nbrowne1 wrote:
Focusing on IM this year due to chronic running injuries leading me to more cross training (bike-swim-elliptical) and inevitably a triathlon...
Started my IMTX build not doing my weights routine due to more focus on swim bike run. 4 weeks in I got a new injury... (Sacroiliac > hip>hamstring inhibition) Needless to say I'm back to the gym 2x 30min a week.
Not so much for max power but more for total body resilience. Pull ups, chin ups, heel drops (pre-hab for my chronic calf issues), dead lifts, front squats, kettle bell swings.
Also,
hormonal and muscle mass maintenance benefits as you get older are fantastic!! (Reference: Internet)
Through my 40's I weight trained pretty well 50 weeks per year doing 1-4 Ironmans per year. Intially I thought I was doing it to get faster (DOH!!!!). but frankly I enjoy lifting and how it makes me "feel" the rest of the day. I feel much better the rest of the day after lifting weights, or doing hard short intensity (reference Rob Gray's post around sport specific sprints). I feel like absolute shit later in the day after really long rides or really long runs. Later in my 40's I started doing slighlty heavier weights/resistance work to work all aspects of my body outside of S/B/R. I felt that it had been instrumental in keeping me relatively young for my age (50+) relative to many of my peers.
After a while I came to this conclusion that I firstly hated riding or running really long where I lived because I have seen every possible route a zillion times and I felt like shit later in the day. I keep my long riding for a few away training camps per year. I never run longer than 90 min anymore other than in a race. I train frequently with relatively high intensity and my volume is solid, but I feel good overall when I lift (or do high intensity sport stuff). I kind of enjoy being in the gym with the muscle heads (cause that's what I did in high school doing power sports) and doing stuff on a single leg at a time that they will fall over doing. I do a cross of what the yoga/TRX girls do and what the muscle head college guys do (at a millionth of the weights they are pushing).
I will probably keep doing weights and swimming my entire life, long after I have stopped biking and running. I'm on the "use it or lose it plan".
But I agree for younger athletes, no need to waste time in the gym unless you're already on the 800 hours per year training plan already. Then adding in 52 hours of resistance is probably fine.