Elise Cranny has her running and workout playlist down to a fine art, and she’s sharing it with fans and social media followers. Cranny, 28, posted a video of herself wearing black shorts, a tank top, and bright pink sneakers, racing around an outdoor track to Taylor Swift’s “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” song. “Little strength, little speed, laps on laps with @cls1423 and @taylorswift on repeat 🔁,” she captioned the post. Here’s how Cranny trains, competes, and thrives.
Cranny does strength training and loves to sprint. “You’re not getting a ton of volume, but it’s a chance to run really fast with the speedsters on the team,” she told Women’s Running. “That’s always one of my favorites, to be pushed by them and just see how fast I can go.”
Cranny doesn’t weigh herself—instead, she focuses on how she feels. “Am I feeling strong? Am I recovering from workouts? And am I getting a regular period? Then I know I’m doing a good job fueling. And I think that should be the focus,” she said on the Real Fit podcast. “[Intuitive eating has] really been powerful because you’re taking ownership over your body and really listening to what it wants.”
Cranny has learned to work on her mental state and confidence when it comes to competing. “I want to run with confidence and compete,” she told Women’s Running. “We talk about this a lot as a team—at the end of the day, that’s all we want for our teammates. I would view it as successful if I’m not afraid to put myself in it, race with confidence, and be the best version of myself on that day.”
Cranny wants college athletes to get better support and guidance. “I feel like we’re missing the mark,” she said on the Real Fit podcast. “Why don’t we spend more time talking about how to balance school, to prioritize, sleep, how to recover from workouts, how to fuel our body properly, how to, have more resources with sports, psych or psychologists to really hone into the mental side.”
Cranny had to remind herself to take her own advice when warning younger athletes against overtraining. “The people you’ve mentored through this, what would you say to them?” she told Runner’s World. “It’s things like, ‘You ran fast because of the consistency and staying healthy and the training you put in week after week’… Taking time off is what’s going to allow you to be at your best and reach that peak. Sometimes, the way forward is to take a couple steps back.”