Is there anyway to get more control over when CRON runs?
You can use "Elysia Cron" or "Cron Control" module to control the cron.

I have not worked on "cron control" module, but I have used "Elysia Cron" module to manage different cron in the site.

Elysia Cron: http://drupal.org/project/elysia_cron
Cron Control: http://drupal.org/project/cron_control