distance vs. obstacle course

stylistchik

So I have my sight set on a half marathon in April. I'm pretty excited since I'm fairly new to distance running. I would like to do a mud run with my hubby after that but the one in my area is only 3 weeks after the half... I'm thinking this is too soon to switch training plans and I was wondering if you all had any suggestions? The mud run is only 5k but it looks pretty intense and I'm not sure I want to wear out my body with a strengthening routine a month before the half... :grumble:

taramaureen

I'm planning on doing a mud run in conjunction with my first half. I did my first mud run (Warrior Dash) in October. Ive just been training for both half marathon + mud run together as I eventually want to do Tough Mudder (which is 10 miles + obsticals). Strength training normally helps my running anyway, and with the mud run after the half there's a smaller chance of you getting hurt and not able to do both.

mikeyrp

The consensus in my club seems to be that cross training is always good, Its the speed vs distance training which can cause issues...

In other words, Cross country / mud training will build up your core strength, which is great for long distance. Long distance builds up your endurance which is good for cross country - win win.

However, speed training will not help you build up endurance and endurance will not help you build speed - its not that they have a negative impact on each other but if you have a limited amount of training time available (and who doesn't) work on your core objectives.

rybo

Can you do some strength training on you off running days as you build to the half? I would think both races are very doable. They don't seem to have mutually exclusive training regimes.

stylistchik

Sweet. Thank you all very much! I'm doing 2 days strength, 3 days running right now and I think after the half I'll just flip-flop it to 3 days strength and 2 days running for those last few weeks. I'm so excited!