Focus on maintaining strength.
During quieter training months, you may have time to learn exercises and build strength. During race season, focus on keeping that strength without disrupting important rides or races.
A shorter session with familiar exercises may be more manageable than a session full of new work. Start by reviewing what you have already tolerated well.
Less gym time need not mean losing all the strength you developed. The aim is to find an amount you can keep doing alongside racing.
What one maintenance study found.
A small study of well-trained cyclists used two weekly heavy-strength sessions during preparation, followed by one weekly maintenance session during competition. The strength-trained group retained gains in leg strength and muscle size while improving selected cycling outcomes. Read the study.
There were six male athletes in the strength-training group, with 12 weeks of preparation followed by 13 weeks of competition. This supports maintenance as an option; it does not prove one weekly session is enough for every cyclist, exercise programme or length of season.
The study gives a reason to consider maintenance work. It cannot choose the exercises or amount for your next gym session.
Start with what has already worked.
Keep a record of the exercises, weights, sets and reps you have handled well. Use that history when planning gym work during a busy race period.
If a gym session repeatedly affects your riding, review how much you do and when you do it with your coach. Where possible, change one thing at a time so you can see what helps.
Doing fewer sets does not always mean keeping the same weight. Pain, illness or difficulty with the movement need a separate assessment.
Look beyond the race date.
Race week can contain travel, poor sleep and a longer-than-usual warm-up or ride. Put the whole week into view before placing strength work.
Do not introduce an unfamiliar lower-body session simply because a day appears empty before your event. In our free scheduler, an event day and the preceding calendar day are protected from new gym placement. This is a conservative tool choice, not a measured recovery window.
If your only available days clash with racing, the tool leaves the missing session visible. A coach can then consider the actual strength prescription and your history.
An event week with travel in the picture.
This example is for a rider already used to maintenance lifting, with an event on Sunday. It shows possible gym placement, not a taper plan or a promise of fresh legs. The amount of lifting and your response still matter.
| Day | Existing commitment | Gym decision to explore |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Rest | Keep as rest. |
| Tuesday | Priority ride | A familiar maintenance session later, if you have previously tolerated it well. |
| Wednesday | Easy ride | Check how Tuesday’s work felt; do not add work just to fill the day. |
| Thursday | Planned ride | No second gym session in this example. |
| Friday | Travel and planned easy ride | Mark gym unavailable, even if the riding choice looks light. |
| Saturday | Planned pre-event ride | No new gym placement on the day before the event. |
| Sunday | Race or event | No gym placement. |
In the planner, enter Sunday as “Race or event”, mark your travel day unavailable for the gym and request one session. The tool uses those calendar choices. It does not measure sleep, travel fatigue or your lifting experience.
If Tuesday is unfamiliar work, has previously left you sore through the weekend or leaves your next important ride poor, the example does not fit you. Keep the exercises familiar and review the dose and placement with your coach. Some event weeks may leave no useful strength slot. Do not make up a missed session in the final days simply to complete a target.
See what your race week leaves available.
Enter the race, the existing rides and the gym days you can use. Start by exploring one maintenance slot.
Try the free schedulerResearch behind this guide
The studies support the principles discussed here. Our example weeks are practical illustrations, not schedules tested in those studies.
GOOD LEGS / THE PLANNED IPHONE BETA
Strength work for your training block.
Good Legs is being built to plan strength work around your cycling and running. Try the examples below to see how it will work.
- 01
Strength for your training block.
Switch between Sprint, VO₂ max, Threshold and Base to compare example gym sessions.
Explore the training blocks - 02
Tell us how your legs feel.
Try a morning check-in. See what changes in the example gym session, and why.
Explore the check-in - 03
Guided recovery sessions.
See the yoga, meditation and flexibility sessions planned alongside your strength work.
Explore recovery - 04
Share progress with your team.
Preview the private stories you can use to share completed sessions with teammates.
Explore team stories
These examples preview an app still in development. The iPhone beta is planned for January 2027. Keep using your own endurance plan.
The first 100 beta members receive three months free from receiving access. Joining the list is not a purchase, subscription or guaranteed place. Offer terms.