If You Practice Multiple Sports

Cross-training means practicing several sports in parallel. The benefits of cross-training are well established. So if you're involved in multiple physical activities, your running level may not fully reflect your overall training load and fitness.

We analyze the data you provide as if you're exclusively a runner. However, if cross-training has boosted your running performance, it may create a gap between the training plan we provide and what you've been doing until now.

If the Plan Matches Your Habits

Perfect! That means the other activity you're doing complements your running without directly affecting your running performance. Your progress will therefore depend solely on your investment in running.

Start your plan with the understanding that, from now on, the program is designed to help you improve in running above all. So make sure you're in top shape for your intense sessions.

Being in shape for an intense session means making it your priority for the week.

In practice, this means:

🥇 Do the session first if you plan two workouts in one day

✅ Choose a day when you feel fresh and strong for your intense session

Even if your other physical activity doesn’t directly impact your running performance, it can still drain energy that you'd need for your key running sessions.

If the Plan Has You Running Too Much, and It Affects Your Other Sports, Here Are Two Options:

Option 1: Focus More on Running to Maximize Your Progress

Use the first few weeks to gradually increase your running volume until it matches the plan. The bigger the gap, the slower you should increase.

Reduce your other sports to better absorb the fatigue from the added running (at least at first).

Set clear priorities. If you want to focus on running, you need to save your energy for intense run sessions. That may mean reducing intensity in your other sports or avoiding them near your key running sessions.

Don’t overdo it. Practicing multiple sports can lead to overtraining if you don’t treat all activities as a whole. They all count — not just running!

Option 2: Reduce Your Running Volume

1) Remove Specific Sessions

To go from 3 to 2 running workouts per week: remove the easy endurance run.

To go from 4 to 3 workouts: remove one intense session (if there are two that week), and keep the one marked “Do not miss.” If there’s only one intense session, remove an endurance run.

To go from 5 to 4 workouts: remove one intense session (but keep the "Do not miss" session). If going down to 3, remove an additional easy run.

2) Keep Endurance Work

Especially the long run. With the above adjustments, you should be able to maintain a sufficient amount of easy mileage. This is crucial for injury prevention. Having too little running volume compared to your performance level increases injury risk. Easy running helps your body handle the impact of running better.

3) Watch for Interference

Other sports will tire you out for your runs, and running will tire you out for your other sports. So, make sure to spread out your intense sessions as much as possible throughout the week to avoid overlap.

Updated on: 16/06/2025