The whole week is anchored to Sunday's game — it's the highest-intensity sprint and cutting session you'll get, so everything else is placed around it. Monday lifts moderate on post-game legs, Thursday is the heaviest lower day (72 hours out is enough recovery), and from Friday on, nothing heavy touches your legs. Four lifting days drive the mass; Wednesday's sprints plus the game cover the speed. Saturday stays genuinely empty on purpose.
Ten weeks of Strava told the real story: running 3x a week like clockwork, lifting twice total. So this block flips the emphasis. The runs stay — they're the habit that carried you through recovery — but the lifting becomes the anchor, because that's where the mass, the glute strength, and the knee protection all live. And the timing is on your side: a returning lifter in a calorie surplus regains strength and size faster than almost any other training situation.
Strength ×4 Two lower, two upper. Hitting everything twice a week is the mass driver. Glute work leads every lower day — that's the pes anserine insurance.
Acceleration ×1 The missing piece from your Strava — nothing you've logged goes above a jog's top speed. Small volume, max quality, full rest.
Game day The true max-effort speed, cutting, and reaction work. Warm up for it like a training session, because it is one.
Lunch runs ×2 Kept exactly as they are: short, easy, habitual. Recovery flush, not training stress.
Start embarrassingly light. Every lift begins at a load you could do for 3–4 more reps, then add a little every single session. You'll be back near old numbers in 3–4 weeks. Rushing there in week 1 is how detrained tendons get angry — the muscle comes back faster than the connective tissue does.
The pes anserine test still applies. Any inner-knee ache during a loaded movement means drop the load, not stretch through it. And no aggressive static hamstring or adductor stretching — same insertion point, same rule as always.
Games are the cutting test. The knee says 100% — Sundays will confirm it. Inner-knee soreness that's still there Monday morning means Monday's loads drop and the week runs a notch easier. One easy week costs nothing; a re-flare costs the season.
When a week goes sideways, cut in this order: Friday's run first, then Wednesday's sprint volume, then lifting sets. Never cut Saturday's rest, and never lift heavy legs after Thursday.
This is the in-season block: build mass and re-establish strength while games handle the top-end speed. When the season wraps in November, the 2-mile goal comes off the shelf as its own dedicated block — with a strength base and an extra few pounds of muscle behind it.
Eight hours a day of sitting shortens the hip flexors, switches off the glutes, and locks up the mid-back and ankles — the exact tissues sprinting and cutting depend on. Saturday's full mobility routine handles the deep reset; these micro-breaks keep you from undoing it all week.
Every ~45–60 min of sitting: stand up, 10 bodyweight hip hinges or a 30s couch/hip-flexor stretch, and 30s of easy walking. Stack it onto things you already do — coffee, bathroom, the end of a call.
Never sit longer than ~90 min unbroken. A 60-second reset beats one long stretch session later.
Before the desk: 10 glute bridges, 10 cat-cows, 5 deep squats holding the bottom. Wakes up the chain so you're not starting the day already shut down.
The down-training routine stays in the rotation — Saturday at minimum, plus any evening you feel wound tight. Release and relaxation, never strengthening, for the pelvic floor.
A way to alternate sit/stand, a resistance band on the chair for quick glute sets, and a lacrosse ball for the glutes and feet. Small things, used often, beat a perfect routine you skip.