Consolidation weeks: the important weeks most training plans don’t include
- Emma O'Toole
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
A consolidation week is a period in a training plan where one or more key sessions are repeated rather than progressed. For runners and cyclists, this can provide another exposure to a training demand and useful feedback on performance, recovery and readiness to progress. This article explains what consolidation weeks are, how they differ from deload weeks, when to use them and how they can be applied to running, cycling and strength training.
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TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"Your ability to complete a training session and your ability to tolerate that training consistently are different things."
By Emma O'Toole
Hi there,
This week, I asked a question in our free coaching community:
“Do you know what consolidation weeks are and do you use them in your training?”
The responses were really interesting! A handful of you knew exactly what they were and were already using them. But the majority had either never heard of them or had a vague idea but were not sure how they differed from a deload week or how to use them effectively.
That did not surprise me at all because consolidation weeks are rarely included in standard training plans, and many runners and cyclists have never been told how useful repeating a week or key session can be.
Before we get into it, a quick recap on deload weeks. If you have not read my article on deload weeks, you can find it here.
A deload week is a planned reduction in training stress, with planned being the key word. You still train, but you reduce one or more of the things driving fatigue, such as your total volume, intensity, frequency or the overall density of your training. The structure of your week may stay similar, including the days you train, while the overall stress comes down.
Deload weeks usually sit within a training block and help reduce accumulated fatigue before your training begins to build again. They can follow various structures, such as a deload every fourth week, but this is individual to you and what you’re training for.
A consolidation week, on the other hand, serves a different purpose- strap in, this might just change the way you train!
What is a consolidation week?
During a consolidation week, we repeat one or more of your key sessions rather than progressing them again. The entire training week does not necessarily have to be identical. We might repeat one important interval session, long run or strength session while adjusting other parts of the week around it.
This gives you another exposure to that training demand which then allows us to assess how you respond and helps build confidence before progressing further.
Most training plans progress week after week. Sessions become longer, harder or more demanding because progression is an important part of training, but the progression written on the plan still needs to match how you are responding.
When the training demand increases faster than you can recover and adapt, fatigue can begin to accumulate. Sessions later in your training block may then feel harder than expected because you are carrying fatigue into them.
Your ability to complete a session also gives us only part of the information we need. We need to consider what happened during the session, how you recovered afterwards and whether you were able to complete the rest of your planned training that week or into the next week.
If you always move straight to the next progression, you miss the opportunity to compare how you respond when you repeat the same training session.
Let’s use a long run as an example.
A runner has a 16-mile long run planned and completes the distance, but they are so sore afterwards that they need four days away from running. They miss two planned sessions and, when they return, their movement has changed because they are still carrying soreness and fatigue.
Although they technically completed the 16 miles, they have not shown that they can tolerate the session alongside the rest of their training.
Progressing immediately to 18 miles the following week would make very little sense in that situation. Once they have recovered, we might repeat the 16-mile run, reduce the distance slightly or allow more recovery before their next long run. This would give the runner a chance to establish whether those 16 miles are becoming more manageable.
For a runner who was able to complete the 16 miles reasonably well but found it close to their current limit, this might look like:
Week 1: 16-mile long run
Week 2: 16-mile long run (consolidation week)
Week 3: 18-mile long run
Week 4: Deload week
An experienced runner might tolerate a 16, 18 and 20 mile build across consecutive weeks without any issues. That depends on the individual runner, the rest of their training and how they respond to each run.
The purpose of a consolidation week is to make the next progression based on useful feedback rather than progressing automatically because that is what the plan says.
The same idea can be applied to an interval session.
A 4 week training block might look like this:
Week 1: 7 × 2 minutes at target 112-115% FTP, with 2 minutes recovery
Week 2: 8 × 2 minutes at the same intensity and recovery
Week 3: Repeat the 8 × 2 minutes session from week 2 (consolidation week)
Week 4: Deload week
Repeating the 8x 2 min interval session in week 3 gives the rider another exposure and allows us to assess whether it is becoming more manageable before adding another interval or increasing the duration of each interval. If the rider struggled to complete the eighth interval, planning nine or ten for the following week again would make very little sense.
The benefits of a consolidation week.
1. Another exposure to the training demand
Your cardiovascular, neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems are all responding to the training you complete. Completing a session once tells us that you can do it on that particular day. Repeating it gives us more information about whether you are becoming better conditioned to it.
2. Better feedback
Repeating a session gives us a direct comparison with the previous time you completed it.
For example, how did your 8 × 2-minute intervals feel this week compared with last week? Were you able to maintain your target pace or power more consistently? Was your RPE lower at the same external workload? How well did you recover between intervals and after the session?
You can gather far more useful information when you occasionally repeat a session instead of changing it every time.
3. More confidence
Repeating a session that you found challenging the week before and finding it more manageable can be a powerful confidence builder.
That improvement might show through a lower RPE, more consistent pacing, better movement quality, improved recovery or simply feeling more in control during the session.
That confidence can influence how you approach the next progression, harder training sessions and race-day efforts. It can also make progressing from 8 × 2 minutes to 9 or 10 × 2 minutes feel much more achievable because you have already demonstrated that you can manage the previous session well.
Consolidation within your strength training
The same principle applies to your strength work. A consolidation week in your strength training might involve repeating the same sets, repetitions, load and tempo from the previous week rather than adding weight, reps, sets etc.
You can then ask:
Did the exercise feel more controlled?
Did the load feel more manageable?
Were you able to maintain the prescribed tempo more consistently?
Did you finish with more repetitions in reserve at the same weight?
This is all useful feedback and can help you decide whether you are ready to progress.
Be cautious of a strength plan that automatically progresses like this: week 1: 8 reps of a goblet squat, week 2: 10 reps of a goblet squat, week 3: 12 reps of a goblet squat.
Applying the same logic as above, what’s the point in adding reps if you’re struggling to complete the number of prescribed reps in week 1. Continuing to increase the repetitions before you are ready will more likely result in one of the 3 following things happening:
1. Poor technique.
2. Using a lighter weight to complete the reps.
3. More fatigue or muscle soreness than the programme intended.
Just as they do within our endurance training, consolidation weeks can give you time to adapt to your current strength training before progressing further.
When should you use a consolidation week?
There is no hard and fast rule for when to use consolidation weeks because the decision should reflect how you have responded during and after your training.
You might use a consolidation week when:
You executed the session very well, but you had the week off work. Can you do it during a normal working week?
You completed the session, but only just- you felt close to your current limit.
You felt more sore and tired than expected.
You got through the session, but struggled to hit the targets.
The tiredness from the session negatively affected the quality of your next sessions.
You want another comparable exposure before deciding whether to progress.
You are returning from injury or a period of reduced training.
You are still learning how your body responds to a particular training demand.
Consolidation weeks can be useful for both newer and experienced athletes. Their frequency will depend on your training history, the phase of training, the size of each progression, your recovery and everything else going on around your training.
We want to use them strategically so that your next progression reflects what you are ready for.
To sum up today’s blog post, during a consolidation week, one or more key sessions are held at the same level rather than progressed. This allows you to gather feedback, build familiarity with the training demand and decide whether you are ready for the next progression.
Both deload weeks and consolidation weeks can have a useful place in a well-designed training plan, but they serve different purposes and should reflect how you are responding to your training. This is also where having a coach can be worth their weight in gold: recognising whether you need more recovery, another opportunity to consolidate your current training or whether you are ready to progress.
Sometimes the best progression is showing that you can handle the current training demand more comfortably, recover from it more effectively and maintain the quality of the rest of your training, rather than attempting to add more and more.
If you want to talk through how consolidation weeks might fit into your training block, come and join my free coaching community. There are over 900 runners and cyclists over 30 in there and this is exactly the kind of conversation that happens on a regular basis. I also have a free deload week guide that you can download when you join if you have not already.
Do you use consolidation weeks in your training already or is this a new concept for you?
Please get in touch and let me know!
Happy running and riding!
Emma x
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This makes such sense, definitely something I struggle with when it comes to my long runs in particular.