With a month until race day, first-time marathoners are rounding out their training programs with strength workouts and turning to alternative cardio formats for injury mitigation.
In Pursuit of 26.2 is a series following two Equinox members as they train for the New York City Marathon, from their first long-distance runs to the finish line. Since early August, our athletes have been following a new personalized training program created by an Equinox Personal Run Coach, powered by Precision Run, and utilizing Equinox services to strengthen, stretch, and stabilize. Check back each week for a new installment.
Running a marathon — and actually crossing the finish line — arguably requires just as much strength as it does cardiovascular, muscular, and mental endurance.
Resistance training regularly throughout the training process and well beyond it is essential to reducing the risk of injury. And this cross-training also enables runners to overcome performance plateaus, something Equinox Personal Run Coach Corky has experienced firsthand.
“I've found that lifting has helped me stay pretty darn injury-free, considering how many miles I put my body under over the years, how many races I've done,” she says. “I remember in 2017, that was a year I had breakthroughs in every distance, from the mile to the marathon, simply because, at that point, my strength training was something I was really consistent about.”
That year, Corky solidified her stance as a pro-lifting marathon coach. And today, she’s training her clients Aurora Straus and Luis Colón with the same attitude as they prepare for the 2023 New York City Marathon.
With less than two months until race day, Aurora began personal training with David Perry, a Tier 3 personal trainer at Equinox Columbus Circle who often works with runners. The 25-year-old had been strength training on her own once or twice weekly throughout the marathon process. But Aurora says she realized she often wandered around the gym, getting a workout that should take an hour done in double the amount of time. And left to her own devices, she leaned toward a bodybuilding style of weightlifting — a practice she picked up from her dad — which wasn’t the most supportive of her running goals, she adds.
In their sessions, Aurora and David honed in on improving stability and mobility, and building strength, particularly in the ankles and core. This training combo would support Aurora’s running form and balance and, in turn, help keep her shins safe, body injury-free, and performance at its peak, says David. To hit Aurora’s upper body, David programmed exercises such as single-arm, kneeling shoulder presses with a kettlebell, which challenged her core, wrist, and shoulder strength and stability. Also on the menu: single-leg step-ups, often with free weights in her hands.
“What this will do is just make us a lot more comfortable on rougher terrain if we ever have to go off of the perfect road setting,” he explains. “A lot of runners deal with rolled ankles…And the first thing I really like to do when it comes to running training is just make sure that we are prepared for that and that we have the core strength and ankle mobility and stability to keep upright in terms of the form. That's usually the first thing to go once you become fatigued in a race, and then you see the form start to fall apart. And that's when the rolled ankle happens or other parts of the body are affected.”
Plus, by consistently training these muscles in the comfort and safety of the Club, they’re likely to activate properly during the 26.2-mile race. “Running is a very mental sport, so sometimes it is important to train the core, ankles, and stuff like that so when we do turn the mind off, we can kind of let the body do its work,” says David. “There are times where runners check out, and it's extremely important for us to be prepared so they don't get injured.”
After a few sessions, Aurora says she already noticed progress in the strength of her stabilizing muscles and core. Importantly, she realized her workout routine outside of race training wasn’t balanced; although she had built a strong cardiovascular system over the years, her former strength-training program may have led her to break down — but not build back up — muscle, she notes.
“It's funny, I think marathon training counter-intuitively has put into perspective how much I need to be focusing on things that aren't running, which I feel like is probably not the point of marathon training for most people,” she says. “But I definitely will double down after this [race] on making sure that I have a very strong strength-training base.”
Running is a very mental sport, so sometimes it is important to train the core, ankles, and stuff like that so when we do turn the mind off, we can kind of let the body do its work.
Along with lifting, alternative cardio work may be included in a marathoner’s cross-training plan. Around the same time she began one-on-one personal training, Aurora swapped some of her mileage for low-impact cardio on the elliptical and stationary bike to cope with her shin splints while maintaining her fitness. As the days progressed and her pain worsened, she began replacing every other run with a back-up cardio workout, says Corky.
“It’s definitely not how I would usually map out training for a runner, but this is where we have to pivot,” Corky says. Thanks to this switch-up, Aurora headed into a 20-miler feeling more confident than in previous weeks, and she finished 16 of those miles before having to alternate between periods of running and walking, Corky adds.
Across Manhattan, Luis also began taking advantage of personal training roughly a month out from the marathon. At Equinox Greenwich Avenue, the 32-year-old met up with Tier 3 Personal Trainer Patrick Taft for hour-long resistance workouts — one of the very first times Luis had ever used the Club floor. Though he initially felt intimidated by the idea of training in such a chaotic environment, Luis quickly felt at ease with Patrick. “[The session] flowed so well,” he adds. “It just felt natural. I was like, ‘I feel like I've talked to this person before.’”
In their training, Patrick noticed that Luis tended to grip with his toes during barefoot exercises. This compensation generally means the individual’s center of mass is shifted too far forward over their feet, and it often pops up thanks to the fit of modern-day footwear combined with long-distance running, the trainer explains.
“We took a ground-up approach with exercises, teaching Luis to shift weight into his heels while targeting his lower posterior chain [and] also trying to simulate joint angles (hip/knee/ankle) that mirror the same angles he is going through during the gait cycle,” says Patrick. Specifically, Luis performed tibialis anterior raises (think: a calf raise, but you lift your toes instead of your heels) to address his foot and ankle compensations, as well as split squats to build lower-body strength, Patrick says.
All the while, Patrick explained the benefits of each movement and kept an eye on his technique — a level of attention Luis says he doesn’t usually receive in his favorite group fitness classes. “Typically when you're doing it in a group environment, there's not a lot of time for an instructor to swing by 20 or 30 people and look through [form],” he adds. “So I think all of the sight lines really allowed me to engage everything properly. I was obsessed.”
Aside from the physical benefits, cross-training has proven essential for supporting Luis’ mental well-being. A group fitness obsessive, Luis has consistently taken Tabata and MetCon classes throughout marathon prep, some days doubling up on a class and a mid-length run. (Still, he’s scaled back from the five-plus workouts a week he previously completed). He’ll take morning classes when he needs an energy boost, and he considers them a key component of his lifestyle.
But Luis also knows when to tone it down; he’ll take a rest day if he’s feeling too sore, slow his pace during the class to preserve his body for his upcoming run, and avoid classes that conflict with his marathon goals, such as Ropes and Rowers and Whipped! “Metcon and Tabata meet in the middle somewhere, where I actually feel like my body isn't going to explode,” he jokes.
Between logging dozens of miles, participating in sweaty group fitness classes, building strength with their trainers, and recovering from the mental and physical stress of it all, both marathoners have their plates full. But prioritizing this cross-training is essential for any runner.
“Usually, [runners] are questioning whether or not they should be doing strength training,” says David. “My direct answer is it's extremely helpful — it’s never going to hurt you.”