Cross Training 101: Decoding Cross Training and its Essential Role in Healthy Race Training
Training for a race successfully and without injury, from a 5k up to a marathon and beyond, doesn’t just require running the allotted miles each day. It involves a mix of running, strength training, and oftentimes, cross training. Cross training is a buzzword in the running world that is often tossed around but not often explained. Hopefully I will be able to shed some light on this seemingly mysterious concept here.
What is Cross Training, and Why is it Important?
Cross training involves the completion of any type of physical activity, typically endurance based, that is not running. This could range from swimming to cycling or even team sports, like soccer or basketball. These forms of exercise are meant to contribute to overall fitness goals without placing the same stress on the body as running. It helps to provide running muscles with a bit of recovery while still gaining cardiovascular benefit. The more variety in the type of physical activity for your body, typically the lower the risk of overuse injury. As overuse injury often plagues endurance athletes, cross training can provide a vital change in pace that is often the difference between being sidelined partway through your training cycle or toeing the start line with a healthy body ready to race.
It’s worth noting that cross training does not always have to include an endurance based activity. For example, you could include a strength training or pilates session as cross training for running, however, we will not be discussing this in depth here as it is not as common of a strategy.
How To Properly Implement Cross Training
If you are working one-on-one with a run coach, like the coaches at Thrive Running Collective, they will be able to help you identify when and how to implement cross training into your running routine. However, if you are guiding yourself through training, here are a few easy tips to determine how and when to cross train.
Know yourself: If you are someone who has experienced injury in the past when training for a race or are not 100% physically at the start of your training plan, consider swapping one or two of your weekly easy runs with an equivalent intensity cross training session. You could easily do this for the entirety of your training block. For example, if your training plan calls for 30 minutes of conversation pace running, you could swap this session out with 30 minutes of easy effort cycling for a similar benefit.
Schedule cross training during a down week: An important aspect of a well balanced training plan, is a down week every 4-6 weeks. A down week is a week of reduced running mileage and intensity to give the body a bit of a break partway through a training cycle. This is a great time to swap easy runs out for cross training sessions. Again, try to match the intensity and approximate distance of the run with a different endurance based activity.
Listen to your body: If at any point during training your body feels particularly run down or you experience physical pain that is consistent across multiple running days, consider incorporating cross training for a week or two. Reassess at the end of this period, and if your body is recovered, consider reintroducing the full amount of running to your schedule again.
The use of cross training while preparing for a race is vitally important and can often be the difference between staying healthy as you increase running mileage or acquiring an overuse injury. It shouldn’t be seen as intimidating or inferior to running. It should instead be embraced. Have fun exploring the potential cross training can offer while training for a race! As always, if you have any further questions on this topic, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Thrive run coaches at coaching@thriveruncollective.com.