Question: Luisa has begun her cross country season and is wondering how she can incorporate training sessions for her marathon in January 2010.
Run S.M.A.R.T. Coach: You can certainly run well over 5k-10k distances off of pure strength or marathon training so I would suggest focusing on your marathon training and treating the cross country races as hard efforts along the way. Make sure to take a little extra recovery time before a race so you’re not completely compromising your cross country season. The only concern is that racing on many weekends during your build-up could conflict with hard long run efforts that are crucial for your marathon. Racing on a Saturday and then doing a long run on Sunday can be super taxing on your body if you have to pull it off several times during your marathon build-up. If possible, try and schedule your faster paced long run efforts on weekends you’re not racing.
