The 40+ Athlete's Guide to Balancing Strength and Endurance

If you're a runner or endurance athlete, there's a good chance strength training has been sitting on your “I really should do more of that” list for a while.

I see it all the time.

The running gets done because that's what you're training for. The strength work gets squeezed in when there's time — and when life gets busy, it's usually the first thing to go.

I understand why.

If you're training for a marathon, you want to run. If you've got an ultra coming up, you need time on your feet. If you're cycling, you want to ride.

But as we get older, I think the argument for strength training becomes harder to ignore. Whatever your sport, muscle retention, bone density, healthy tendons and ligaments are essential to maintain performance and reduce injury.

Strength and endurance are not competing goals. Done properly, they support each other.

You don't need to choose

Running gives you an excellent aerobic engine. Strength training helps you maintain muscle, strength and the ability to produce force.

You need both.

The mistake I see is adding strength training on top of an already busy programme without taking anything else into account.

Suddenly someone is running four times a week, doing two gym sessions, going to a HIIT class and trying to fit everything around work and family.

On paper, it looks impressive.

In reality, they may simply be accumulating fatigue.

You don't get fitter because you've done more training. You get fitter by providing the right stimulus and then allowing your body to recover and adapt.

So how much strength do you need?

For most runners and endurance athletes, two purposeful strength sessions a week can be enough.

You don't need to spend hours in the gym.

I'd want to see the basics covered — lower-body strength, single-leg work, calves, posterior chain, trunk and some upper-body pushing and pulling.

The exact exercises will depend on the individual and what they're training for.

A marathon runner doesn't need exactly the same programme as someone preparing for HYROX.

And you don't need to train like a powerlifter to benefit from getting stronger.

Think about the whole week

This is where good programming makes a difference.

If you've got a hard run, a heavy lower-body strength session and another intense conditioning session all stacked together, you're creating a lot of fatigue.

I prefer to think about hard days and easier days and consider how the sessions fit together.

It doesn't need to be perfect. Life doesn't work like that.

It just needs to be deliberate.

And sometimes, particularly as a masters athlete, maintaining a quality is enough. You don't have to improve everything all year round.

If you're building endurance, you might maintain your strength for a while.

If you're focusing on strength, you might reduce your running volume.

That's not going backwards.

It's recognising that you can't maximise everything simultaneously.

The aim isn't to see how much training you can survive.

It's to do enough of the right training to improve — and still have enough energy left to enjoy the rest of your life.