INCLUDES:
- Top tips for incorporating strength during your race training:
- Start During Off Season
- Determine Your Goals
- Structure Your Runs and Lifts
- Listen to Your Body
- Taper Just Like Running
1.) Start During Your Off Season
It’s okay & beneficial to incorporate strength at ANY point in your running journey, but it’s BEST to start a new strength training plan or focus closer on strength training during the OFF season (when you aren’t actively training for a race). However, if you are starting a new strength training plan while actively training for a race, make sure you follow tip #3 when planning your weekly run + strength schedule!
2.) Determine Your Goals
If your focus is on running – then it’s important to remember that you do NOT need an above average emphasis on strength work during this phase of your journey & overdoing it will only lead to fatigue and potential drawbacks for your running. 2-3 full body strength sessions per week is sufficient for runners. You can keep it to 20-60 minutes per session depending upon your needs and experience level with just 2-3 sets of 5-8 exercises for 10-15 reps each. If you’re new to strength – aim to start with just 5-6 bodyweight exercises for 2 sets of 10 reps each. As you gain experience and strength, you can increase the level of challenge by increasing reps, number of exercises, challenge level of exercises, sets, and reducing the amount of rest.
3.) Structure Your Runs & Lifts Accordingly
Your body needs approximately 48 hours to recover from a strength training session before running at full effort again (maybe even longer if you’re just getting started with strength training & have some additional soreness and recovery needed). For this reason, it’s important to make sure not to schedule strength the day before long runs or harder effort workouts. If possible, strength should be done on days where a rest day is scheduled on the following day or on days when you have a harder workout followed by an easy run.
4.) Listen To Your Body
Many runners just blindly follow what they “think” they should do without pausing to consider how they actually feel. When it comes to incorporating strength, it’s extremely important to be in tune with your body so you know when to increase or reduce the amount or the intensity. If you’re feeling extra fatigue in your legs after a long run & you have a strength session, it might be best to skip it & jump back in at the next scheduled strength day. Doing MORE on extremely tired and fatigued legs could lead to injury & end up being counterproductive to the reason runners do strength in the first place.
5.) Taper Like A Race
You should TAPER strength training in the weeks leading up to your race just like you would with
running. Reduce to just 1 strength session per week for the 2 weeks before your race & stick with a moderate workout vs. a challenging one.
