Crossfit Endurance

Does anybody know anything about this program? I've read a few articles and it sounds intriguing. Lower volume running, higher intensity workouts to develop power and speed with reduced injury. This pgm is being advocated for distance runners and triatheletes, i.e., marathon. There is something to be said about the evolving science of endurance and the human body and they may or may not be on to something.

Any experts out there?

By no means an expert. My son's hockey coach two seasons ago was a "world class" CrossFit competitor - he went to the Worlds as a representative from the New England Region in 2011. And while he didn't compete directly - they apparently don't tell the competitors what the events will be until the day of the event, so you bring extra bodies that are perhaps better suited for one event than another - he and a teammate did get DQ'd for testing positive for a banned stimulant "in an energy drink they bought at GNC." Pretty ironic since CrossFit competitors apparently generally follow a strict Paleo diet.

Anyway, I digress. He and I talked about CrossFit Endurance as it relates to marathoning. He was encouraging me to try it, that it makes sense physiologically, that it is the evolution of the sport. I did look into it, and I concluded - and told him - that he may be right, in 10 years we may look at volume-based training as crazy talk, but that considering that the sport hasn't yet gotten there, and because I don't plan to be in the sport in 2 years, let alone 10, I was not going to use myself as a "test case."

However, it is intriguing.

I'm not sold on it as beneficial for distance runners.

Two of my cloest friends, and former football teammates, have been doing it regularly for about a year now. My fellow former wide receiver is incredibly fit right now - but his body looks like it did during our playing days. Solid total body strength, good muscle definition, not overly beefed up biceps with bird legs like you'll see at a lot of gyms. So while I believe its a fantastic workout, I don't think it directly translates to distance running.

Plus, I never want to power clean or deadlift again.

I lump Cross Fit in with the Insanity/P90x combo(both are different but can be blended) workout because they both use HIT(High intensity training ) as one of their hallmarks. HIT definitely improves VO2 max, lactate threshold, 5k and 10k times with less work, at least in the short term, even in elite runners.

You also work the core, lose weight(fat mass which makes you faster by itself), you strengthen the entire body and work more on endurance.

I have no doubt that for the average runner who uses this for the entirety of a 12-18 week marathon program, times will plummet. Those runners will have stronger muscle tendon units, more fat free mass, and stronger cores.

But I'm not so sure about elite runners under 2:40-2:50 long term.

Of course, no studies longer than 8-12 weeks or so have been done. What happens if you use Cross Fit for a year or more?

How much difference will there be in a runner who does CrossFit and runs 50 miles per week vs. >70 at 8 weeks, 3,6, and 12 months?

Even more importantly, when you start the program will your manhood be able to handle watching middle aged women blow you away with 60 pull ups, 100 standing knee dips and >100 pushups?

Watch it on ESPN or visit your local Cross Fit gym if you don't believe me.

I have taken regular Crossfit classes and they are not for me. The instructor was training for a 50K using the Endurance program. Granted he did not have a running background, but based on his crash and burn, I'd say it didn't work for him either.

Remember when 'the new thing' was to do high intensity / low volume workouts? Ok, I don't either but I've read about it enough to believe many coaches thought this was the best thing since sliced bread. Doing intervals instead of longer, LT and aerobic work. That was in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s for US born distance runners. The vast majority of our marathoners absolutely sucked then. We didn't even field a team of 3 for the Olympics in 2000 because they did not all hit the Olympic A standard during the previous qualifying window! That's insane for a country of our size and standard of living.

Now we are seeing a revival in guys like Hall, Ritz, etc. who grew up running big miles.

I'll stick with what has been proven to work.

Not sure either, but it does seem to be talked about. I do know that all of the worlds best triathletes put in a ton of training volume - they definitely do their interval work, but they also put in the time. I have read that Craig Alexander peaks his training at about 40 hours a week - 15 miles swimming, 500 miles cycling, 80 miles running and about 3 gym workouts. I'm sure he wouldn't win a push-up contest, but he did win Kona 3 times including setting the course record last year! I also remember reading that Ryan Hall doesn't do much in the way of gym workouts at all but just likes to run - of course many of us would not be able to do what he can do without getting hurt, but he doesn't do the crossfit thing.

On another note, we have a crossfit group here that shows up at local races showing their stuff sometimes - which is cool, but several of them have started wearing backpacks to some of the races. I'm not sure exactly what the purpose is other than to show they are tough or something, but they never do very well in the races either. Crossfit folks are amazingly fit and I admire them, but I think I'll stick with the tried and true training for our sport...

I have not done CFE, I just do regular CrossFit. I started about 13 months ago, but didn't go from August to January due to the mileage increases in my schedule.

I can definitely say that CrossFit made recovery from long training runs easy as pie. I did not have the usual quad tightness after the run. CrossFit worked on my body muscles and gave me additional strength and balance. If I could ever get my upper body to be half of what my lower body has in strength I'd be able to do hand-stand push ups.

Diego wrote:I lump Cross Fit in with the Insanity/P90x combo(both are different but can be blended) workout because they both use HIT(High intensity training ) as one of their hallmarks. HIT definitely improves VO2 max, lactate threshold, 5k and 10k times with less work, at least in the short term, even in elite runners.

You also work the core, lose weight(fat mass which makes you faster by itself), you strengthen the entire body and work more on endurance.

I have no doubt that for the average runner who uses this for the entirety of a 12-18 week marathon program, times will plummet. Those runners will have stronger muscle tendon units, more fat free mass, and stronger cores.

But I'm not so sure about elite runners under 2:40-2:50 long term.

Of course, no studies longer than 8-12 weeks or so have been done. What happens if you use Cross Fit for a year or more?

How much difference will there be in a runner who does CrossFit and runs 50 miles per week vs. >70 at 8 weeks, 3,6, and 12 months?

Even more importantly, when you start the program will your manhood be able to handle watching middle aged women blow you away with 60 pull ups, 100 standing knee dips and >100 pushups?

Watch it on ESPN or visit your local Cross Fit gym if you don't believe me.

+1

I actually just started CrossFit this week, and while I can't offer any insight at this point, I'll report on how it goes. So far, I'm being extremely challenged and like it. I've always been a back-of-the-packer and really never worked much on the upstairs. It seems like a good program for someone who's never done a lot of weight training as there's a ton of personal attention.

As my times are usually pretty slow, it can only help, I think. ??

Are you doing the endurance version or the regular one?

Just the regular one. I think there are some locations around town which are more runner-centric, but it really came down to timing and location. Once I really get into the swing of things, I'll consider other locations. But since I'm going at 6:00am, I wanted a location I can roll out of bed at 5:45am and still make the class.