If You Struggle to Hold Your Pace Late in a Race, You Need These 2 Research-Backed Strategies

In the final miles of a half or full marathon, the pace that once felt manageable may start slipping away—first by a few seconds per mile, then a few more.Dehydration and dwindling glycogen stores provide easy explanations. But neither accounts for every late-race fade. In cool conditions, it’s easier to stay hydrated especially if you’re regularly sipping fluids, while taking in carbohydrates during the race can help preserve glycogen stores. And when glycogen depletion does bring performance down, it often looks more like a sudden, dramatic bonk than a steady 10-second-per-mile slowdown.That leaves exercise scientists with a more complicated question: Why can two runners with similar VO2 max values, running economy, and overall fitness—along with adequate fueling and hydration—have dramatically different race outcomes once fatigue sets in?One emerging explanation is durability, also called fatigue resistance—the ability to preserve the physiological qualities you display when fresh after you’ve been running for a long time.The challenge has been measuring this metric in the lab. Standard VO2 max and running-economy tests typically assess athletes while they’re fresh, making it relatively easy to isolate variables such as footwear. Once subjects run long enough to become fatigued, however, training history, muscle damage, fueling, hydration, soreness, and motivation can all influence the result.Researchers are beginning to untangle those variables, though, and two studies point to practical strategies that may help runners preserve their efficiency and their late-race pace.Strength Training and Fatigue ResistanceRunning economy is a measure of how much oxygen you require to run a certain pace. Think of it in terms of efficiency: Improve your running economy, and you can run faster at a given effort level, or you can hold a certain pace for longer.It’s been known for decades that lower-body strength training can improve running economy. This knowledge comes from studies in which two groups of matched runners train similarly for a number of weeks, except that one group strength trains two or three times a week and the other doesn’t. At the end of the test period, the ones who strength train have better running economy than they did at the beginning of the study, while the control group doesn’t.But as noted above, running economy tests are almost always conducted when the subjects are fresh, and usually last for only five minutes. Studies designed this way can’t answer a significant real-world question: Do the running economy gains you get from strength training last through an hour or two of running, when you’re much more tired than five minutes in?According to research from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, the answer is yes.For the study, 28 male runners of around 39:00 10K ability were divided into two groups. One group added twice-weekly strength training and plyometrics sessions to their normal run training. The other group followed their usual running routine with no lower-leg strength training or plyos.Before the 10-week strength program, all of the runners did a 90-minute run at just over 1 minute per mile slower than 10K race pace, followed by a time trial to exhaustion at about 5K race pace. All of the runners repeated that challenging treadmill session after the 10-week strength program.The effects of the strength-training program were profound. The researchers measured the subjects’ running economy every 15 minutes during both 90-minute runs. Both groups showed decreased economy over the final 30 minutes of both runs—they required more oxygen to maintain the fixed pace. But the rate of decreased economy was lower in the strength-training group.Before the 10-week strength program, their running economy had worsened by 4.7 percent after 90 minutes. Ten weeks later, it worsened by only 2.1 percent. The non-lifters’ economy didn’t improve between tests.The difference in time trial results was even more dramatic. The run-only group performed essentially the same on both time trials. The strength-training group, however, lasted 35 percent longer the second time. Before their 10-week strength program, they followed the quick 90-minute run with an average of 4:07 at about 5K race pace. After strength training, they could hold 5K race pace for an average of 5:24 after the 90-minute run.In sum, after twice-weekly strength workouts, runners had better running economy in the final 30 minutes of a brisk 90-minute run, and they were able to hold 5K race pace immediately after that run for 35 percent longer. The run-only group showed no signs of improving their fatigue resistance.Braden Goimarac, a strength and conditioning coach at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who also works with pro runners, such as Olympic marathoners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, is pleased with the existence and results of this research.“The literature in this area is practically nonexistent,” he says. “So, when this study was published touching on this topic, it naturally created a buzz. Our program has already been implementing everything this study’s intervention included, but hopefully this growing evidence will convince others to also more fully incorporate strength training and plyometrics.”The study’s program was fairly simple: Twice a week, the runners did three sets of vertical (pogo jumps and drop jumps) and horizontal (bounding) plyometrics.“The only equipment you need for plyos is open space,” Goimarac says. “You can hop, skip, and bound in a parking lot, field of grass, or your living room. I usually suggest low-level pogos as a great place to start.”The runners did strength work along with those twice-weekly plyometrics. “Unfortunately, there aren’t many bodyweight strength exercises that will really move the needle when it comes to improving running economy,” Goimarac says.For that, you need to do as the runners in the study did—lift heavy. The study participants’ three strength exercises were back squat, single-leg press, and seated isometric calf raises. The protocol for each exercise varied, but was in the range of three sets of reps at greater than 75 percent of their one-rep max for their exercise. (See Table 1 in the research for the exact details of the study’s program.)GET YOUR STRENGTH WORKOUTS HERE!Super Shoes and Fatigue ResistanceAnother proven way to improve your running economy is to wear super shoes, which are characterized by a thick slab of modern midsole foam, a stiffening agent such as a carbon-fiber plate, and rocker geometry.Running economy and super shoes are so well-connected that the original super shoe, the Nike Vaporfly 4%, got the numeric part of its name from the average 4 percent improvement in running economy the shoe imparted in the first independent lab study of this game-changing footwear.Here, too, however, most of these running economy results come from five-minute tests when subjects are fresh. Do those benefits accrue in the real world, so that super shoes are more helpful than conventional models when you’re really tired?Yes, but with a caveat, according to a 2025 study out of Germany.Researchers at Medical School Hamburg had nine runners (five women with an average 10K time of 36:09, four men with an average 10K time of 30:17) do 90-minute treadmill runs, two weeks apart. The runs were “like a faster easy run,” Karsten Hollander, MD, PhD, one of the study authors, tells Runner’s World. “It’s definitely slower than marathon pace.” For male runners, that meant around 9.3 to 10.5 miles per hour on the treadmill, and for female athletes, it was around 8.0 to 8.7 miles per hour.The only difference between the two runs was what shoes the runners wore. On one, they ran in the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% 2, a super shoe. On the other, they wore the Brooks Launch 10, which is almost the same weight as the Nike model, but lacks that shoe’s next-gen foam and other super shoe elements.The researchers measured the subjects’ running economy every 15 minutes during the 90-minute runs. On average, the runners were 3.18 percent more efficient in the Nike super shoe than in the Brooks conventional shoe.However, there are two notable findings from the study’s results. First, running economy did decline when the runners wore the super shoes. The oxygen cost of maintaining that set “faster easy run” pace increased by an average of 5.63 percent by the end of the 90 minutes.This study is thought to be the first to show that the running economy gains imparted by super shoes decline as runners tire. And bear in mind that the subjects were highly trained, accomplished runners. It’s reasonable to think that less well-trained runners would experience at least as much decline in running economy with fatigue.But if that sounds like an argument for not wearing super shoes in longer races, here’s the second notable finding: The subjects’ running economy declined by that same 5.63 percent when they wore the conventional shoes. So, even though running economy was worse after 90 minutes in super shoes, the initial 3.18 percent gain in efficiency was still present. In other words, the super shoe wearers were still more efficient in the end.The TakeawayTaken together, these two studies suggest two simple ways to build your fatigue resistance for longer races. First, do intense (high weight) lower-body strengthening and plyometric exercises throughout your buildup to improve your running economy.Second, race in super shoes. Even though your running economy will worsen as you fatigue, it will also worsen in conventional shoes, so you’ll still start the race from a higher running economy baseline.TRY THIS LOWER-BODY WORKOUTScott is a veteran running, fitness, and health journalist who has held senior editorial positions at Runner's World and Running Times. Much of his writing translates sport science research and elite best practices into practical guidance for everyday athletes. He is the author or coauthor of several running books, including Running Is My Therapy, Advanced Marathoning, and Meb for Mortals. Scott has also written about running for Slate, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and other members of the sedentary media. His lifetime running odometer is past 110,000 miles, but he's as much in love as ever.