CrossFit and Endurance
by Wil Vicinus, co-owner and head trainer, Fearless Athletics
Before I started CrossFit, I considered myself an endurance runner. My typical training consisted of 5 or more days per week of running, logging an average of 60-75 miles per week. Like many other runners you may know, I got really good at running long distances slowly. So good at it in fact, that I completed 13 marathons in the course of 6 years — all averaging right around 4 hours each.
I didn’t start CrossFit because I wanted to. At the time, I’d have been content running marathons until my knees gave out. But then came the season of injuries. It started with a tight hamstring that I ignored because I needed to get my miles in for my next race. That quickly escalated (obviously, or there’d be no story here) and ended with me dropping out 12 miles into the Hartford Marathon, unable to walk, having to be driven to the finish line to meet my family.
When I could walk again, I went to a chiropractor to start my rehabilitation. He advised me that I needed to add some strength training and core work into my routine… enter CrossFit. At first, I participated in CrossFit workouts because they helped me become a better endurance athlete. Now, my experience as a former distance runner has helped me become a better CrossFitter.
In the first of this two-part series, let’s take a closer look at how CrossFit helped me become better at endurance sports.
To better understand how CrossFit-style training can help an endurance athlete, we first need to understand endurance itself. Endurance, simply put, is the ability of an organism to remain active for a long period of time without suffering from the effects of fatigue. In the exercise realm, endurance-based activities rely on the aerobic pathway, or the use of oxygen to release energy. Generally speaking, an endurance sport involves repeating the same movement pattern over and over at a moderate to low level of intensity.
So how did CrossFit training help me become better at running long distances?
1) Improved strength and stamina. By getting stronger, especially in the core, I was able to carry my own body weight with more ease. Since the muscles supporting and moving my body didn’t tire as quickly, running longer distances became easier.
2) More efficient movement. By learning to lift, squat, push, pull, jump, and throw my body learned to move better. I was able to brush the rust off of motor patterns that hadn’t been trained since I was a child, which directly impacted my ability to run. Since my body was moving better, it could remain in motion longer with less effort.
3) Increased oxygen uptake. CrossFit training can put you into an oxygen deficit pretty darn quickly. As a result, your body learns to increase the amount of oxygen consumed for energy each minute. Since my body was able to use more oxygen more efficiently, it was easier to perform endurance-based aerobic activity.
4) Improved flexibility and recovery. As I started moving my body in different directions through a larger range of motion, the chronic tightness that I had come to expect as a runner began to lessen. Movement felt freer and easier, and the “active recovery” of a CrossFit WOD ensured that my lactic acid cleared away more quickly. Where it used to take weeks to recover from a marathon, I was back on the road in as little as two or three days.
5) Discomfort became my friend. As I mentioned earlier, I was really good at running long distances slowly. However, I was not nearly as good at going all-out, even for a short time. From the minute my trainer said “3-2-1 go” during a CrossFit workout my heart was pounding, I was gasping for breath, and I was usually swearing profusely. Gradually, I started comparing the effort expended in my CrossFit workouts to my running — my runs started to seem “too easy” and I learned to push a little harder. I found that I could get closer to an uncomfortable level while running and remain there — and as a result I started running faster.
In the two years leading up to the founding of Fearless Athletics, I found that just adding CrossFit style workouts to my running program reaped enormous rewards - I was stronger but hadn’t gained much mass, and was running faster than I ever had in my life. My recovery was better, as was my attitude toward working out. I later found that the benefits of CrossFit for endurance athletes can apply whether or not I actually continued running; a few years ago I signed up for a 12-mile Tough Mudder having stopped running a year earlier. In the months leading up to the event I didn’t start running again either — I only did CrossFit. While I didn’t win the race, I finished well (in the middle of the pack) and felt strong and confident throughout. My CrossFit training definitely carried over into my ability to complete this very challenging event.
As we get closer to the end of Endurance month, watch this page for part 2, where I’ll be discussing how I apply some of the techniques I learned in endurance training to improve my CrossFit performance.
Be well!