The Importance of Cross-Training for Marathon Runners
Personalization and Knowledge: The Key to How to Cross-Train for Running
Many of the world’s best marathon runners incorporate cross-training and strength training into their training plans. This helps to remain injury free while providing a good cardio workout and developing crucial muscle groups.
In this article, we examine why cross-training for runners is important, and how to develop cross-training for a marathon program.
Why is cross-training good for runners?
Distance running is impactful in many ways. For example, training for a marathon is usually a lonely activity. This forces you to continually race against yourself mentally and physically. Can you beat your PB? Can you run further this week than last?
Running also improves your aerobic capacity. And that is important for distance runners. And so, many marathon runners focus on running further.
But running is plyometric in nature. It impacts your body. Each time your foot hits the surface, your calf takes around eight times your body weight. That amount of loading on your body can take its toll. Running more – especially if you’re neglecting best practices and proper technique – can be counterproductive.
So how do you build your aerobic capacity without paying the penalty of all the impacts of running?
The answer is cross-training for runners.
Marathon cross-training gives you all the benefits of aerobic training and strength training without paying the penalty of the impactful nature of running.
It also introduces a greater variety of training into your program. Instead of only long runs, you can use many forms of cross-training. You can work out on a bike, a rower, or aqua jogging that mimics running without the same stress.
Not every day must be a running day. Integrating cross-training activities into your program allows you to work on one system while resting on another. You get to make better use of a rest day.
What cross-training should runners do?
Okay, so you may be thinking that to prepare your body for the impact of loading during running, you must do strength training. So, as you begin cross-training for marathon running, you build in squats and deadlifts. Should you be doing this?
“In pop fitness and training culture, people do squats and deadlifts. They’re great strength training exercises, but they are on two legs,” Ryan Chow, our CEO says. “You don’t have to control side-to-side movement. When you’re running, even if only for a split second, you’re on a single leg. You must have stability and strength to control the leg and trunk in a side-to-side fashion. You must train for single-leg strength.”
It makes sense that single-leg strength training, among other cross-training for marathon runners, is crucial to improve running performance.
How much strength training should a runner’s cross-training include?
A common issue we see with the distance runners we work with is a reticence to do enough strength training. There are several reasons for this. For example:
Marathon runners might think that building muscle will impede their running performance
Others don’t understand the anatomy and biomechanics of running or the relationship between strength and running performance
They might simply be afraid to lift heavy weights
This last reason is mythical in nature. When you understand the load that your leg takes when running, you realize that lifting 10 pounds doesn’t cut it. That leg needs to be capable of continually and rapidly withstanding an impact of hundreds of pounds.
“If you understand that three to five times your body weight goes into one leg, you should be moving toward lifting hundreds of pounds!” Ryan says. “Okay, you don’t have to develop it that much, but you do need to move in that direction.”
How to cross-train for a marathon – the need for personalization
By incorporating a cross-training workout in a routine of running workouts, you can work on different systems and your recovery day will be more beneficial. But personalization is critical – and it is also critical to monitor and adapt your training program continually. As your body evolves, so should your training regime.
What cross-training should runners do?
Runners should do a lot of single-leg strengthening exercises.
“Single leg squats and lifting, even if it’s assisted with a hand or foot (stagger stance or launch pattern) and specifically increasing load, week by week,” Ryan advises. “If we don’t increase the load, we increase the volume, but marathon running already gives you volume. More running isn’t supplementing your development in the way it needs to.”
However, the type and amount of cross-training that you do are unique to you. There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Standardized training produces standardized running performance.
“If we see someone who is lacking in aerobic capacity but doesn’t lack strength, we can get them to run,” says Ryan. “But if someone is hurting in their joints, they’re not strong enough. They can still develop their aerobic capacity in a different modality so that their injured or painful areas have the time to develop without losing sight of the demands of the activity they’re training for.”
Properly implementing cross-training for a marathon program requires you to know where you are now and where you want to get to, and then monitor and adapt constantly. We always conduct a comprehensive fitness assessment at the start of a client’s journey. We listen to your story, understand your needs and goals, and then develop personalized solutions to get you to where you want to be.
To take the first step to a new PB, sign up for a complimentary performance assessment with Reload today.
