Foot, Ankle, Knee and Hip Protocol: Off season
Deload so you can reload
Winter is coming.
As fall races wrap up and the long days out are numbered, we must look
into the cold, dark months ahead.
What now? You’ve built an engine, you’ve expressed your fitness all summer over big miles in big terrain. How do you protect this over the winter? How do you expand your capacity during short days with bad weather and a tired body?
You enter an off season build.
Nobody can/should redline year round. You cannot be in peak shape 12 months out of the year. Your body and mind need a reset from the big mileage and hard work, but that doesn’t mean growth has to stall. Your priorities for the off season should include:
Recover. Address dysfunction or nagging tender spots you developed over the summer season. Even if you’ve escaped the season without major injuries, damage has been done. The body is out of balance, there’s lingering tension, sore spots and some things that just don’t feel right, mend them. This is an absolute ideal time to see a PT if you have issues that feel more sever than a simple niggle.
Download and analyze. Sift through your year. Explore the data and identify where you were strong, where you had gaps and outline the things you learned. This doesn’t have to be complex, it can be as simple as “I found I really did better getting my long runs before 7am” or “200 calories per hour on race day really seemed to be my sweet spot for days up to 50 miles”. It’s important to have takeaways after each season so you can evolve into the next and organize them in a way that’s easy to reference in the future. Not enough people do this.
Train, with intention. The off season is a time to build. Make sure all the work you put in, whether that be in the form of runs, strength training or mobility, are done with a purpose and direction. Showing up to the gym twice a week and spamming lower body work won’t get you the results you seek. Your work should be specific and progressive over time in a way that allows you to expand your abilities as a distance athlete. This is where the Foot, Ankle, Knee and Hip Protocol: Off season edition, comes into play. This is your firs step.
I built this in hopes of providing a framework for you. This is not a complete program, it is not tailored to your specific needs and it is not a magic pill. It is however, a piece to a puzzle you can use to create a better version of yourself. Consider this a running start into the off season. It is a deload period…one in which you can give yourself a chance to recover from the summer while still progressing forward. If used properly, it will provide you a foundation for the rest of the fall and winter that you can expand from and build into heavier, harder training blocks.
Not everyone has the need, the finances or the desire to work with me and my coaching, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t valuable tools I can provide for those people. I do this because I genuinely want to make people better.
Structure and intention are important when it comes to strength work for the long distance athlete. These sessions are designed to show you what that can and should look like.
The off season program has 2 sessions a week, to be repeated each week for a month, with the objective being to build some noticeable strength gains over specific movement patterns in a more gentle manner, before adjusting, adapting and progressing into the next months, more full programs. These sessions independently are a little longer than my normal 3x a week sessions I build here, but with only 2 sessions a week vs the normal 3, it should be manageable. We want to both recover this month with a little deload and also maintain and grow gently. Each movement has a clickable video demo.
Do the work so you can do the things.
Onward, Always.
Session 1
2 rounds
Mini band lateral walks x1 minute (3-4 steps each direction back and fourth)
3 rounds
Heel elevated tempo goblet squat x10 (3-4s descent)
Dumbbell RDL x10
Glute bridge march x10 per leg
3 rounds
Depth drop x 6 (with or without weight)
Single leg hip thrust x10 per leg
3 rounds
Dumbbell suitcase march x20 per side
Side plank with hip drop x10 per side
Slow mountain climbers x 12 per side
3 rounds
Chin ups x10
Session 2
2 rounds
Single leg banded tib curl x15 per
Banded clamshell x12 per side
3 rounds
Dumbbell deadlift x12 with slow 2-3s eccentric
Rear elevated split squat x10 per leg (can add weight to this)
3 rounds
Lateral bound with pause x10 per leg (stick each landing for 2 seconds)
Walking lunge x10 per leg
3 rounds
Deadbug pullover x12 (6 per leg)
Banded palloff squat x10 per side
3 rounds
Pull ups x10
Hammer curls x15