Cross Training for Healthy Elite Runners

I have it from reliable sources that healthy elites use swimming and water running as secondary workouts. These workouts can be quite intense.

Geb: "In the early evening, I spend most of my time in the gym doing strength work. But even if I am in the gym, I will still do 10k on the treadmill and another 10k on the bike."

In my experience, I noticed a large aerobic improvement and changes in my performance if I biked after every run for thirty minutes.

This worked when doubling too - six days a week. You will have to do dynamic stretching after the bike, like leg swings and lateral leg swings, to prevent your legs from getting heavy.

I know there is that "Law of Specificity" crap. But the truth is that it doesn't apply to running because you can only run so much. Cyclists can cycle alllll day. Six hours? No problem. We can't run for six hours everyday so why not spend an hour or just thirty minutes and work a little harder.

sdgfdfsfd wrote:

..so why not spend an hour or just thirty minutes and work a little harder.

When I was training twice a day quite hard, there's no freakin' way I needed to jump on an exercise bike for another hour. I think it would've prevented me from recovering for the next day.

If you aren't running many miles, certainly feel free to pedal away. :)

Paula Radcliffe does all kinds of supplemental work, in addition to running 140-150 miles a week, and look where it got her.

The way I see it, doing strength work, core work, etc. is just another way that you can put stress on your body, or phrased differently, another way that you can put in valuable hard work into training, and as long as you balance that out with more than adequate recovery, you will improve even greater.

As a note, Paula usually sleeps 9-10 hours a night, plus a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, to help her to recover quicker, stay sharp, and rebuild muscles faster.

I'd HIGHLY recommend her book, it's $10 on Amazon. We can all learn SO many lessons from her, just look at the margin she holds the marathon record by, it speaks for itself!

Derek Clayton (first ever sub 2:12 and 2:10 marathoner) discovered cycling and raced duathlons (not sure if he ended being a tri geek also) when he was older.

I recall a quote from him basically saying he wished he discovered cross-training during his running peak years. He believed it would have extended his career for many more years.