How to Structure Your Running Off-Season: Start With What Your Marathon Told You

If you raced this fall, your spring marathon starts now, and the question I've been getting most is what "now" is supposed to look like. My answer comes from the 20+ years I've spent as an athletic therapist in other sports, where the off-season is a normal part of our calendar.

When a hockey or rodeo season ends, those athletes step away completely. They recover from their injuries, they trade the ice or the practice pen for cross training and more days a week in the gym. They look hard at what went wrong or where they fell short so they're better prepared for the next season. Some of them even pick up a different sport for a while. Runners are the athletes I see skip all of that, rolling from one training block into the next and trying to stay in marathon shape all year without giving much thought to the recovery they need between goal races.

So for a lot of the runners I coach, the next couple of months borrow from that playbook, with a little less running and two to three strength training sessions a week. Before I decide what that looks like for you, though, I want to hear about your race, because I can’t help seeing the marathon as a 42.2 km assessment, and how it went tells us a lot about what your off-season needs to do.

The short version: Your marathon off-season starts with a few weeks of easy, relaxed running after your race.. Then cut back your mileage and long run for a couple of months, strength train two to three times a week, and keep a little quick running like strides or hills in your week so you hold onto your fitness (Houmard et al., 1990). In early winter, drop to two shorter strength sessions a week and build your mileage back gradually.

What should your marathon tell you about your off-season?

When you walk me through your marathon, I’m listening for four things. I want to know how you paced the first half, whether your build included race specific work, and how consistent you were with strength training once the mileage climbed. I’m also asking about any injuries that crept up during the block, because those give me clues about where the gaps are in your strength training.

It's important to be honest about the first two, because a marathon that came apart after a quick first half or a build that never practiced goal pace isn't a strength problem, so more strength training this fall won't fix it. Those two problems can get solved in your next build. The last two in the list are what the off-season is for, so if your strength work slipped once the mileage climbed, or something started to get cranky as the long runs got longer, we know what to work on now. Post race recovery is prioritized first and everything below starts once you've truly recovered and are ready to get back to work.

Will you lose fitness if you run less after a marathon?

Lower mileage for a short stretch isn't a bad thing, even though social media can make it look like everyone else is running marathon after marathon without ever backing off. That isn't how most runners keep improving, and the research is reassuring about what happens when you cut back. In one study, well-trained runners dropped their weekly distance by 70 percent for three weeks while keeping a small amount of fast running, and their 5 km race times held steady (Houmard et al., 1990). When a similar group cut back and also took out all of their faster running, nine of the ten runners raced a slower 5 km (McConell et al., 1993).

So your mileage can come down and your long run can shorten, provided a little quick running stays in your week, whether that's strides, short hills or a light fartlek. A 2021 review found that endurance can be held for up to 15 weeks on ⅓ to ⅔ less volume as long as the intensity stays, although its authors caution that holding onto your aerobic fitness isn't the same as holding onto your ability to keep going for hours (Spiering et al., 2021). That's the reason your off-season has an end date.

Why should marathon runners strength train in the off-season?

A systematic review of strength training in distance runners found that two to three sessions a week improved running economy, time trial performance and sprint speed in runners of all abilities, without changing body composition (Blagrove et al., 2018). Running economy is how much oxygen it costs you to hold a given pace, and for a marathoner better running economy means the same pace feels easier for longer.

The study I find most interesting for marathoners looked at what happens late in a long run, which researchers call durability (Maunder et al., 2021). Well-trained male runners added heavy lifting and plyometrics twice a week for ten weeks, and afterward their running economy held up better at the end of a 90 minute run. In a hard effort straight after that run, they lasted 35 percent longer than they had before, while the running-only group got slightly worse (Zanini, Folland, Wu, et al., 2025).

The findings aren't unanimous. In a trial of well-trained female endurance athletes, 11 weeks of heavy lifting made their legs about 40 percent stronger without changing their running economy (Vikmoen et al., 2016). The group behind the 90 minute study also found that regular long runs and higher weekly volume were linked to better durability (Zanini, Folland, & Blagrove, 2025). The moral here is that the strength training you do this fall and the long runs you do this winter work together the best, and neither one replaces the other.

Does strength training prevent running injuries?

I'd love to tell you that lifting will keep you injury free, and the research doesn't let me. A 2024 meta-analysis of nine randomized trials and 1,904 runners found that injury prevention programs did not significantly reduce injuries overall (Wu et al., 2024). Most of those programs were general routines that runners did on their own, often with nothing more than bodyweight, but the 3 studies where someone checked in with the runners every week were the ones that lowered injury risk.

The researchers think that's because those runners kept doing the work, which is why I check in on strength sessions every week, the same way I do

runs. The sessions themselves are built around what your race and your training block told us, and they get heavier as you're ready, because tendons respond best to heavy loads applied for longer than 12 weeks (Bohm et al., 2015). That's one more reason to start now, with your healthcare team guiding anything that needs assessment.

What does a marathon off-season look like week to week?

Put together, the first few weeks after your race are for easy, relaxed running and very little else. From there your mileage and long run stay down for a block in late fall while you strength train two to three times a week and keep a little quick running in your week, which for some athletes can grow into a shorter speed goal. As we head into early winter your strength training settles into two shorter sessions a week, which is enough to hold onto the strength you've built while your running starts to take up more of your time and energy. Your mileage and long run build back gradually- and I mean gradually- since injury rates climb when a single run is more than 10 percent longer than your longest run of the previous 30 days (Schuster Brandt Frandsen et al., 2025).

Most of the strength studies I read ran for ten weeks or longer, so think of this as a couple of months of steady work and not a quick fix. Consistency paired with patience is what moves the needle.

Your action this week

Pull out your notes from your fall race and answer the four questions I'd ask you. How did you pace the first half, did your build include race specific work, how consistent was your strength training once the mileage climbed, and what crept up along the way? Your answers to the last two are the start of your off-season plan.

If you'd like more of this as you head into your off-season, you can join my newsletter here and I'll send it straight to your inbox.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a runner's off-season be?

For most of the marathoners I coach, it's a couple of months of reduced running and focused strength work, starting once you've fully recovered from your race. Endurance can hold for up to 15 weeks on reduced volume as long as some intensity stays in (Spiering et al., 2021), but holding fitness isn't the same as being ready to run for hours, so the off-season needs an end date.

How many times a week should marathon runners strength train?

Two to three sessions a week during the off-season, which is the range a systematic review found improved running economy and performance in distance runners (Blagrove et al., 2018). In early winter I move my athletes to two shorter sessions a week as their mileage builds.

How much can I increase my long run after the off-season?

Build back gradually. In a study of over 5,200 runners, injury rates climbed when a single run was more than 10 percent longer than the longest run of the previous 30 days (Schuster Brandt Frandsen et al., 2025).

Does strength training prevent running injuries?

Not on its own. A 2024 meta-analysis found injury prevention programs didn't significantly reduce injuries overall, but the studies where runners were checked on weekly did better (Wu et al., 2024). Consistency and follow-up matter as much as the exercises.

References: Blagrove et al. (2018). Sports Medicine, 48(5)., Bohm et al. (2015). Sports Medicine Open, 1(1)., Houmard et al. (1990). International Journal of Sports Medicine, 11(1)., Maunder et al. (2021). Sports Medicine, 51., McConell et al. (1993). International Journal of Sports Medicine, 14(1), Schuster Brandt Frandsen et al. (2025). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 59(17)., Spiering et al. (2021). Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 35(5)., Vikmoen et al. (2016). PLOS ONE, 11(3)., Wu et al. (2024). Sports Medicine, 54(5)., Zanini, Folland, & Blagrove (2025). Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, advance online publication., Zanini, Folland, Wu, et al. (2025). Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 57(7).

About the author

Jocelyn is a Certified Athletic Therapist with the Canadian Athletic Therapists Association since 2005, an NCCP Club Coach Trained running coach, and the owner of Steady State Endurance in Calgary. She has run eight marathons, including Boston in 2022 and Chicago in 2023, and coaches adult endurance athletes virtually toward their distance running goals.