3 ways to maintain your strength in-season.

Should runners and cyclists stop strength training during race season?

No. Most runners and cyclists should continue strength training throughout race season, but the way they strength train should change. The goal shifts to maintaining strength, power and resilience while minimising fatigue. This typically involves reducing training volume, adjusting exercise selection and focusing on quality rather than quantity.

In this article, you'll learn the three key changes I make to every runner's and cyclist's strength programme during race season, plus the often-overlooked fourth strategy that can help prevent recurring niggles from returning.

Strength training for runners and cyclists over 30 is a game-changer for performance, resilience, and long-term health.

If you want the full breakdown, check out my Strength Training Over 30 Guides:

Strength training for runners over 30

Strength training for cyclists over 30

TRAINING BREAKDOWN

"The volume required to maintain a strength adaptation is significantly lower than the volume required to build it in the first place."

By Emma O'Toole

Hi there!

I hope that you’ve had a great week and managed to get some training in despite the rising temperature.

As you are no doubt well aware, race season is in full swing! Road races, track leagues, sportives, time trials, crits, audaxes, ultras… to name just a few!

Your training calendar is busy and when it comes to strength training, for many of us, it is the first thing to go.

I do get why. Your time is tight, your legs are likely tired, and when it comes to prioritising sessions, the run or the ride naturally always wins. But dropping strength training entirely during your race season is one of the most common mistakes I see, and unfortunately one of the most punishing, as it only takes as little as 30 days to begin to lose strength adaptations and just 5 days for maximal speed (yes, 5 days!).

So today I want to give you some advice on what to do instead.

I want to start off by saying that you do not need to maintain your full strength programme during your race season, but it is important to keep training those qualities and how you go about it matters a lot. Before we get into it, this advice is for those of you who have been strength training consistently. (If you are just getting started or back to strength training after a break, my free coaching community is the best place to get going and to grab a free strength session).

Ok so, in your off-season, or base phase, you are aiming to build capacity, develop new strength qualities, develop your weaknesses and improve your foundation to benefit your running and cycling.

In-season strength training is different. We are not looking to build new qualities, rather we are trying to maintain what you have built and keep your neuromuscular system sharp without adding fatigue to the most-important training weeks in your calendar this year.

3 things change in-season, plus one more for those of you who know your body well enough to know it needs a little extra attention during a long race season. More on that later!

1. Reduce your range of motion

This has a huge impact on how quickly you recover between sessions.

In your off-season strength work, full range of motion is great. A deep goblet squat, a full range single leg Romanian deadlift, a step up onto a high box. Full range of motion builds strength across a greater range of joint angles, helps develop mobility, and is very important to work through.

In-season, we want to pull that range back.

For example, a front foot elevated split squat becomes a regular split squat with both feet on the floor. The elevation of the front foot in the off-season increases the range of motion at the knee and hip, creating a greater demand on your quads, glutes, and hip flexors. Dropping to a regular split squat in-season reduces that range and the fatigue that comes with it, while still maintaining the single leg strength stimulus that matters for your running and cycling. And as you approach a key race/event we can limit that range of motion even further.

Here’s a visual so you can see what I mean:

This is smart, in-season programming. You’ve done the full range work and now we’re looking to maintain the adaptations you have built without digging yourself into a hole you cannot recover from before race day.

2. Reduce your volume

This is probably the simplest change to make. In your off-season, or base season, you might be doing 3 or 4 sets of an exercise. In-season, that drops to 2, or even 1 set.

I know that can feel like you are not doing enough. However, this is one of the most reassuring things I share with the athletes I coach at this time of year: the volume required to maintain a strength adaptation is significantly lower than the volume required to build it in the first place. Research supports this, and I see it consistently with the runners and cyclists I work with. You can hold onto a large proportion of what you have built with a fraction of the work, provided the intensity and intent remain high.

In practical terms, a session that took 45 to 60 minutes in the off-season might take 20 to 30 minutes in-season.

This goes against the grain of what many runners and cyclists think they should be doing with their strength training which is to reduce the weight substantially and increase the volume, eg. do 3 sets of 20x bodyweight squats instead of 3 sets of 5 reps at a 7-8/10 RPE. That’s a difference of 45 reps and I can assure you the latter approach will yield a better return on maintaining your strength in-season and supporting your running and cycling.

3. Focus on intent and expression of force

At different times in our season we can bias different tempos to drive different adaptations. In-season we’re looking to train your neuromuscular system to express force quickly. An example of this is a 3-1-3 goblet squat, that’s three seconds down, one second pause, then three seconds up. Versus a goblet squat that has X prescribed as the concentric, the X meaning to drive up as fast as possible whilst maintaining control.

You may find that the weight you use is lighter, and that is ok as the intent is different- we don’t want you grinding through reps here.

Try it for yourself here:

Think about it this way: every stride and pedal stroke you take is an expression of force. The ability to produce that force quickly and efficiently is what in-season strength training is maintaining; every rep should feel purposeful and explosive on the concentric phase.

4. If you come from an injury background, micro-dose your baseline work

I know the title says 3 ways, but this 4th way is particularly relevant for runners and cyclists over 30, and in my experience that covers most of you reading this!

Many of the endurance athletes I work with who strength train consistently do so partly because they know first-hand what it feels like to be taken away from their sport through injury. They have been there and they do not want to go back.

As I’ve shared with you before, your body changes at 30 and it’s far less forgiving than when you were in your 20’s… unless you decide to do something about it. With that in mind, a long race season with no attention to the smaller maintenance work can leave you somewhat open. This is something I see regularly with runners and cyclists who have a history of recurring niggles, and it is something worth being proactive about rather than reactive to.

If that sounds familiar, in-season is a good time to prioritise micro-dosing your baseline activities alongside your main strength sessions.

By baseline activities I mean the rehab exercises your physio gave you. The hip strengthening routine... the calf raises… the glute work. The things that kept you on track during recovery and that you know your body responds well to.

In-season your main strength sessions take a step back in volume and range, as we have covered above. However, 5-10 minutes of targeted baseline work done 2 to 3 times a week is a very time-efficient way of keeping those qualities ticking over.

In our free coaching community recently we discussed “exercise snacks” and how these are a great way to break up your day in a way that directly benefits your running and cycling and your individual athlete profile. They can be done at home, before a run, after a ride, while the kettle boils, in your lunch break and so on. The dose is small but the effect on your injury resilience over the course of a long season is meaningful.

For your long-term development as a runner and cyclist, staying consistent across a full season matters more than any single race result.

What does your strength training look like during your race season right now? Head over to our free coaching community and let us know!

You can click here to join.

Happy running and riding!

Emma x

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