New Year: Stronger running and cycling.
- Emma O'Toole
- Jan 4
- 6 min read
January isn’t a reset button for runners and cyclists, it’s a bridge. Your body doesn’t recognise a new calendar year; it responds to the training, recovery, and habits you’ve built over the last few months. The biggest mistake endurance athletes make is either slamming straight back into full training or trying to do everything at once. This article explains why January should focus on bridging from consistency to intent, and outlines six practical steps runners and cyclists over 30 can use to build momentum, avoid burnout, and set up sustainable progress for 2026.
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:
TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"You don’t rise to the level of your New Year goals… you fall to the level of your daily routines."
By Emma O'Toole
Hello!
January has a bit of a weird energy, doesn’t it? Everyone suddenly feels like they should be doing something: more training, more structure, more discipline, more goals.
Challenges, like Run Every Day in January, seem like great motivators on the face of things, however they push us into one of two unsustainable camps:
“I feel behind. I need to catch up fast."
“This is my year. I’m doing everything.”
Both can cause problems as soon as February arrives, because realistically running or cycling every day for 30 days isn’t sustainable.
Progress is built on momentum and that doesn’t come from dramatic overhauls.
January isn’t a reset, it’s a carry-on
The biggest lie January tells you is that you’re starting from scratch.
You’re not.
Your body doesn’t know it’s a new year, it only knows what you’ve been doing over the last couple of months, so even if December didn’t go to plan, that’s okay.
And this is especially true if you took part in our December 1000 Minutes Challenge.
So many of you kept things ticking over in December with running, cycling and strength training. Sessions weren’t perfect or rigid at one of the busiest times in the year, but you kept moving and kept some structure.
This matters because you are not starting from zero in January.
You’ve maintained aerobic fitness, you have kept the habit of training and you have held onto the identity of someone who shows up, even when life is busy.
That gives you a genuine head start going into 2026.
But… (and there is a but) … This is where motivated runners and cyclists can still trip themselves up.
After a solid December, it’s tempting to:
Jump straight back into full training weeks.
Add extra intensity immediately.
Pile intensity and extra volume all at once.
Because you feel good after the Christmas break, January energy is high and you want to make the most of it.
The problem is that consistency in December doesn’t automatically mean your body is ready for January loading.
You’ve maintained fitness, yes. However, you haven’t necessarily been stacking hard sessions, chasing different strength adaptations, or asking your nervous system to do much thinking.
Now on the flip-side, if December didn’t go to plan and you’re seeing January as a fresh start, we need to make sure that start is built on structure and patience rather than panic.
This is because January isn’t about hitting reset, nor is it about flooring the accelerator.
It’s about bridging.
From: “staying consistent” to: “training with intent”.
So what should your next steps be?
Follow this 6 step guide to set up your best 2026
1. Pause for a second
Before you plan races this year, build your next few weeks of training, or map out the entire year, take five minutes to zoom out.
Ask yourself:
What went well with your training in the last 6-8 weeks?
Has your training felt manageable?
Have you been dealing with any injuries or niggles these past 6-8 weeks?
What was the first thing to drop off when life got busy over the festive period?
That last question is really important to help you anticipate and make extra safeguards for when life does, inevitably, get a little busy. For me, nutrition always slips when life gets busy, I’m aware of this and take extra measures like making sure I have snacks to hand and being disciplined to not have a coffee after 2pm.
2. Enjoy the monotony
Endurance sports are, by nature, pretty monotonous with thousands of strides and pedal strokes going into your sessions. Your training week should be pretty monotonous, we’re not looking for every session to be exciting, especially early in the year, where you’re not trying to be race ready. We want you to ease back into structure, layer progress sustainably and keep the needle moving forwards.
Most runners and cyclists don’t make progress because they don’t work hard enough, they don’t make progress because they can’t repeat their training weeks, like those big 30 day challenges- they’re not sustainable for the remaining 322 days of 2026 once it’s over, and the problem here is that consistency is your best friend.
3. Strength training: your insurance policy for 2026
If endurance training is your engine, strength training is your chassis. You can have the best engine in the world but if the chassis keeps breaking down, you’ll constantly be caught in a train > get injured > rehab > repeat loop.
Strength training helps you absorb your training volume, handle higher intensity sessions and help keep niggles at bay.
Two strength sessions per week that load tendons, build tissue tolerance, reinforce good movement mechanics, will do more for your long-term progress than another interval session ever will.
4. Fuel like someone who wants to train consistently
January has a habit of becoming: “Right, I’m training more… and eating less.”
That combo rarely ends well.
If you’re asking more from your body, it needs supporting.
Carbohydrates (and lots of them!), protein spread throughout the day and healthy fats, all are there to give you enough energy to recover and show up again.
5. Sleep and recover like someone who wants to train consistently
If I could give runners and cyclists one unfair advantage in January, it wouldn’t be an increase to their VO₂ max or FTP.
It would be better sleep.
Quality sleep that has REM cycles and decent deep sleep. Sleep is still the best recovery tool out there, and it’s free! When we don’t sleep enough, it’s not only our motivation that gets a little groggy, we’re not adapting to our training as well and our risk of injury is higher.
Rest days fall into the category of someone who wants to train consistently. They’re not only good for your body to absorb the training, but also for your mind. I know they can be hard to take, I used to struggle with them and end up making this day active with gardening, household chores or long walks, it took a few times on the brink of burnout to realise the importance of these rest days to long-term success with running and cycling.
6. Set process goals
Outcome goals are motivational: “I want to ride 200km in 12 hours” or “I want to run a 50 mile ultramarathon.” They’re what excite, and put a little bit of fear, in us.
Process goals, on the other hand, deliver. Process goals are what stack up to help you achieve your outcome goal.
These are things like:
“Hit my first 50 mile training week.”
“Strength trained 2x per week for the past month.”
“Had a post workout meal after every session this week.”
“Slept for 8 hours each night this week.”
You can control those, every single week, but make sure to celebrate them too and notice how you’re feeling since doing them, that’s what will help make them stick.
As a coach, I can hand on heart tell you that the runners and cyclists who thrive in 2026 won’t be the ones who went hardest in January.
They’ll be the ones who:
Built patiently
Recovered properly
Used consistency to create momentum
And I want that for you this year. So rather than making this January about training harder, let’s make it about training smarter with these 6 steps. And for a place to train smart, join my free community for runners and cyclists over 30, the place to be in 2026!
Enjoy your week!
Emma x
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