Why the smallest training habits are the hardest to keep
- Emma O'Toole
- Mar 15
- 6 min read
Many runners and cyclists believe progress comes from big sessions such as long runs, interval workouts, or hard rides. In reality, long-term consistency is often shaped by the smallest habits in a training week. Short strength routines, mobility work, warm-ups, and recovery practices are easy to postpone because they seem insignificant in isolation. Yet these small tasks are often what keep runners and cyclists injury-resilient and able to train consistently. In this article, Emma O’Toole explains why small training habits are the easiest to skip, how to protect them in your weekly schedule, and when a short daily strength routine can help busy runners and cyclists stay consistent even during demanding periods of life.
Strength training for runners and cyclists over 30 is a game-changer for performance, resilience, and long-term health.
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TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"Small tasks are easier to postpone. Because they’re small, we tell ourselves that we’ll do them later."
By Emma O'Toole
Hi there!
Do you ever find that the smallest things, the simplest on paper, are often the hardest to do?
Five minutes of breathwork.
Ten minutes of strength work.
A short warm up before a run.
On paper these things look simple.
Almost too simple to matter.
Yet in real life they are often the first things that disappear.
I realised this recently with my own training.
For the past year I have been trying to build a small daily breathwork habit.
Just five minutes a day, nothing complicated.
Sit down, slow the breathing, and allow the nervous system to settle after training.
It sounded easy when I first set the goal, but I kept missing it.
I would plan to do it after a session.
Or before bed.
Or first thing in the morning.
Then I'd get on with my day, another task would appear...
... and that five minute window would disappear.
The interesting part is that I never struggle to complete the longer sessions.
If a strength workout is forty minutes, I do it.
If a long run is scheduled, I do it.
Yet, the five minute habit was the one that kept slipping through the cracks.
That made me realise something important:
Small tasks are easier to postpone.
Because they’re small, we tell ourselves that we’ll do them later.
And because they only take a few minutes, delaying them does not feel like a problem.
Until the day ends and they never happened (again).
I see exactly the same pattern working with runners and cyclists.
The short prehab routines.
The ten minute mobility work.
The 5 minute warm ups.
The quick strength exercises designed to keep hips, knees and ankles resilient.
These are usually the first things to disappear when life gets busy.
This isn’t because we don’t care about them.
We simply never protected them, or even planned for them, in our schedule like our endurance training. I'm sure you're reading this already knowing which day's next week that
you're doing your long run, long ride and interval training.
However, strength training sits in the category of: “I’ll fit it in somewhen.”
And that somewhen rarely arrives.
Often runners and cyclists tell me they would happily do strength work if it only took five minutes.
Interestingly, that 5-minute approach can actually work well during busy periods.
But it still needs structure because the problem lies in planning.
This is why I encourage most runners and cyclists to do something very simple:
Block two strength sessions each week.
30-45 minutes each.
Put them in your calendar in exactly the same way you would schedule an important run or ride.
Strength training shouldn’t be something you add in on a whim, not when it’s the very thing that helps your body tolerate your training each week.
2x well structured sessions each week is enough, but only if those sessions take place consistently and the easiest way to make that happen is simple:
Plan them.
Protect the time.
Treat them as part of your training week.
Now, I also understand that some periods of life are genuinely very busy.
Work deadlines.
Young families.
Travel…
… And so on. At times like this, 2× 30-45 minute sessions per week genuinely feel impossible.
That is where a different approach can help; a small daily plan that only takes 5 minutes.
Let me give you an example.
Jeanette is a runner.
She is a busy mum of two.
She works full time.
Her mornings start with the school run.
Evenings are a mix of homework, dinner, and driving to kids clubs.
Like many runners, she loves running because it gives her a small pocket of time in the day that is just for her.
But strength training always felt impossible to add.
Every time she tried to start strength work it lasted a week or two.
Then life took over and there simply was not a spare 45 minute block in her week.
So instead of forcing longer strength sessions into an already full schedule, Jeanette started following Bodyweight Power.
The structure is simple:
Short daily strength work.
Exercises that take less than five minutes.
No gym.
No complicated equipment.
No long sessions to organise.
Small pieces of strength training that gradually build hip stability, lower leg strength, and control across the week.
Something interesting happened for Jeanette.
Because the sessions were planned each day for her, she stopped skipping them.
It was as easy as open up the app and go.
So she found herself doing the micro-sessions:
Five minutes before the shower after her run.
Five minutes while dinner was in the oven.
Five minutes whilst waiting for her son to come out of football club.
Over six weeks it simply became part of her routine.
The same way brushing her teeth already was.
She felt stronger on her runs, more stable through her hips, and had a “pop” to her runs.
Most importantly, she was finally doing strength work consistently.
And Jeanette isn’t alone.
When I sampled 50 runners and cyclists over 30 who followed the same approach, every single one reported feeling stronger after six weeks.
One hundred percent.
For most of them the exercises took less than five minutes per day.
The most important change for Jeanette was not just physical, it was that she had moved from reactive training to proactive training.
Basically instead of waiting for the perfect time to start strength training or falling into a boom and bust cycle with it, she was building the habit.
Which means when life becomes a little less hectic, she is already in a position to progress to longer strength sessions if she wants to.
Or simply continue with what is working.
Consistency, even in small doses, is what keeps runners and cyclists moving forward.
For most runners and cyclists, 2x structured strength sessions each week is still the ideal setup.
But during busy seasons of life, a small daily structure can keep strength work in your routine instead of disappearing completely.
So I’m going to leave you with this question today:
Which small training habit do you keep putting off? And what are you doing about it?
If you’re struggling to know where to begin with strength training to support your running and cycling, I can help you get started.
Get in touch here with the word RUN or RIDE and I will send you a free strength workout you can start this week.
Some excellent conversations recently being had in our free community for runners and cyclists over 30 on discipline, mindset and shoes galore, head over and check it out!
Happy running and riding!
Emma x
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