When cross-training and triathlon races first made a big splash in the 1980s, I worried that running would somehow tail off. I feared it might prove a fad, with many participants moving on to the next big thing. Now I hold the exact opposite opinion.
Cross-training has done more to encourage and assist lifetime runners than any other movement. Heck, I do it myself, plenty of it. Half my weekly workouts don’t require that I lace up running shoes. Instead I read newspapers and magazines while pedaling my recumbent bike.
I enjoy and endorse athletic congregations—people coming together from diverse beginning points. One hundred and fifty years ago in England, a few hardy souls began “hares and hounds” footraces across Wimbledon Common. A decade later Captain Matthew Webb became the first to swim the English Channel. The Oxford-Cambridge rowing race had gotten started about twenty years earlier.
The Tour de France was first held in 1903. Nordic skiing existed in distant, frigid parts of the globe. In 1972, Title IX opened the doors to female athletes in America. The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned.
With the massive popularity of the Hawaii Ironman on TV, people who had begun running in the 1970s rediscovered the cobweb-covered bicycles in their basements. Skinny runners learned how to swim. Health clubs popped up on almost every urban block, and aerobic dance classes put bodies in sweaty, rhythmic motion. Lifting weights made you fitter for any activity.
All these options proved particularly attractive to the 95 percent of runners who never won a medal or prize at weekend races. Why put all your eggs in one basket when you could have more fun in many activities?
Best of all, cross-training reduces injuries. If you don’t push a single effort to an extreme, you get stronger and fitter across the board. You don’t suffer from injuries of repetition or overuse. This is monumentally important. A healthy, uninjured athlete is one who can continue healthy activities for life. Which is the name of the game.
Take a seat: Most runners use cross-training to recover from recent workouts or to heal from injury. That means you should get off your feet. Indoor and outdoor cycling is the most popular option, but water activities are also great. You can sit in a boat or rowing machine, run in a pool (with a floatation vest, so your feet never touch bottom), or of course swim in a pool or open water.
Runners tend to make lousy swimmers. I’m talking about myself here. We think we can just grit it out and get better, as we did in running. This rarely works. Water, unlike air, is such a thick, resistant medium that good technique makes a huge difference. I’ll always be a subpar swimmer, but I improved substantially after I sought out a good coach. My appreciation also soared. Now when I get out of the water, after about 15 minutes, my body feels as loose and content as it does after a massage.
Get on your feet: To use cross-training to enhance your running speed instead of to recover, you have to move much as you do when running. You have to get on your feet and rotate one in front of the other. This is the classic “specificity of training” rule at work. You can’t train your abs or your biceps and expect them to help you run better. You have to focus on the specific leg muscle groups that power the running motion.
Several decades ago, you could do this only while riding uphill on a bicycle. Now the local health club has dozens of new machines that work great for runners, including steppers and a range of elliptical trainers. I often find that I can use these even when injured, as the smoothly rotating pedals eliminate road pounding. Just be sure to let pain and discomfort guide you. Cross-training is no bonus if your feet or legs still hurt. In that case you’re just extending an injury.
Train like a triathlete: Once an extreme oddity, the triathlon is now a bona fide Olympic event, and a great test of all-around endurance. Many runners have made triathlon training a part of their regular routine, especially in summer.
Some have even improved their running while doing less of it, due to the time they spend in the other two activities. This isn’t true for everyone, but it’s more common than you might expect. These people get better because they focus more on each of their fewer, shorter, faster running workouts. They narrow their running training and become more efficient.