Structuring your endurance and strength programming can make or break your training. To help clarify your training schedule, we use three key questions to correctly scaffold the program.
While the typical question we hear circles around sport-specific exercises, more important questions often get missed—questions that can make or break the season and influence your performance on race day.
Question 1: Are You In-Season or Off-Season?
Your immediate reaction might be, “I’m not sure what the difference is.”
To clarify, our strength coach, Spencer, offers this guidance:
“If you’re building up to a specific race and tapering to maximize fitness while reducing fatigue, you’re in-season. Out of season might still include races, but it’s not aimed at peak performance.”
To put it succinctly, here’s how our team defines it:
- In-season: You’re in a training block targeting a specific ‘A’ race, maybe with a series of training blocks all building toward a peak performance.
- Off-season: You’re not training for a specific race. Instead, you’re focused on building a foundation to support future peak performance or giving your body time off, both physically and mentally.
So, which one are you currently in? Once you know, we can get specific.
If You’re In-Season:
For athletes training in-season, here’s what we suggest:
- Sync your recovery weeks for both strength and endurance training.
- Reduce strength training to two days per week.
- Maintain high intensity in strength sessions, while adjusting volume based on fatigue. Reduce volume if your fatigue is too high.
- Use strength training to counter inhibition responses from endurance workouts—one of the most common pitfalls in endurance training.
- Adjust recovery frequency as to what matches your response to training. You may need recovery weeks more often, ranging from 4 weeks on with 1 week recovery to 2 weeks on with 1 week recovery. We want to avoid fatigue that overwhelms the fitness gains from training.
The goal of strength training is to support the endurance activity. Your goal isn’t to make large strength gains but to maintain your current level while maximizing endurance gains. Strength training here helps preserve your movement economy, meaning you can work harder with less effort and mitigate the fatigue that endurance training brings.
Strength training should also tackle common issues for your specific endurance activity. For example, runners might focus on reducing gluteal inhibition, back stiffness, knee synovitis, or tendinopathy, all of which often result from poor force absorption. If a knee issue goes unchecked, it can drive up effort and fatigue during training. Addressing these issues early in-season means less fatigue accumulation and more consistent fitness gains.
If You’re Off-Season:
The off-season focuses on building a foundation, tackling issues that could derail your in-season training, and improving technical skills of the sport.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Increase strength training to three days per week.
- Build tissue capacity that may have been lost during in-season training.
- Address active injuries, even minor ones that may not impact endurance workouts.
- Keep endurance sessions easy.
- Divide the off-season into training blocks with specific goals, such as strength, endurance, or injury prevention.
- Add in skills training that supports your performance in the ‘A’ race.
Question #2: How Many Times Do You Want to Peak in the Year?
This question addresses the overall structure, or macrocycle, of your training year. It’s where we determine how off-season and in-season blocks will fit together.
If you plan to peak twice in a year, timing becomes critical. Are the peaks close together? Is there enough recovery time between them?
When peaks are spaced out, we generally recommend a 12-week in-season training block for each peak. So, for two peaks, that’s 24 weeks of in-season training in one year. Between these two blocks, fit in your off-season training. Off-season cycles are usually around five weeks, each with a distinct focus—like strength endurance, tissue capacity, or resolving lingering injuries.
As Spencer observes, “One of the most common mistakes I see is trying to peak too often, which can lead to staleness, overtraining, and loss of motivation. Without enough downtime, you burn out.”
From a physical therapy perspective, Craig adds, “It’s a loss of tissue capacity with maintaining an in-season level of training. I’ve seen people excel in endurance sports for the first few years but then catch the ‘injury bug.’ Often, it’s because they skip recovery or attempt to peak for every race, every few months.”
The loss of your ability to improve, or an endless series of injuries can be a result of too much in season training and not enough off-season foundation building.
A common probem seen by Spencer, our resident endurance coach specialist, is peaking too often.
Question #3: What Is Your Off-Season Focus?
The off-season lays the foundation for your in-season success. According to Spencer, “When you’re just out of an in-season block and a big race, your body needs to recoup, regenerate, and the person needs a mental break from structured training.”
This recovery is individually driven, but 1 to 2 weeks of complete rest is often enough to refresh mentally and physically. Once you’ve recovered, the off-season focus should shift to building your foundation and tackling variables that will set you up for the next season. We recommend addressing three main areas:
1. Mental Recovery
Coming off in-season training, it’s likely you need a break from structured endurance sessions. Use this time to enjoy activities you missed during training, like hiking or canoeing. We consider this ‘mental recovery’—a break from the mental strain of in-season training.
This is particularly important after your last ‘A’ race.
2. Tissue Capacity
Tissue capacity is an obvious priority. Our team defines tissue capacity as the maximal amount of exertion in an activity that a person can sustain without pain or tissue damage occurring during or after the activity.
If an injury or recurring issue interrupted in-season training, this is the time to resolve it. Many are tempted to skip this step, especially if the reduced training volume has alleviated symptoms. But addressing these issues now prevents setbacks during in-season training.
You need your tissue capacity to be above the working level of your exercise program.
3. Address What’s Missing in Your Performance
Look at your technical, strength, and endurance skills and identify gaps. It could be technique (especially relevant in sports like swimming) or specific strengths like explosiveness, power, or strength endurance. Being good at an activity requires consistent practice, but off-season is also a great time to build explosiveness or strength endurance with focused blocks. For example, runners can incorporate strides or short surges in training, while cyclists might add high-intensity bursts during rides.
With these questions guiding your approach, you’ll be able to better structure your programming to match your goals. Remember that recovery is just as crucial as the training itself; a well-structured year allows for progress without the setbacks of overtraining or burnout. By building a foundation in the off-season and maintaining endurance in-season, you’re setting yourself up to reach peak performance with fewer setbacks.
