How to Schedule Strength and Endurance Training
First and foremost, it's important to remember that the best time to strength train is whenever you can fit it in to your schedule! It's better to complete a strength training session at a less than optimal time than to not do it at all!
With that being said, there are some best practices for scheduling strength alongside endurance training, which I will try to cover in this article.
Where in the week you should put your strength training?
To start, I think most runners and cyclists should have at least 1 rest day and two strength sessions a week. Many will also be doing 1 (or maybe 2) harder endurance sessions a week (intervals, hill repeats, etc.) and a weekly long run or ride. With this in mind, if you are someone who does endurance training 4 days or less each week, then I would probably first try adding in strength training sessions on your non endurance days:
M - Rest
T - Strength
W - Easy endurance
T - Endurance intervals/workout
F - Strength
S - Rest or easy endurance
S - Long run or ride
If you are doing endurance training 5 or more days a week, or want/need multiple rest days a week, then there will likely be at least one day where you’ll do strength and endurance training on the same day. There are a couple of ways you could approach this.
The first is a polarized training approach, which means scheduling your strength and higher-intensity endurance workouts on the same day. This consolidates the training stress to just a couple days during the week, and the other days are reserved for easier training and recovery:
M - Rest
T - AM strength, PM endurance intervals/workout
W - Easy endurance
T- Rest or easy endurance
F - AM strength, PM endurance intervals/workout
S - Easy endurance
S - Long run or ride
The second is a distributed training approach, which means scheduling your strength and higher-intensity endurance workouts on different days. This distributes the stress a little more evenly throughout the week, so there aren’t any very high stress days:
M - Rest
T - Endurance intervals/workout
W - AM Strength, PM easy endurance
T- Rest or easy endurance
F - Endurance intervals/workout
S - AM Strength, PM easy endurance
S - Long run or ride
There are pluses and minuses for both approaches, and either can work depending on your schedule, season of training, gym access, and personal preference. So experiment with both and see what works for you!
If you’re doing strength and endurance on the same day, which should you do first?
While there are studies that show there might be some benefit doing endurance before strength, and vice versa, the reality is that what’s optimal in a lab or controlled 12-week study often isn’t practical in the real world. For most of us who don’t pay the bills with our running or cycling, who have jobs, families, and other responsibilities, the most important thing is to just get the work done when we can and as best we are able.
With that being said, if you are doing both in the same day, it’s probably best if you can separate the two by at least 6-8 hours to minimize the “interference effect” that running can have on strength training (in simple terms, when you mix running and strength training, the body may not adapt as effectively to the strength training as it would if they were separated).
If your schedule won’t allow this and you need to do strength and endurance back to back, with little or no rest in between, it’s not the end of the world. I recommend that whatever your priority and focus is for that time of the year should go first so you can do that session with high quality and when you are most fresh.
So if it is the winter and your focus is on building strength and some muscle, then I would do strength training first so that way the fatigue from the endurance work won’t limit how much you can lift. This works especially well if it’s a time of the year when you’re mostly doing zone 2 or easy endurance miles, since you don’t need to be super rested or fresh to execute those sessions anyway.
If it is the summer or a period when the endurance volume or intensity is high, then I would do the endurance training first (especially for intervals or a quality workout) to ensure you can execute those sessions as intended and hit your pace or power targets.
Like I said before, at the end of the day the most important thing is to just get it done. Never let perfection prevent you from getting started or at least doing something. Consistently “good enough” is better than occasionally great.
If you prefer to ride early in the morning before it gets too hot outside and do your strength training in the evening in your air conditioned basement, then do that.
If you like to stop by the gym to do your strength training before work and run in the evening with your friends, then do that.
If you’re busy all day with work and family and have to sneak in an indoor ride and strength session after the kids have gone to bed, then do that.
Final takeaways when scheduling strength and endurance throughout the week
Have 1-2 days between strength sessions if possible.
Start by adding in strength training on your off days if your endurance training is 4 days or less.
It’s fine to schedule a strength session the day before (or even the day of) a hard endurance workout, but just be sure to not lift so heavy or hard that it negatively impacts the next day’s workout.
Both polarized (strength on hard days) and distributed (strength on easy days) approaches can work. Try both and see what your body responds to best!
Ideally you would have at least 6-8 hours between strength and endurance sessions, but if you can’t, then try to do whatever the priority is first when you are most fresh.
Most importantly, just get it done!
I hope this helps with scheduling your strength and endurance training! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or want to talk about what this could look like in the context of your life and training.