Am I overtraining from running and lifting?

After heavy squats or deadlifts, a hard run runs out of steam sooner, and the tired legs take 24 to 72 hours to come back. An easy Zone 2 run is barely touched.

That is fatigue you plan around, not a sign that you are overtraining.

Doma & Deakin 2014. Eur J Sport Sci. Acute strength then running six hours later. PMID 24533516

Silva et al. 2022. Sports Med Open. Acute strength-to-running meta-analysis. PMID 35976540

Hard days stacked without an easier day between them leave the next hard session worse, because the tank stays empty.

And when your last seven days carry far more load than your last four weeks did, and the week is already heavy, injury risk climbs. Loadcast reads a ratio above 1.3 together with a high week as that warning.

• If you feel flat for one to three days after heavy legs or a hard run and then bounce back, that is normal fatigue, so plan an easy day after it.
• If two hard days sit next to each other and the second one went badly, put an easy day between them before you cut anything else.
• If this week is far bigger than your recent weeks, take the extra out of the hard sessions first and keep the easy ones.
• If you feel run down for weeks even with easy days, talk to a doctor, because a guide cannot diagnose overtraining.

Loadcast compares your last seven days of training with your four-week average. With heart-rate data, minutes in a higher zone count for more points than minutes in a lower one, so a hard session weighs more than an easy one of the same length.

Two rules act on it. If your last seven days are already in the high range for how often you train and today's plan is a hard session, the app steps that session down. If the ratio is above 1.3 and the week is also high, it caps today's intensity one notch.

The ratio alone is a weak signal, so it never changes your plan by itself.

This week breaks a next-day rule the app runs. Heavy legs on Monday leave intervals on Tuesday with tired legs, so the app turns Tuesday into a tempo run.

Monday: heavy legs, 60 minutes.

Tuesday: intervals, 50 minutes.

Wednesday: upper body, 60 minutes.

Thursday: easy run, 45 minutes.

Friday: rest.

Saturday: long run, 100 minutes.

Sunday: rest.

• If you lift heavy legs on Monday, intervals on Tuesday turn into a tempo run, so move the intervals to Wednesday or later.
• If you lift upper body the day before intervals, nothing moves.

It cannot see how you slept or how you feel today. The check-in in the app asks you, and your answer can change the plan. A guide only lists the rules that look at your training.

In the app, the matching rule reads like this.

Hard sessions were clustered. Spacing drove today's prescription. Hard days clustered without recovery empty the tank and dull your control. Easier today. Spacing protects your next quality day.

Load rules stepped intensity down for safer progression. Acute load spikes beyond 1.3x chronic load correlate with injury risk. Lower intensity today. Stay in the productive zone.

Every rule with its mechanism is on How Loadcast decides, the studies are on The research behind our content.

How should running after leg day change your plan?

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Loadcast is an iPhone app. See it in the App Store.