How Runners Should Structure Strength Training Throughout the Year

Strength training is an important part of a runner’s training routine, but the way you strength train shouldn’t necessarily stay the same all year. As your running goals and training load change, your strength training should change as well.

A runner building an aerobic base may have more time and energy to focus on developing strength, while someone in the middle of marathon training may need to reduce strength training volume to prioritize running workouts. During a taper, the goal shifts toward maintaining strength while allowing the body to recover and arrive at race day feeling fresh.

Understanding how to adjust strength training throughout the year can help runners get the benefits of strength work without adding too much fatigue or plateauing. Here’s how runners can structure strength training during each phase of their training cycle.

How Runners Should Structure Strength Training Throughout the Year

Strength training is important for runners for many reasons. It can help with injury prevention, durability, and power. Being able to balance strength training with running throughout the year will help you get the most out of both.

How Often Should Runners Strength Train?

There is no perfect amount for how much runners should strength train, and the number may change throughout the year. A common plan is to strength train twice a week during training and three times a week during the off-season.

If you are not running much at all you could potentially lift 4-5 times a week, focusing on different body parts on different days. However, for most runners keeping a running base is important and lifting 2-3 days along with running is a good balance.

Strength Training During the Base Phase

Base building is a great time to build foundational strength. As running intensity is lower, you don’t need to focus as much on recovering from runs or worrying about being sore from strength training before an important run.

This is a good time to focus on heavy lifting and 3 days of strength work each week. An example of how to structure this is lifting lower body on Monday, upper body on Wednesday, and full body on Friday. If you still wanted to do a long run this could take place on Sunday, with some other short/easy runs throughout the week.

Strength Training During the Build Phase

As you start to build your mileage, you likely won’t be able to keep up the same level of strength training as you were during base building if you were lifting heavy and often. You may need to drop down to 2 strength sessions per week and either maintain or decrease the demands of your lifting.

As you are increasing your running intensity by adding speed and/or volume, you don’t want to be increasing multiple variables at once. You may spend a few weeks increasing your mileage, then add in speed work. You need time to recover from your runs and too much lifting can make it hard to do that.

Strength Training During Peak Race Training

During peak race training the focus should be on maintaining strength without creating excessive fatigue. During this time race-specific workouts become the priority. You can still keep up with lifting twice a week, but maybe keep the same routine you were doing, or drop to 2 instead of 3 sets of exercises, or lower your weights.

Strength Training During a Running Taper

During the taper you don’t want to be doing anything that will cause extra fatigue. If you are doing a 3 week taper you can keep your regular strength routine during the first week, then cut back to 1 session or just bodyweight exercises the second week, and take out all strength training during race week. If you feel like you need to do something that last week you can focus on mobility or very light exercises like band work.

Strength Training During Recovery and the Off-Season

Immediately following your race the focus should be on recovery, so don’t add back in strength training just yet. After a week or two you can get back into your strength routine carefully. You may find that if you ran a marathon that strength workouts leave you surprisingly sore.

If you are taking an off-season you can treat it similarly to the base-building phase, adding in more weights, progressive overload, and moving to 3 days of strength training per week.

How to Balance Strength Training With Running

No matter the phase of training you are in, it can be tricky to balance strength training with running. One strategy is to lift on the same day as a hard workout so that you can make your hard day hard and keep your easy days easier. If that doesn’t work, do your strength the day after a hard workout and then try to make the next day an easy day or rest day. Try to avoid lifting heavy right before a hard workout or long run.

Strength Training Mistakes Runners Should Avoid

• Lifting too often during peak training
• Doing too much strength work during the taper
• Doing hard leg workouts before speedwork
• Treating strength training like a separate sport
• Completely abandoning strength work during race training
• Being afraid to lift heavy even during the off-season or base building phases

How do you adjust your strength training throughout the year?

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