A few guys out of my Army Reserve Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska are planning on running the Lincoln 1/2 Marathon, it is in May I believe. I was wondering if there is a certain way crossfit will help me with running endurance. If so what workouts offer the best ability for me to run 13.1 Miles?

Crossfit will help, though you may want to explore Crossfit Endurance. Either way, keep in mind that CF and CFE introduce a paradigm shift from typical training for marathons, but they do work. Basically, Crossfit will prepare you for whatever life throws at you, including upping your running endurance. If you want, you can check out CFE at http://www.crossfitendurance.com

I always try to do a run after my WOD as a “cool down” but I am thinking Endurance will be key. I will never just train to do a Marathon because that’s not my goal in life (to be a marathon runner). I’ll check out crossfit endurance.

armyfirefighter25 - 08 February 2010 02:32 PM

A few guys out of my Army Reserve Unit in Lincoln, Nebraska are planning on running the Lincoln 1/2 Marathon, it is in May I believe. I was wondering if there is a certain way crossfit will help me with running endurance. If so what workouts offer the best ability for me to run 13.1 Miles?

One of our Crossfit Kids (David) was doing Crossfit and hadn’t ran more then 800m in over 6 months. He decided to run a full Marathon much to the dismay of his Coach. David had two goals: One was to run a sub. 5 min. mile and two, run a Marathon. Check both those goals off. JUST CROSSFIT!

I would check out CrossFit Endurance.  One of Brian Mackenzie’s coaches, Nuno Costa, recently completed a half-marathon (1-2 weeks ago), along with many of the clients he trains, while using programming from CFE.

Honestly I think standard mainsite programing would probably get you through a half-marathon just fine.
I’m planning on running one in may and haven’t ran a complete mile since October.
How am I feeling? Pretty confident.
Over the last few months I’ve gone from slogging through the running WOD’s with the treadmill set on medium high and nearly falling off the back at the end of the 400/800m’s, to recently, cranking it wide open and just actually not struggling with it (at least not dying).
I just feel really good about it. I think I can put away 13 miles at a (maybe not winning pace) but a strong one. I think I’ve got the capactiy, if one thing has the potential to hurt me, I’d say it’d be my tempo. If I moved way too fast at the beginning I could burn out towards the end but we’ll see. I kinda just want to avoid “proper” training for it, just as an experiment to see what happens.