Cross Training During a Marathon Build

Well, that was an awesome weekend.

I was going to forego applying to Boston this year due to it being bad timing with work and it not fitting well with my overall strategy with racing next year, but I was coerced by some friends in Boston and I am increasingly delighted that I was. 2015 is shaping up to be a super fun race year and there is lots of travelling involved which is perhaps the most fun of all.

At the blogger meet up with Angela, Christina and Danielle, we were scheming for SeaWheeze 2015. Although I am not racing (I do Transrockies 120 miler the week before in Colorado), I am hoping to make the trip to Vancouver to cheer on racing friends and explore the city.

Speaking of running, it’s time to to dig back into my marathon special and chat a little bit about my plans for Scotiabank Marathon which is a mere 33 days away! This week, I wanted to chat a little bit about cross training which I have done a lot of since my last marathon in August. To prevent burn out, especially with two marathon builds, I have been doing a number of different things to stay strong and keep training fresh.

Pool Running. 

I borrowed a pool running belt from a friend and although it is a far cry from running, it has been incredible cross training.

In pool running, the most important part of your workout is maintaining proper form with a straight back and a cadence as close to 180 as possible. Pump your arms the same way as well, maintaining about a 90 degree angle at your elbow. The stride will be different, more up and down like a cyclist rather than fully extended which could injure your hamstring.

One of my favourite one hour workouts is:

• 15 minutes easy pool running.
• Pyramid workout: 1’, 2’, 3’, 4’, 5’, 4’ 3’, 2’, 1’ at hard effort except the 5’ session which is at tempo effort. (Each interval has 1’ of active recovery.)
• 12’ easy warm-down.

Cycling

As always, this is a killer cross trainer for runners. Like pool running, it is zero impact and you can do similar workouts on the bike as you can do on the track. You also can sub it in for long runs, or in my case this summer, add it to your long runs before you begin to add extra training for the legs without pushing your milage to unsafe limits.

One of my favourite cycling workouts right now is:

• 15 minutes of easy cycling
• 3 minutes at hard effort with a one minute break.
• Repeat six – ten times.
• 12 minute easy cool down.

Elliptical

 I work out at Goodlife Fitness which has four different versions of the elliptical, so depending on my workout, I change the machine I use. Lately, my favourite one hour workout has been:

• Warm up for 15 minutes
• Hard as possible for 2 x 4 minutes, 2 x 3 minutes, 2 x 2 minutes, 3 x 1 minutes
• Cool down.

How do you cross training during training?