Guide
Run or lift first on the same day?
Put the session that matters more in this block first, and leave at least six hours before the other one if you can. If you cannot split them, the lines below say which order costs less.
Last updated: 2026-10-15
By Ole Fiegenbaum, founder of Loadcast. Before the app, Ole's triathlon training ran through one ChatGPT chat. More on the landing page.
How this page was made: the rules and example weeks come from the Loadcast engine, and every example week runs through the same check as the app. The studies are linked. The text was written with AI help.
What the studies show
Doma and Deakin (2014) tested 15 male runners. After the strength session and a six hour break, running economy did not change. Time to exhaustion above the anaerobic threshold got shorter after the two harder strength sessions, not after the light whole-body one. The authors say six hours can keep the loss small below the threshold, and that effort above it needs caution.
Robineau and colleagues (2016) followed 58 amateur rugby players for seven weeks. Strength came first, endurance followed after 0, 6 or 24 hours. Maximal strength gains were smaller in the group with no break than in the groups with 6 or 24 hours. Peak oxygen uptake rose in every combined group, most with 24 hours. The authors advise against putting two opposing qualities less than six hours apart.
Doma & Deakin 2014. Eur J Sport Sci. Acute strength then running six hours later. PMID 24533516
Robineau et al. 2016. J Strength Cond Res. Zero, six and 24 hour recovery spacing trial. PMID 25546450
If your block is about strength
- If the gap is under 3 hours, lift first and keep the run easy and short, and split the two if you can.
- If the gap is 3 to 6 hours, lift first and run easy, and move intervals and tempo runs to another day.
- If the gap is over 6 hours, either order works, as long as the run stays easy.
If your block is about running
- If the gap is under 3 hours, run first, and lift upper body instead of legs.
- If the gap is 3 to 6 hours, run first, and keep the lift light if the run was hard.
- If the gap is over 6 hours, run in the morning and lift later.
If you are keeping both going
- If one of the two is hard and the other easy, the hard one goes first, whatever the gap.
- If both are easy, the order does not matter, so take the one your schedule gives you.
- If both are hard, give them different days.
What these lines do not know
The studies back the two ends: no break costs strength, and six hours keeps the loss in running small. The cut at three hours and the order inside each line are our rule of thumb, not a result from either study. Under six hours, the strength line is the one the studies speak against most.
Both studies are small and narrow. Fifteen men in one, rugby players in the other. Neither tests an hour-by-hour grid.
Where the week check stops
The week check plans one day after the other and flags the day that breaks the one before. It does not rate the order of two sessions inside a single day, because it does not know the times.
More guides
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Loadcast is an iPhone app. See it in the App Store.