Strength training for runners, now built into your plan

Strength training for runners is now part of your Kotcha training plan. With this iOS update, strength sessions sit in your routine right next to your runs, with full workout details, and you pick them through the physio coach. The same release improves session management and how your metrics update when you change your goal. If you've always meant to do strength work but never knew what or when, your plan now tells you.

What's new

• Strength sessions in your plan. Strength training is now part of your running routine, not a separate thing you have to remember.
• Workout details. Open a strength session and see what it contains before you start.
• The physio coach. Choose your strength workouts with the physio coach, the member of your coaching team dedicated to strength and conditioning.
• Smoother session management, and metrics that update properly when your goal changes.

Kotcha has always worked as a team of coaches: a head coach for your running, a nutritionist, a data analyst and a strength coach. Until now, the running side did most of the talking. With this release, the strength side has its own place in your week.

Why strength training matters for runners

Running is repetitive. Thousands of steps per run, the same movement, the same muscles, the same joints. That's what makes it simple, and it's also why the body needs more than mileage to handle it.

Elite runners know this. One of the five pillars behind Kotcha is stronger legs and fewer injuries: Kotcha Strength & Conditioning is built into the plan, with Kipchoge's own drills for an injury-free career. Look at how the best in the world train and you see it every time: strength work and recovery quietly do as much as the hard sessions.

For most runners, the problem isn't motivation. It's structure:

• What to do. Generic workouts from the internet don't know you're a runner, let alone where you are in your build.
• When to do it. Strength the day before an interval session is not the same as strength on an easy day.
• How to keep it up. If it's not in the plan, it's the first thing to go when the week gets busy.

Putting strength training inside your plan solves all three. Your sessions show up in the same place as your runs, so they become part of the routine instead of an optional extra.

How it works

1. Open Kotcha and go to your plan.
2. Your strength sessions appear in your routine, alongside your runs.
3. Tap a session to see its details.
4. Use the physio coach to pick the strength workouts that suit you.

Your running plan keeps adapting every week, as always. Every Sunday, Coach K asks how you felt, looks at what you completed and builds your next week. Now that week includes the work that keeps you strong enough to run it.

How to get it

Strength training is available now on iOS. Update Kotcha from the App Store and open your plan to find your first strength session.

Got a tune-up race coming? Add it as a B-race and your coach plans around it. And if you're curious about the method behind all this, read our story, from Kaptagat to the app.

FAQ

Should runners do strength training?

Yes. Strength and conditioning helps your body handle the repetitive load of running. That's why Kotcha builds it into your plan, following the same principle elite runners use: stronger legs, fewer injuries.

How often should runners do strength training?

It depends on your plan, your level and your week. In Kotcha, strength sessions are placed in your routine alongside your runs, so you don't have to work it out yourself.

Where do I find my strength sessions in Kotcha?

In your plan, next to your runs. Tap a session to see its details, and use the physio coach to pick the workouts that suit you.