When the fuck is anyone going to find time for strength training?? It might be useful, but then that eats in to s/b/r training and/or recovery time. Some of us want to do triathlon and still have a partner and a job.

Winter and stuff. Now that I'm ~25 years into endurance sports I've learned that doing S/B/R balls out 12 months per year isn't conducive to optimal performance.

And doing nothing is even worse. So a good time to have fun working on body composition, restoring hormone levels shot to hell from 20+ hours/week of endurance stuff.

The same way you find time for SBR training. You have to decide if an 30-60 mins in the gym/week gives you better results than alternative uses of the time.

At my pool, there is a gym. I do 12-15 mins of strength circles, mostly upper body (for swim) and core, after each swim sesh.

My coach has always told me: "Heavy lifting is too difficult to "measure" the level of stress/tiredness it puts on your body, compared to functional strength. Also high risk of injury"

Apart from the Norwegians, I cannot remember any good Pro, who was open about using heavy lifting ever.

Just my 2c

In my case, even though I'm very much in the time crunched -category, adding 30 min gym session here and there really isn't a matter of eating my weekly quota of training time. For example, I have access to gym both at the office, and at the swimming hall, so it really doesn't make practical difference if I bundle 30 min at the gym with swim session, or do run+gym after work at the office. Then I guess it becomes more a question of how these additional gym sessions affect recovery.

(Not directed at you)

I am reading a lot of “who has time for the gym?!” in this thread but did covid teach us that you don’t need a gym to do strength work? I haven’t been to the gym in over 2 years but bought a few sets of weights some Trx bands and have been doing strength work in my basement using Peloton videos and other videos. Simple and no time lost traveling. Did 2-3 times a week before my marathon build started last June and plan to have a good strength block before I really get into run training this winter/spring.

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Though pros are a pretty narrow cohort in age, between ~20-35.

Joe Skipper has posted videos of his strength routine. Sam Long has talked about doing extensive strength work. Rachael McBride has credit it. Brownlee has mentioned gym in a bunch of interviews but never gave any details. I have seen a lot of people in this group where they say they go to the gym but you have no clue what they are doing.... And when we see peoples routines we can argue about if they are doing heavy lifting or not. I remember thinking I lift more than Joe. But I am also training a fraction of what he does (i.e. what is your 1RM max after you have 10 hours on the bike in you legs in the previous days).

Lifting and endurance sports has a long history with plenty of coaches sharing your coaches opinions. And a bunch of others who have had a ton of success while their athletes lift. Put plyometrics in this same category as strength training where a lot say ignore them and others talk about how beneficial they are. I would say the trend over the last 50 years has been towards more gym work...

And as far as the Norwegians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgL5OYKPT0E&ab_channel=MikalIden


No clue if they stuck with it but the key to me was the comment where he says he knows endurance training but doesn't know strength training hits home. Lots of coaching stick with what they know rather than experimenting.