Cross Country and CrossFit

[Charlie Michel]

Cross Country season is in full swing now for me which means lots of miles and little free time. I've tried to keep up with the WODs but don't always have the time or energy after practice. Also, with increased mileage I don't want to overdevelop certain muscle groups or neglect others. This was one factor that led to injury for me last year. Does anyone have any ideas on what type of CF regimine I should follow during the year so that I will perform optimally but not lose too much strength? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

[Christopher G. Woods]

What does your practice/meet schedule look like?

[Charlie Michel]

Meets on Saturdays... practice Tuesday through Friday... long run on Sunday
Tuesday is usually hills and speedwork, Wednesday 5-8 mi easy, Thursday tempo run, Friday easy; however, this can vary but usually Tuesday and Thursday are tough, Saturday obviously pretty taxing, and the other days easy (although Sunday is a long run it is meant to be a recovery day/easier paced run), Mondays off.

[Michael Bell]

Originally Posted by Charlie Michel

Meets on Saturdays... practice Tuesday through Friday... long run on Sunday
Tuesday is usually hills and speedwork, Wednesday 5-8 mi easy, Thursday tempo run, Friday easy; however, this can vary but usually Tuesday and Thursday are tough, Saturday obviously pretty taxing, and the other days easy (although Sunday is a long run it is meant to be a recovery day/easier paced run), Mondays off.

This sounds similar to my old high school CC schedule (which led to overuse injury fyi). Running 20+ miles a week is outdated and frankly irresponsible. But anyway, back to your dilemma.

I'd suggest doing one lift a day 4 days a week. In any season, if you want to perform optimally you'll have to sacrifice certain aspects of your GPP. The one thing you shouldn't sacrifice, though, is your squat, deadlift, and pressing strength. It would be helpful to know your numbers on the heavy lifts, but if I were in your situation I would do something like this:

Sunday: off
Monday: Front Squat 5x3 or 3x5
Tuesday: Deadlift, alternate 3x3 and 5x1
Wednesday: off
Thursday: Back Squat 5x3 or 3x5
Friday: Press, Push Press, or Push Jerk 5x3 or 3x5
Saturdayff

You can always gain back the ability to bust out metcons, but the total body strength with multifunctional movements like these take longer to get back if you don't keep up with them. Plus, if you're tired after practice you're not going to want to do a metcon anyway. And there's no need to max out with all of these lifts, but a max DL once every other week won't kill you. You don't want to burn yourself out, especially in season, so take extra days off if it feels like too much. Good luck to you.

[Jake Di Vita]

I'd also try and do the heavy lifts before the running on practice days.

[Charlie Michel]

thanks. yeah, i'm a little worried about injury risk (stress fractures... yikes), but i've been slowly building up. i'm running around 40 miles a week as of late.

[Aaron Trent]

Go light with the weights and skip the met-con.

[Barry Cooper]

How long does your season last?

I would suspect that your coach is pushing you as hard as he can. If so, ADDING to that is not likely a good idea, other than maybe ab work.

You are pursuing a sport. That is SPP. If it doesn't go past December or so, I would focus on doing as well as I could. Anything you do that adds to your body mass slows you down.

Trust me, I know. I ran cross country myself. I always finished after dark.

[Scott Robison]

Barry is right. This is sport specific stuff, and so that should have primacy over your general preparation. However, as an adult who has continued to train for the middle-distances, I can tell you that I have always held up under the load better when I have a regular dose of strength training.

As for specifics, you should do some sort of squat or dead-lift exercise on the days you do your quality workouts, preferable 3-5 hours afterwards, but never first; that will compromise your xc workout, which is more important. If you postpone those lifts for your milage days, you won't recover properly and you'll be tanked all the time. You should continue to press and do pull-ups, etc, but I don't think it makes much difference on which day, unless you are push-pressing or push-jerking.

Hope that helps. For what it's worth, a previous poster notwithstanding, it sounds like your coach has a good plan in place. Make sure you take your easy days easy. Too many of us fall into the trap of running hard on our easy days and don't recover.

[Michael Bell]

Originally Posted by Barry Cooper

How long does your season last?

I would suspect that your coach is pushing you as hard as he can. If so, ADDING to that is not likely a good idea, other than maybe ab work.

You are pursuing a sport. That is SPP. If it doesn't go past December or so, I would focus on doing as well as I could. Anything you do that adds to your body mass slows you down.

This is very true. If you're getting burned out with anything extra, just focus on your coach's routine. With 40 miles a week I can't see how you'd have much energy for anything else.

On the other hand, gaining a better strength-to-weight ratio will help you. As Barry Cooper pointed out, adding body mass WILL slow you down. So strike a good balance with gaining strength but not mass.

The one lift a day approach shouldn't make you gain weight, especially with all that running. And remember, 1RM on these lifts is not the best way to go during the season. As someone else mentioned, you could even go medium to light on the weight if need be to prevent detraining.

I think everyone on here made great points. Think about it, train safely, and make sure you've got a spotter to check your technique.