Runners...Is CrossFit For You?

The Brighton Marathon

Brighton & Hove is home to many an active person with a huge number of gyms, training studios, personal trainers, recreational runners and of course the very popular Brighton Marathon - now in its 5th year.

At Connect we get a lot of enquiries from runners who are dabbling with the idea of supplementing their running training with strength work and we always try to impress on these people just how important a good strength plan can be to improve running times. However, this is often met with a little sceptisicm because traditionally people think if they want to improve their running times, speed or efficiency they just have to run more.

Now this is of course true to a certain extent and you should definitely have different running sessions within your arsenal like endurance runs, intervals and tempo runs but so many runners are missing out on the vital ingredient of strength work that could ultimately be the key to really improving their running.

Squat!!!!
Nice low squats will improve leg power, hip and glute function
and keep your legs feeling strong during your races.

Building strength through the calves, legs, hips, glutes and core will not fail to improve your times, be it for your short distance races such as 5kms or 10kms or for longer races such as half and full marathons.

This is where CrossFit can help so much with its wide array of training disciplines and focus work; strength, power, speed, flexibility, agility and balance to name a handful of the ten main fitness benchmarks outlined by Greg Glassman in one of the first ever CrossFit Journal posts. At Connect we work pure strength cycles to develop ultimate power whilst also programming workouts to develop endurance capacity in all the muscle groups you need to keep firing on those longer runs. 

It can sometime seem foreign for many people to consider using sets of back squats or even the Olympic lifts such as the Clean & Jerk or Snatch to improve their running but over the years we have seen it time and time again. Members are always coming up to us and telling us how many personal bests (PBs) they have set in their running since training with us and really focusing on CrossFit.

We received a great email from one of our members recently that i thought i would share so you don't have to take our word for it. And let me just say how sceptical Shelley was when she joined us as we enthusiastically told her how we would be able to improve her running times with CrossFit. She had used weights before in her training with the typical reps and sets on weights machines but was unsure just how the CrossFit set up would be of any help. However, she gave it a go, trained regularly at the box and she couldnt be any happier at the improvements she has seen.

Over to you Shelley G:

I've been doing endurance sports since I was 21 and although not seriously competitive, I have done quite well in my respective sport and taken my training seriously. I am an Ironman finisher and have done quite a few half ironman and half marathon distances as well as long distance cycling events. I did know that weight training was beneficial to running and cycling and have always incorporated it into my training schedule. My usual weight training routine would be twice a week, 4-5 sets of 15 reps, predominately on the muscles I would use for running and cycling. 

However, after 8 years of doing this I wanted something different and decided to try CrossFit. Seeing as it focuses on explosive power, anaerobic training and heavier weights than I'm used to I was sceptical with how it would work, if at all, to improve my training. The test would be a half marathon that I was doing 6 weeks into my CrossFit training.

Needless to say, I felt AMAZING in my race. The course itself was tough with a lot of rolling hills but I was able to run up the hills and managed to get close to a sub 2 hour time and actually got a personal best!

I have now been CrossFitting for 9 months and I have noticed tremendous improvements in my running. I am quicker up hills and do not tire as easily during the longer distances. I have also just completed the Fan Dance - a 16 mile mountain race that the special forces use as one of their selection tools - and i was the 3rd female finisher. Not only has CrossFit helped me improve my running times but it is a great sport in itself and I love it!! I now use running to supplement my CrossFit training!

We love hearing this sort of thing and congratulations must go to Shelley on all her hard work. Especially finishing the Fan Dance in 3rd place! Awesome job!

So if any of you are reading this and want to see some serious improvements in your race times then get in touch with us at Connect for a free taster session where you can really get an idea of how it can help. Details can be found on the right hand side.

Taster Sessions are: Mondays 8pm, Wednesdays 8pm and Saturdays at 10am.

PS....With a background in gymnastics and a love of weightlifting and CrossFit I am stepping out of the comfort zone myself by running my first Brighton marathon in April! Keep your eyes out for a future blog about how my training is coming along and how i am dealing with the thought of running the 26 miles!