker 3: month. Amara: Less runway than people think. Speaker 3: Way less. Amara: So here's the question every one who just hit register is quietly panicking about: Speaker 3: What does all this running actually do to my squat? Okay, research hat is officially on because that fear losing your squat while you marathon train has an actual name, Miles: Hit me. Speaker 3: the interference effect. Back in 1980, a guy named Hickson ran heavy lifting and heavy endurance work together and found the strength gains just shrank. So the fear is 50 years old and legit. It was legit for a while, but Stronger by Science put out a put out a research spotlight arguing the picture softened a lot since the big 2012 meta-analysis everyone quotes. Softened how? Later work split trained lifters from total beginners, and same-session training from separate sessions. Turns out those two groups behave completely differently. Okay, and? And then this year, Frontiers published a review, Schumann's team pulled 43 studies and found a session order. Your barely moved the needle on hypertrophy or max strength. Wait, define those for me real quick. Hypertrophy is just muscle growth. Size. Max strength is your one rep ceiling. What you could squat once, all out. Miles: Got it. Speaker 3: And order didn't matter. Regardless of age, training status, how often people trained, didn't matter. Miles: I don't buy the doesn't matter part for my guys. Speaker 3: Of course you don't. I've watched marathon builds eat 20- Twenty, thirty pounds off a guy's squat max every single cycle. That's not nothing. Sure, but here's the piece people skip. It's not about order. Dose is the variable. Miles: Meaning? Speaker 3: Meaning the interference climbs once you're doing more than roughly three endurance sessions a week. That's the dial that actually moves things. Miles: Okay, that actually tracks because marathon builds aren't three runs a week. Speaker 3: Right, they're five, six sometimes. So my lifters aren't losing strength because they squat after they run. They're losing it because they're running 40, 50 miles a week on top of it. Exactly the distinction. It's volume, not sequencing. Huh. I've been telling people for years to lift before they run so it doesn't interfere. Your instinct wasn't wrong for feel. Lifting first probably helps you lift heavier that day. But the strength loss over a training block? That's mileage. So the scary version of this-Cardio kills your gains-is mostly outdated. Amara: Mostly. Your mileage may vary, literally, but the panic isn't warranted the way it used to be. Speaker 3: Alright, I'll take the win. Still doesn't mean my guys aren't cranky in week 8. Amara: No, they'll still be cranky. Speaker 3: So if it's not about which comes first in the session, it's about arranging the whole week around the dose. Amara: That's the actual homework now, not squat. lot before or after your run, but where you place your hardest lifting day against your long run and your total mileage. Speaker 3: Which means we need to talk about what Monday through Sunday should actually look like. Amara: Exactly where we're going next. Speaker 3: So let's actually build the week, not just theorize. Amara: Okay, lay it out. Miles: Two hard runs, one long run, two lifts—that's the skeleton for an eight to thirteen week build. Amara: And the sequencing research backs a specific order inside. Frontiers published an analysis in twenty twenty three on concurrent training sequence: lifting before running held up better for lower body strength, especially past eight weeks. Speaker 3: Which lines up with what I do anyway: heavy squat Monday. Easy Shakeout Tuesday, Hard Intervals Wednesday, Lift again Thursday, Upper Body and Accessories. Amara: Long Run Saturday Speaker 3: Long Run Saturday, Sunday is a jog or nothing. And here's the part people skip: that Monday squat day is placed as far from Saturday's long run as the week allows. Amara: Right, because if you squat heavy on Friday, your long run legs are toast the next morning. Speaker 3: Exactly. I've watched guys blow up their own long Their own long run because they wanted one more heavy triple two days out. Amara: Now flip that on its head, though, for Hyrox. Miles: Crocs' racers-they don't get to cut lower body work the way a marathoner can. Amara: No way, not with sled pushes and wall balls. Miles: Burpee broad jumps, too-that still loaded lower body power under fatigue-drop the strength work there and the whole race falls apart, not just your time. Amara: So for Hyrox folks, I basically flip the emphasis: strength stays the priority, running volume bends around it. Miles: What actually gets cut for the marathon crowd, then? Amara: Hypertrophy volume: trim the sets, don't delete the lift; two sets instead of four, same weight. Miles: To maintain, don't build-that's the actual goal of the block. Amara: Here's where I'll push back on you, though: I still keep a heavy squat day for recreational lifters, even at peak mileage. Miles: Really, I drop it to submaximal eighty percent once the long runs hit eighteen plus miles. PLUS MILES Amara: I get the caution; but dropping the heavy stimulus is how people lose confidence under the bar, not just strength. Miles: Confidence isn't a variable in the meta analysis, Miles. Amara: No, but it's real. Tendons like heavy singles too, not just volume. Miles: There, we're both right, depending on the lifter, honestly. Amara: Which is the most coach sounding thing either of us has said all episode. Miles: I'm guilty, but none of this, the perfect week, the spacing, the trimmed sets, matters if the long run itself is run on empty. Amara: shifting gears from squats to stomachs Miles: Rude but accurate. Amara: So how are people actually fueling these long runs? Miles: Badly, mostly. RunnersConnect cited a 2025 study. Average marathoner takes in about 21.7 grams of carbs an hour. Amara: That's it? Miles: That's it. And Jeukendrups's guidance for anything over two hours is 60 to 90 grams. Amara: Ah, so people are running on a third of what they actually need? Miles: Less than a third for some, and you can't just fix it by chugging more gel. Amara: The gut thing? Miles: Right. Glucose only moves through one transporter, SGLT1, and it caps around sixty grams an hour, no matter how much you swallow. Amara: So more gels past that point just sit there. Miles: Sloshing, literally. But fructose uses Uses a different transporter, GLUT5, so pairing the two raises your ceiling-Jeukendrups lays this out. It's why single source gels stall people no matter how many they take. Amara: I've watched skies blame their quads Miles: at That's Amara: mile eighteen when it's really their stomach that quit five miles earlier. Miles: That's the bonk nobody diagnoses correctly. Amara: Every time. And you can't just show up and try ninety grams cold. Old. Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Miles: RunnersConnect calls it gut training: start around thirty grams an hour twelve weeks out, add ten grams a week. Amara: Like progressive overload, but for your intestines. Miles: Exactly that. It works fast, too: a twenty twenty three review by Martinez found big drops in gut discomfort after just two weeks of practicing it. Amara: OK, but before anyone starts chasing pro cyclist numbers... Miles: Right, hold on. A twenty twenty five review from Wilson found no clear performance benefit pushing past ninety grams an hour. Amara: So more isn't always more. Miles: Not for most of us. Find your own ceiling, don't chase someone else's. Amara: The part that actually worries me for lifters though. Miles: Go on. Amara: Underfueling the long run is where hypertrophy dies, not the squat schedule. Miles: Chronic deficit plus climbing mileage, your body cannibalizes muscle before it touches fat. Amara: So the guy is skipping breakfast before a twenty miler to save calories? Miles: Is doing more damage than any squat day ever could. Amara: Brutal but true. Miles: And fueling's only half the bill. Amara: Half of what? Miles: Sleep, total food intake, the stuff that never shows up on a training plan at all. Amara: Building on that gut talk, sleep's the other number nobody writes down. Miles: Total food intake, too, not just carbs mid run. Amara: Both climb when mileage climbs and neither is written into any plan I've ever seen. Miles: Every plan's got a pace column, a mileage column; no plan says sleep eight hours. Amara: We're talking an extra three hundred to five hundred calories some days, plus another hour of sleep when you can grab it. Miles: And most runners skip it-they guard the run, ignore the recovery. Recovery? Amara: Should, though. Miles: Then there's the mental trap; three months watching your squat number just sit there. Amara: Or drop. Miles: Or drop. Amara: If your one rep max is the only scoreboard, that block feels like a loss. I've watched lifters spiral over that. Three flat months wrecks people's heads if they're not braced for it. Miles: So reframe the scoreboard now, ideally by week eight. Amara: Ask instead, did you hold your tops then under fatigue? Did the bar speed stay up? Stay honest, isn't that the actual when mid build? Miles: So three things before Sunday. Pick your race date. Amara: Berlin, Chicago, New York, whatever it is. Miles: Count backward from it. Amara: Count backward, and this week decide one lift you're protecting no matter what. Miles: And one you're letting go soft for twelve weeks. Amara: And the honest version of expectations: you won't PR that squat this season. Miles: Wow. Amara: Accept it in week one, and you'll skip the misery come week seven. seven Miles: Brutal, but true. Amara: Just being straight with you. Miles: And High Rock Strength Stations-sled push, wall balls-that's a whole separate episode we owe everyone. Amara: Promise we'll get there. For now, protect one main lift, two sets, once a week, non negotiable. Everything else bends; pick it and go. So the big takeaway for me, it's dose. How much you're loading each week. Miles: Right, right, right. The sequence barely matters compared to the total volume. Amara: And your dig into that interference effect research eased my mind on marathon training, which Miles: Turns out you probably don't have to panic about your squat numbers. Eat enough, sleep enough, you're mostly fine. Amara: loops back to those marathon countdown numbers you ran. Miles: Eight weeks moves fast. Pick your race date, count backward, Amara: Yeah. Miles: protect one lift this week. Amara: Simple math, honestly. Miles: Never easy, though. Got a fitness blind spot you want us to tackle? Drop it in the reviews or tag us at Full Spectrum Fit. Amara: New episodes every Tuesday. Miles: Thanks for hanging with us today. Amara: See you next week.