What is the best app for marathon training if I also lift?

For the marathon plan itself, Runna is the strongest consumer option. For holding both halves on one ledger, that requires a hybrid-specific tool because no running app models strength load and no lifting app models mileage. Most people end up with two apps and reconcile by hand.

Can you lift during marathon training?

Yes, and the evidence supports it — strength work improves running economy and reduces injury risk. What has to change is volume: the set count you can recover from during peak mileage is meaningfully lower than in an off-season, and most stalled blocks come from not making that adjustment.

Should I stop lifting during a marathon block?

No. Reduce volume, keep intensity, and drop the sessions that interfere most with your key runs. Two sessions a week of heavy, low-volume work maintains strength and costs little recovery. Removing lifting entirely gives up the economy and durability benefits for no gain.

How do I know if my lifting is hurting my running?

The signals are a rising ramp rate on your endurance minutes alongside rising set volume, easy runs drifting faster than your threshold-derived easy band, and key sessions being missed rather than merely hard. Two of those three require numbers no single-discipline app computes.

Do I need two apps for marathon training and lifting?

Most people do, and it works provided you accept that no number requiring both halves gets computed. The alternative is one system that holds both, which trades away race-specific periodisation for cross-discipline awareness.

Best App for Marathon Training and Lifting

What a marathon block plus lifting actually needs

Five things. Almost nothing provides all five.

A progressive running plan with a taper and paces derived from your own performances.
Set-level lifting records — load, reps, proximity to failure — so progression is observable.
A volume target that falls as mileage rises. Your recoverable set count is not a constant. Why the interference is dose-dependent.
A ramp rate computed on total load, not on running alone. The measure with the best injury evidence.
A calorie target that knows what the week contained. Peak week and taper week differ by a lot. How much.

The options

Runna plus a lifting log — the best plan, no connection

Runna writes the strongest consumer marathon plan available: properly progressive, adaptive to your feedback, with paces from your own recent performances. Its strength add-on is generic — no load recorded, no RIR, no progression.

Pair it with Hevy or Strong and you have items 1 and 2 handled well and items 3, 4 and 5 not at all. This is the most common setup and it is a reasonable one. Where Runna stops.

Garmin Connect alone — one app, shallow on one half

Holds the running properly with real load modelling, and logs lifting as an activity with a set count. No load per set, no RIR, no e1RM trend, and lifting contributes almost nothing to Training Load — so a heavy squat week reads as recovery.

One app, no subscription, and item 2 is missing. What Connect models.

TrainingPeaks plus a lifting log — for the coached

If you have a coach, this is decided. Deep endurance modelling, real plan delivery. TSS is defined against an endurance threshold, so lifting cannot enter the model at all. Why that is definitional rather than an oversight.

Intervals.icu plus a lifting log — free, and better analysis

Free, deeper load modelling than Strava or TrainingPeaks, and it ingests from everything. No plan generation and no strength model. The best free half of a two-app stack. Where it stops.

One ledger — items 3, 4 and 5, at the cost of item 1

A hybrid-specific system holds both halves: set volume against your endurance load, a ramp rate on total training, a recovery signal reading both, and an adaptive calorie target. What it does not do is build a race-specific periodised marathon plan, which is genuinely Runna's and TrainingPeaks' advantage.

The comparison

	Runna + log	Garmin	TrainingPeaks + log	Intervals + log	Base
Marathon plan with taper	Best	Adaptive, generic	Via coach or marketplace	No	No
Paces from your threshold	Yes	Partly	Yes	Yes	Yes
Load per set and RIR	In the log	No	In the log	In the log	Yes
Volume target vs mileage	No	No	No	No	Yes
Ramp rate on total load	No	Running only	Running only	Running only	Yes
Deload trigger, both signals	No	No	No	No	Yes
Nutrition	No	Basic	No	No	Measured, adaptive
Apps to run	Two	One	Two	Two	One
Cost	Two subs	With device	Sub + log	Free + log	Beta

The honest ranking

If the marathon time is the goal and lifting is durability work: Runna plus a free lifting log. The plan quality matters more than the integration, and you should reduce lifting volume by feel during peak weeks.

If you want one app and no subscription: Garmin Connect, accepting that your lifting will be a diary rather than a programme.

If you are coached: whatever your coach uses.

If lifting is a co-equal goal: the two-app stack starts costing you real decisions. Whether this week's volume is affordable, whether the stall is under-recovery or under-eating, whether to deload — those are the questions that need both halves in one place. What that looks like.

The thing to fix first, whatever you pick

Most marathon-and-lifting blocks fail for one of two reasons, and neither is the app.

Easy runs are too fast. The single most common failure in concurrent training. Derive your actual easy band and check what your easy runs average. Why it matters this much.

Under-eating during peak weeks. A peak marathon week plus lifting is a large demand, and the cost of missing it appears in the weight room two days later rather than on the run. Why the bill arrives late.