Anyone Cross-Fit?

My son does Cross-Fit and has been bugging me to try it. I pretty much only run, although I usually ride my bike once a week for 50-60 miles. I'm really thinking some cross training would be good, especially for my core, which I totally neglect.

Anyone here do crossfit? Does it help your running?

What does anyone else do for cross-training?

I haven't done cross fit but I've done a few rounds of P90x and I feel that it gave my running a huge boost. I've also heard many other people rave about how it has helped their running. I say give it a try, it can't hurt. Well, I'm sure the workouts will hurt but it won't hurt your running.

Like Mr. Miller, I have not done Cross Fit, but have done some P90X. I think that anything that strengthens your core is going to give your running a positive boost.

I've done P90X and one of my running friends also got into cross fit. I think yes it would help your running but think about how much time you have to devote to exercise and if it takes away from your running time maybe it's not what you need. I don't know how much additional time/energy you have or how it would work to cut out a few runs to fit in some crossfit but I know I would hate to cut out more than 1 or 2 days of running a week and really don't have any more minutes to devote to exercise.

Julie wrote:I've done P90X and one of my running friends also got into cross fit. I think yes it would help your running but think about how much time you have to devote to exercise and if it takes away from your running time maybe it's not what you need. I don't know how much additional time/energy you have or how it would work to cut out a few runs to fit in some crossfit but I know I would hate to cut out more than 1 or 2 days of running a week and really don't have any more minutes to devote to exercise.

Great point but I don't expect to have to cut out any runs in order to do this. Unless of course I'm too sore!

I'm fortunate in that the gym is literally about a 3/4 mile away. I may actually run MORE, as I'll probably run there and back just because I can....

I've done crossfit and it wasn't really for me - I wasn't really macho enough to do sets of burpies and box jumps. could it help your running? I'm sure it could, but one of my running buddies stuck with it a bit and it didn't really help her running as she ended up cutting back miles since she was tired from the workouts.

Jerry believes in P90X, but is just not a fan of jumping up and down with an underwear in the house.

Quite a few teammates of mine do Cross-Fit....but during the offseason. They've said its pretty hard and would be too tough to do during high mileage marathon training.

I have done CrossFit since February. I did it 3 times a week, until I started my marathon training cycle a couple of weeks ago, now I'm doing it 2x/week. So far, I can say it has helped my running by me losing weight and working my core, in addition to other muscles from lifting weights. I don't have any times to compare yet, but we'll see. I have a very weak upper body, but I'm better than I was in February.



One place I know it helped is because I don't pee during a run, now. I use to have to pee around 1.5-2 miles into a run. Now, I don't get the urge at all, even during a 9 mile run.



I would recommend doing CrossFit on days where lifting weights is part of the workout. Some days, the workout is all metabolic conditioning (anaerobic) and that can really leave you wiped out. CrossFit is always scaled to the individual's abilities. I'm just now comfortable doing 16" box jumps.



If it's a running and a CrossFit day, I'll do both back to back because rarely does the running (up to 9 miles) affect the CrossFit . Only once when the warmup exercises was a bunch of quad-related muscles. Whew.



One huge benefit is the stamina we have as distance runners. And this comes to play in the WOD (workout of the day) after doing weights. Usually it's 3 or 4 exercises as one round and you repeat it for either 3 rounds or As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP) for time. A distance runner's stamina will have you going longer than those that don't run, even if they're stronger. And if the WOD has running as part of it...that's gravy to us. I can get my heart rate up to 90%, but usually 85% for 12 or so minutes.



Athletically, I usually finish in the back of pretty much any event known. But, there have been many times when I have finished a WOD first or second because I tear through the exercises without stopping, due to my stamina. It's so cool.



I can attribute CrossFit with being able to tighten my belt 1 notch, since March, and another notch for changing up my diet. 30 pounds in total. Until Houston, I'll do CrossFit on short mileage days and cross training days.



Just beware of any WOD named after a person or a soldier or on the weekend because they'll be brutal. It's worth investigating.