I Changed How I Balanced Strength and Mileage—and Ran 10 Minutes Faster Than Expected in My Half Marathon. Here’s How.

I’ve always been more of an anaerobic athlete, meaning I love shorter, faster running and strength workouts. In fact, I love strength so much that even during my first marathon training block, I enthusiastically committed to three heavy lifts a week. While strength training prevents injuries, makes you more durable, and can even boost your running economy, says Des Clarke, an RRCA-certified run coach based in Phoenix, I often spent evenings in the gym lifting weights instead of allowing my body to recover from 40-mile weeks.

As I started training for a half marathon for the second time, I decided to put more of an emphasis on mileage. I didn’t want to nix strength from my schedule entirely, but I had to figure out how to dial back my time with the weights and increase my running time in a safe, balanced way. Doing so helped me run a 1:46:50 half marathon on a majorly hilly course.

Here’s what I did to get there so you can strike a better balance, too. For anyone running half marathons and marathons (especially someone who’s newer to longer distances like I am), higher mileage weeks give you the base you need to run longer and faster. Before I started half marathon training, I was running at least two times each week for about eight months.

I was pretty consistent, but knew I could afford to add more miles. So before starting my plan, I added another day of running to my schedule, and then when I kicked off the first week, I tackled four days a week of running. I also added some more miles to my midweek runs.

Last training cycle, I usually opted for four-milers, but this time, I bumped it up to five or six miles. Clarke typically recommends repeating the same weekly mileage for two to three weeks in a row to make sure an athlete has adapted to that particular load before increasing again. I did this during several weeks of my plan.

In that same vein, it’s useful to take a deload week every three weeks or so to better absorb training gains, Clarke says. This involves scaling back your mileage by around 10 to 20 percent before returning to your typical volume. My training plan also included these, allowing me recovery time while pushing mileage.