Hi Brosemail,

If Tri is still your priority, the extremes of Crossfit on one end and the Frankenstein split you described at the other night veer you away from your goal.

The two methods I'd recommend looking into would be Easy Strength or Jim Wendlers 5/3/1. Both are ebooks but you can get the gist behind them through googling, lots of relevant articles.

Both promote the idea of getting as strong as possible with minimum time investment, while leaving you fresh for your sport-specific training. I've used the ES principles with a couple of age groupers and it seems to be working. One went from being chronically injured to a 10:35 at his first IM at Whistler this year. It's definitely worth checking out.

I would focus on getting as much weekly S/B/R training in as possible before resorting to weights. That said, I had great luck with the Ironstrength video (a few people recommended it to me on here). It kicks my ass but not enough to compromise my training. Plus it did wonders for my running strength. It's all isotonic, plyometric and weights.

Is the iron strength video the one on you tube?

I know there's a short version on YouTube, but I use the 50 minute version (not sure if it's on there or not).