Yesterday, I sprained my ankle.
I was doing some warm-up hurdle jumps, came down wrong, and something popped.
It’s not the worst sprain I’ve ever had – that title goes to absolutely obliterating the left one in college – but it’s definitely the worst one I’ve had in quite a few years.
Running is probably off the table for a while.
Today it took me 20 minutes to walk my dog a half-mile around the neighborhood park.
That doesn’t bode well if I’m being honest with myself.
And that’s a bummer because in spite of everything, running had been feeling great lately.
I felt like I’d finally found the right weekly training volume to allow myself significant progress in both strength and speed.
Yesterday I had a great speed workout just a couple hours before I hurt myself.
Now I don’t want to lose any of that progress I’ve been making all summer.
So what to do?
Double down on the cross-training.
I made an Instagram reel the other day about cross-training and since pretty much nobody actually reads long captions, I’m going to reiterate most of it here.
Cross-training is great.
Not nearly enough runners take it seriously as a method to expedite progress and add extra volume while reducing their risk of injury.
Instead, we throw it in every couple of weeks as an afterthought and wonder why we don’t actually get any benefit from it.
And if you’re one of those people, it’s not your fault.
Hell, I was one of those people, too.
When most of us start running or start training, we start diving down rabbit holes of what various experts say on the internet.
Unfortunately, this comes with a few problems.
For one, a lot of internet experts really aren’t that expert.
They had some personal success in something and start spouting off what worked for them as global advice – even when most people have no real business following their particular style of training.
Or diet.
Or whatever.
But that’s a rant for another day.
Another problem I see – especially when it comes to some of the more famous coaches on the internet – is people who seem to have forgotten what it’s like to be newer to the sport.
Some coaches become so accustomed to working with professional athletes that they genuinely think 60 miles per week is “low volume.”
As a result, they’ll say things like “until you’re running 50-60 miles per week, you shouldn’t bother with lifting or cross-training.”
Which is ridiculous – not least of which because most people probably won’t get close to 60 miles per week during their entire running career
And if you want to know more reasons why that’s ridiculous, then please hit reply. I’m happy to talk to you about it. I just don’t want to get into it right now because that wasn’t why I started writing this email.
I just wanted to say that cross-training is great.
Sure, it can help you get through an injury while minimizing your fitness losses.
That alone should be enough reason to appreciate it.
Yet it’s also a great way to put additional stress on your cardiovascular system without all the impact you get from running.
As a result, you don’t need quite as much recovery.
(There’s a reason professional cyclists tend to spend twice as much time in the saddle as professional runners spend in their shoes.)
You can probably even push a little harder than “easy,” get some extra benefits, and be no worse for wear.
Yet certain cross-training methods really can’t be a “once every three weeks” type of thing.
Cycling is a skill.
If you’re bad at it, your quads are going to light on fire before you’re ever able to increase your heart rate.
Same with rowing.
So if you want to use cycling or rowing as a method for cross-training, you’ll have to dedicate a bit of time to getting halfway decent at it.
Which means it probably needs to be a weekly thing.
Cross-training is great.
Most of us should probably be doing a lot more of it.
It would help improve our cardiovascular fitness without a lot of risk for musculoskeletal injuries – like the one I have right now.
(As long as you eat enough – more training means more food.)
So if your training volumes are lower than you’d like and you just can’t seem to increase them without getting hurt…
Then it might be time to add some more cross-training.
And if you’re not quite sure how to do that, send me a message.
I’m happy to chat with you about it.