A “Hybrid” Training Plan for the Newfoundland Runner
You’ve probably been wasting winters. No matter what way you cut it, not as much running happens over the winter in Newfoundland. Less running can mean wasting the aerobic base you’ve earned all summer and fall, not building on your performance year-to-year, and the winter being pretty boring because you aren’t doing much other than being cold - but with a little planning it doesn't have to be that way. Using a more “hybrid” approach for your training year - using the winter to focus on things outside of running like interval training, weights, and plyometrics - can help you keep building during the cold months without long runs on slushy streets or spending 2 hours on the treadmill.
Balancing all these different types of training can be a bit of a juggling act, but by the end of this article you'll have the framework that I use with many of my Newfoundland running clients that organizes yearly training in a way that balances it all, and keeps you getting better season after season. Why Should Runners Go a Little “Hybrid”?
There’s four big reasons I think runners should be going a little more “hybrid” and shifting their focus to the gym this winter:1) Get Rid of Overuse Injuries
Most of the injuries that occur with running are “overuse injuries” - there’s no single event that causes them, they’re just the result of certain parts of your body handling more work than they’re adapted to handle. The reason these injuries are “nagging” for runners is because they never actually take any steps to address them. The vital first step in taking care of “overuse” injuries is to reduce stress on the area, letting the irritation settle down. This is the step where 90% of runners fail, because it would mean running less for a few weeks. God forbid. But winter forces you to do this every year already - why not take advantage?
After the irritation settles, the idea is to gradually strengthen the area at a slower rate than before, eventually getting it accustomed to more work than it was previously capable of. A predictable environment like a gym tends to work best for this, which also gives you a heated place to ride out the winter. Win-win. 2) Maintain Your Aerobic Base
Running in the snow kind of sucks. Runs on the treadmill REALLY suck. Neither need to be the base of your training all winter.
Short duration, high intensity interval work on a stationary bike, ski erg, rower, (or treadmill if you must) is enough to maintain your aerobic base for a while, and pairs well with some higher volume strength training. Interval training also usually only takes ~30 mins at the end of a workout a few times per week, and will help you pick up where you left off with running when the spring rolls around again.3) Get Stronger
For performance as a runner, function as an adult, and longevity as a human being - getting stronger tends to be a pretty good idea. Who would have thought?4) Community
Run club probably won’t be happening over the winter - so the gym is a good way to keep yourself around people who also like to work on themselves, get fitter, and do something over the winter other than eat and drink. Or before eating and drinking at least.The “Hybrid” Training Framework
Training for strength and endurance at the same time is a lot of work, and can lead people down the path of poor gains from trying to do too much training all at once. Periodizing your training - which just means prioritizing some things while the other things “rest” - can be a good way around this.Here’s a loose periodization framework that I use for my running clients in Newfoundland that helps them take advantage of the cold months by focusing on the indoor gym stuff, and then lets running take the front seat again in the summer while the weights go on maintenance.
The exact months don’t really matter - if you have races or events that you’re training for into the Fall you may have to shuffle things. The important part is the relative lengths of each “season”, and what gets the main focus with each.
The Reason for Each “Season”:
Winter Off-Season (November-February)
After a long running season, you should have 2 main priorities with your winter off-season:
Priority #1: Resolving overuse injuries, while building strength and muscle.
Priority #2: Maintaining your running fitness.Off-Season Resistance Training Focus:
Work Capacity and Hypertrophy
Both work capacity and hypertrophy (a.k.a muscle building) are driven by handling a bigger workload in the gym - more volume. It’s hard to train things that require a big workload during the running season because your running workload is expanding, which doesn't leave much room for anything else. But during the off-season when the lovely Newfoundland winters force you to run less, you’ll have a little more time and energy to spend in the gym.This is where you can start to rehab overuse injuries (after the crucial initial period of *relative* rest to let the irritated areas settle down).
For example, I recently had a client who finished their running season and was complaining of hamstring irritation in the final kilometres of her last long runs leading into a marathon. We did minimal hamstring work early in the winter off-season to let the irritation decrease. From there we gradually did more hamstring workload on gradually more strenuous movements. By the next running season we were able to keep a little more maintenance hamstring work throughout the season, and didn’t have to worry about any more irritation deeper into long runs anymore. This same approach can be used for most "overuse injuries" in the off-season. Off-Season Aerobic Training:
HIIT or Sprint Interval Training
While your weight training workload is higher in the off-season, your aerobic work will decrease - which means the aerobic work you do keep in can be a little more intense. Things like HIIT or sprint interval training are more intensity driven than normal running pace. The goal is hitting higher speeds, higher heart rates, or more dense intervals. More intense forms of aerobic work interfere minimally with muscle and strength building [1] and can cause similar aerobic benefits to longer runs [2] in a fraction of the time - usually ~30 mins or less towards the end of a session. You can do these intervals on a treadmill, but doing them on a bike, rower, or other piece of lower-impact cardio equipment can be a good way to let your running overuse irritations calm down.
Off-Season Plyometrics: Intensive focus.
Working on jumps and plyometrics in conjunction with heavy resistance training can help you spend less energy per running stride [3]. Intensive plyometrics are the ones that focus on intensity - working on big explosive jumps for ~1-4 reps - think vertical jumps, broad jumps, or depth jumps. Your body sees less impact when you're running less over the winter, so it's a good time to work on the more impact-heavy plyometrics.Spring Pre-Season (March-April)
Pre-season is the short transition period between off- and in-season with two big priorities:Priority #1: Specific prep for the running season.
Priority #2: Transition towards heavier resistance training, and a larger running workload.Pre-Season Resistance Training:
Transitioning to strength and power.
Your off-season was high-rep and high volume in the gym. Your in-season will be low-rep, low volume in the gym. Making this change is best done as a gradual shift - which is what your pre-season transition period is for. There are many ways of doing this: gradually doing less reps on your working sets (working from 10’s to 8’s to 5’s to 3’s, for example), doing less accessory work and more on big compound lifts, dialing back the number of total sets you do per session in favor of using heavier weights, etc.. The important thing is that you are gradually dialing back the overall workload in the gym, easing into working with heavier weights, and making room for the increase in running that will come with the in-season.
Pre-Season Aerobic Training:
Transitioning towards higher volume.
Just as your resistance training will shrink gradually over the pre-season, your aerobic training (running) will expand to fill the space it leaves. Gradually increasing the amount of total time you spend doing your cardio at the expense of the intensity you do it at (lower heart rate percentages, speeds, efforts, or whatever you track) is the name of the game. That could be on the same indoor equipment you were using in the off-season, or it could mean mixing in more frequent runs as the pre-season comes to a close and the snow starts to melt. Pre-Season Plyometrics:
Transitioning from intensive to extensive focus.
Extensive plyometrics are the of jumps that work on small efforts for more reps. Think jump rope, hops, or bounds. You can think of running as an extensive plyometric - running longer kind of just means hopping one leg in front of the other for more reps. In preparation for the running season it’s good idea to start building out a tolerance to these impacts in the gym, so your body is well used to it by the time you get out for your first few outdoor runs. Your plyometrics should go from big efforts for fewer reps at the start of your spring pre-season, gradually to smaller efforts for lots of reps over the course of the pre-season period.Summer In-Season (May-September)
Priority #1: Increasing running performance - and enjoying lots of running. Priority #2: Maintaining strength. In-Season Resistance Training Focus:
Strength and power.
The bulk of your overall training volume is now going to be covered by all the running - so it’s a good time to work on more intensity-based things in the gym like strength and power. Strength and power are both driven largely by how much force you produce, not so much by the overall workload you handle. Your summer in-season resistance training will consist mostly of this lower workload strength and power training to make room for your expanding running workload and maintain all the good stuff that comes with being strong. This combination is also great for avoiding any interference between the weights and runs as long as you think ahead a little with how you plan your weekly training schedule. There’s a little more in-depth article here on how to avoid the interference effect if you’re interested in learning more about how to make the strength and endurance training not step on each other’s toes.
In-Season Aerobic Training: High volume.
It’s the running season so get out there, enjoy the sun, and run around in it. Most of us don’t stay marathon-ready year round, so the running season means building to higher and higher distances as the season goes on - a.k.a higher and higher volumes of running. So let the running take the full front seat, and let everything else play a supporting role.
In-Season Plyometrics:
Intensive (concentric-heavy, lower impact where possible).
In-season is when your body will be handling the most impact from running the longest distances. So while it’s a good idea to keep some plyometrics in the program to maintain muscle and tendon adaptations, you can use them sparingly. It can also be a good idea to pick plyometrics that focus on the concentric or “takeoff” and less on the eccentric or “landings”. Box jump variations are great for this because they remove almost the entire landing while still letting you work an explosive takeoff.Fall Post-Season (October/November)
First off - take some time off and rest. I always recommend taking at least a week totally off of both the gym and running during the post-season to chill and “get hungry” to train again. There is so much power in really wanting to train again.Priority #1: Rest.
Priority #2: Transitioning between training phases. Post-Season Resistance Training:
Shifting towards higher volumes.
Just like you used your pre-season to transition from a high workload to lower workload in the weight-room to make room for more running - the post-season will help you transition towards more work on the weights and less running. You can do this through a combination of gradually adding sets, working in higher rep ranges, or increasing the number of times you weight train across a week. Post-Season Aerobic Training: Shifting towards high intensity, lower duration.
You’ll be used to long, lower intensity runs from the summer, so the post-season can help you transition to the higher intensity, HIIT, or sprint interval training that you’ll be using over the winter. Generally this might mean less overall time spent on aerobic training while using higher speed or heart rates. This also may mean getting rid of an aerobic training session or two per week in favour of more weight-training sessions. Post- Season Plyometrics:
Transitioning to higher impact, intensive.
The winter off-season will once again be full of intensive, and higher impact plyometrics - so the post-season can be a good time to ease your body more into more impact, and more intense plyometric loading.
Wrapping it Up…
If you’re looking for a sign to go a little “hybrid” this winter - this is it. Instead of surrendering to the Newfoundland winter, put the cold months to work. By shifting your focus on different things throughout the year you can maintain your base, get rid of overuse injuries early, and set yourself up to build on last year’s running season rather than playing catch-up year after year.If you're a runner, hybrid athlete, or any sort of athlete that trains for endurance and strength at the same time your winter off-season is coming up. You can contact me here to chat about in-person or online coaching options, questions, or just to chat any and all things strength and conditioning. References:
[1] Methenitis, S. (2018) ‘A brief review on concurrent training: From laboratory to the Field’, Sports, 6(4), p. 127. doi:10.3390/sports6040127.
[2] Milanović, Z., Sporiš, G. and Weston, M. (2015) ‘Effectiveness of high-intensity interval training (HIT) and continuous endurance training for VO2MAX improvements: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials’, Sports Medicine, 45(10), pp. 1469–1481. doi:10.1007/s40279-015-0365-0.
[3] Eihara, Y. et al. (2022) ‘Heavy resistance training versus plyometric training for improving running economy and running time trial performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis’, Sports Medicine - Open, 8(1). doi:10.1186/s40798-022-00511-1.
