Does cross training make you faster?

That is a pretty solid training plan, however let me put my 2 cents in...

First 2 hours on the bike and elliptical is good but switching it up would be nice. You should try swimming instead of biking and elliptical, or do an hour biking and an hour swimming. Swimming is by far the best thing for runners to do for cross training. It easily keeps your heart rate up and burns a lot of calories. (When I swim, I just do constant laps, I can get about 3500 yards in per hour) You also have to keep in mind that when you are biking and doing the elliptical, you are keeping your heart rate up (around 140-160 bpm). A lot of people who cross train tend to just peddle with little resistance and only get their heart rates to 100-120 bpm.

No also with your runs, try making your long run on saturday longer; try to do 17 (I think 17 is the sweet spot for long runs). Also maybe try to throw in a second long run in on Tuesday or Wednesday, try to do roughly 14-15 miles on one of those days and slowly get that run up to 17 as well. Next I would scratch the 3 and 2 mile runs in the evening. If you don't want to scratch them, try to do 5 instead of 3 and 2. Or just go for time and do 35 minutes.

The reason I am suggesting this is because volume is key to becoming faster. When you up your mileage, your body becomes more of an aerobic machine.

My training plan during off season looks like this:

Sun - 20 miles

Mon - 8 miles AM and 10 miles PM

Tue - 14 miles

Wed - 18 miles

Thur - 12 miles AM and 6 miles PM

Fri - 10 miles AM and 10 miles PM

Sat - 12 miles

For myself, I tend to do more volume but I do mix quality. For example, I will sometimes mix a little fartlek on my Wednesday long run. Or for my Sunday long run I will sometimes average 6:15-6:40 per mile.

And to show that this works:

My junior year of high school I was 18:55 in the 5k, 11:02 in the 2 mile and 5:14 in the mile

(Summer going into my senior year I decided to run and averaged 9 miles a day)

My senior year of high school I was 16:56 in the 5k, 10:09 in the 2 mile and 4:50 in the mile

(Did about the same amount of mileage again going into freshman year of college)

My freshman year of college I was 25:59 in the 8k and 32:48 in the 10k for XC. and I was 4:27 in the mile, 9:00 in the 3k and 15:22 in the indoor 5k (Sadly was injured during outdoor)

(Did about an average of 11.5 miles a day going into sophomore year of college)

My sophomore year so far for college has been 25:28, 25:23 and 25:07 in the 8k.

I still have regionals and possibly nationals for this season. I have big aspirations for the 5k and 10k for outdoors as well

High mileage does work.

However, it does depend on the athlete and their physiology.

Hope that this maybe opened your eyes to different training and I wish you the best in your upcoming 5k. Just remember, run fast and win!

14 hours of cross training on top of 70mpw?

I can' even make myself do 7 hours of cross training when i'm trying to get over an injury and get myself back running. i'd rather just sit on the couch.

14 hours? wrote:

14 hours of cross training on top of 70mpw?

I can' even make myself do 7 hours of cross training when i'm trying to get over an injury and get myself back running. i'd rather just sit on the couch.

Exactly why you are not reaching your full potential. Not everyone can be a good runner. there are people like you who lack drive and people like the OP who clearly have motivation and will be flying fast if they stick with it and stay healthy

14 hours? wrote:

14 hours of cross training on top of 70mpw?

I can' even make myself do 7 hours of cross training when i'm trying to get over an injury and get myself back running. i'd rather just sit on the couch.

Lulz, when I was injured last outdoor, I literally biked and swam for about 2-3 hours a day. I was too afraid of getting fat and becoming slow. Its all about your priorities and how much self discipline you have.

fastfeet111 wrote:

I have been running 70 miles per week and doing 14 hours of cross training per week....yes lot of free time. I am racing a 5k in 2 weeks and excited to see where i am at. how much do you think the cross training helps?

M: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

T: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

W: 9 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

TH: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

F: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 2 miles

Sa: 15 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical

Su: 2 hours cycling+elliptical

Not to be a jerk, but your cross training will help less than you think. This experiment has been done countless times before. Where? In the world of competitive triathalons. Those guys are doing 30 hours of cardio a week consistently, yet none are elite runners.

You'd be better off just doing your 70 miles consistently faster.

From my experience, it has diminishing returns. When you're out of shape, it'll accelerate your regaining of running fitness up to a decent level. But when you're in your best shape ever and trying to PR, it can prevent you from getting faster.

urrquality wrote:

Not to be a jerk, but your cross training will help less than you think. This experiment has been done countless times before. Where? In the world of competitive triathalons. Those guys are doing 30 hours of cardio a week consistently, yet none are elite runners.

You'd be better off just doing your 70 miles consistently faster.

that´s just what i was thinking.

op is strong as an allrounder. cross training works for overall fitness and for those who are injured due to running.

many runners capable of a sub 14-5k put in 70 miles. with hard and fast workouts. some extra hours might impede recovery, but this is individual.

fastfeet111 wrote:

I have been running 70 miles per week and doing 14 hours of cross training per week....yes lot of free time. I am racing a 5k in 2 weeks and excited to see where i am at. how much do you think the cross training helps?

M: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

T: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

W: 9 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

TH: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

F: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 2 miles

Sa: 15 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical

Su: 2 hours cycling+elliptical

n+1: cross training keeps you healthy more than making you faster. For what it's worth, I always run my hard workouts better when I am consistently SWIMMING. Works your lungs better than cycling and gives your legs a break, especially when using paddles and a pull buoy. Placebo effect? Possibly.

Lol NO!

Cross training only helps to the extent that you can marginally increase your aerobic fitness and muscular strength without risking injury, or because you can reduce your running load while somewhat limiting the decrease in fitness levels.

Running is the best training for running. Cycling will do nothing but develop the wrong muscles - you don't need massive quads to run a marathon.

Cross training is for the weak. You don't want to spend that extra time doing extra running (because it's either boring or too painful) so you try to compensate by doing something more fun and/or engaging. Like I said, the only legitimate reason for cross training is increasing load without injury risk.

If you want real cross-training that WILL help your running, throw away the bike and instead:

1) Do some yoga or pilates (seriously)

2) Variation in training (intervals / hills)

3) Weight training

formerD1 wrote:

Lol NO!

Cross training only helps to the extent that you can marginally increase your aerobic fitness and muscular strength without risking injury, or because you can reduce your running load while somewhat limiting the decrease in fitness levels.

Running is the best training for running. Cycling will do nothing but develop the wrong muscles - you don't need massive quads to run a marathon.

Cross training is for the weak. You don't want to spend that extra time doing extra running (because it's either boring or too painful) so you try to compensate by doing something more fun and/or engaging. Like I said, the only legitimate reason for cross training is increasing load without injury risk.

If you want real cross-training that WILL help your running, throw away the bike and instead:

1) Do some yoga or pilates (seriously)

2) Variation in training (intervals / hills)

3) Weight training

Youre close minded.

To OP: Cross-training do help and should be part of your weekly training. How much however is the question.

A huge huge problem in running is, as we all know, injuries. Far more runners should learn to train alternatively regularly to avoid injuries that set you out for weeks, months or worse.

I have personally done it and know several who has gotten great benefits from cross-training. Elliptical is better than bike, running in water is better than elliptical, and a combination of swimming+elliptical isnt bad. Though, the cross-training workout should just be kept to the slow and easy workouts.

You wont lose progress by doing cross training only once a week for example, but your muscles will get a rest from the pounding and your chance of injury will decrease. Keep doing it. I know several triathletes and they are great runners compared to how little running they actually do.

Track and field so unprofessional. Everyone talks about not running too many miles at a young age because of injury. The impact of running etc. But why should runners train less than other endurance athletes? Or why so much less? Train alternatively, train more and perform better.

Whatever Nick Symmonds is doing in his base phase to develop strength

Barakus Obama wrote:

Youre close minded.

You're a hobby jogger, go away.

Almost nobody running at the D1 or above level cross-trains (unless they are injured/about to be injured).

El G, Bekele and Geb were not wearing tights and doing tempos up Mt. Ventoux. They were running, and running, and running, and running.

Go back to runnersworld.com.

If your body can handle it, running more will ALWAYS be better than cross-training. Cross-training is good ONLY if your body needs the rest or can't handle it. Don't do it because as OP believes, it will somehow make you faster. It will ONLY make you faster if your body could not have handled any more running.

Don't automatically assume you are in that latter group. To the extent you add cross-training to your routine, you want to limit it as much as possible, so that you are spending the maximum proportion of your time running as possible. Unless your goal is to simply "have fun" and "triathlete."

This is the advice I would have given to anyone aspiring to be an elite runner. If your goal is to be a hobby jogger then it doesn't matter what you do.

say you're running 70 mph (arbitrary). whether or not you're physically maxed out mileage wise, won't cross training give you some aerobic gains (i.e. make you faster) as compared to doing 70 mpw with no cross training?

fastfeet111 wrote:

I have been running 70 miles per week and doing 14 hours of cross training per week....yes lot of free time. I am racing a 5k in 2 weeks and excited to see where i am at. how much do you think the cross training helps?

M: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

T: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

W: 9 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 3 miles

TH: 10 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 5 miles

F: 6 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical / 2 miles

Sa: 15 miles / 2 hours cycling+elliptical

Su: 2 hours cycling+elliptical

This seems like a good workout set-up.

However, not really cross-training.

Your extra work is really more of the same.

No, cross training will not make you faster as it works different muscle groups. Cross training IMO should be used for injury prone runners, and runners that are coming off of an injury caused by the constant pounding on the legs.

is it that the aerobic benefits are essentially pointless because they occur in the wrong place? So for swimming from sheerly an adaptation standpoint (not recovery) more capillaries might be developed in upper body but not the legs and therefore will fail to help running? why doesn't the increased load on the heart and lungs make them stronger and translate to running, making the athlete more aerobically fit and faster?

sent to steal your gains wrote:

say you're running 70 mph (arbitrary). whether or not you're physically maxed out mileage wise, won't cross training give you some aerobic gains (i.e. make you faster) as compared to doing 70 mpw with no cross training?

It doesn't make sense to talk about "areobic strength" or "fitness" without respect to a given activity. That's the reason why these boards criticize CrossFitters as being meathead bro-scientists.

sent to steal your gains wrote:

is it that the aerobic benefits are essentially pointless because they occur in the wrong place? So for swimming from sheerly an adaptation standpoint (not recovery) more capillaries might be developed in upper body but not the legs and therefore will fail to help running? why doesn't the increased load on the heart and lungs make them stronger and translate to running, making the athlete more aerobically fit and faster?

Oh my gawd, I took a several year break from Letsrun.com after I graduated from college and it looks like this place has been absolutely overrun by hobby joggers spewing their hobby jogging nonsense. I can't believe questions like this are being asked on letsrun.com

Hobby Jogger Sam runs 5 minutes a day

Hobby Jogger Sam decides to get laid for 4 hours each day as "cross-training" (average BPM of 100, goes up to 150 when climaxing)

Hobby Jogger Sam goes to run a 10K race

How does Hobby Jogger Sam perform?

Some of you need to really read up on what "aerobic benefit" means to a runner.

And those Cross-Fitters must be fantastic runners since they're working up a good sweat all the time.

The Hobby Jogger infestation of LetsRun.com must end.