Bike racer, not triathlete.

But I do CF 5x week in the off-season, and reduce to 2-3x per week in-season. 0x per week on A-race weeks.

If you're trying to have fun and stay fit, do whatever the hell you want. Mix it all together. Plenty of people enjoy the variety. Nothing wrong with that.

If you're trying to be the fastest version of you, at triathlon, drop the cross fit.

I mean the "fittest guy on the planet" is a crossfitter....

he might be on to something here.

What length races do you train for? How much time do you have? I joined a local gym which I would call cross fit light. Way less competitive. I was doing two days of lifting per week. I stopped when I got in season because I just didn’t have enough time to fit it all in. Also the gym had a goal of making me stronger all the time. I felt like in season I needed more of a maintenance schedule. I felt less flexible too.

In the Ben Hoffman ask me anything I think he said he does two sessions of strength work a week.

Good luck!

I usually weight train in the winter but this winter I wanted to try something different so I decided to give Crossfit a try. I have been doing it 3x week for 1 month and it's been fun. There's a lot of comaraderie in this gym. It reminds me of my triclub. I feel like I'm getting hooked.

The problem is I'm tired all the time and I don't see how I can keep doing it, without it affecting my triathlon training. I've heard it takes some time for your body to adapt to the work load and volume. This past month I've been riding gravel 1 or 2 days a week with my friends and I'm having a hard time keeping up. Starting in January I'll start my training for American Triple T's and I'll probably experiment with the two and see what works.

How long did it take for you to adapt to Crossfit? During your season, what does your training week look like?

Thanks,
Mike

I'm age 45, about two and a half years info CrossFit, 15 years into bike racing, and 35 years into endurance sports (for context).

I train 10-20 hours per week. In-season I'll do 7-8 rides over 6 days. I'll typically do CrossFit on Monday, my day off cycling, and then again Weds or Thurs. If I do a 3rd, it'll be one of the "easier" Orangetheory-like classes vs. the full WOD.

The key to not destroying yourself in-season is to be smart about it. E.g., if it's a squat-heavy WOD that'll clearly destroy my legs for 4 days when I have a key cycling workout coming up, I'll "cheat" it and go light.

it can work, but only if you are vegan

I don’t think there’s any popcorn here to be seen. My own theory(n=1) is that triathletes by nature get bored with one thing.

The fully jacked guy at my crossfit box said you can do crossfit 6 days a week for max swole and just drop down to 5 days to taper for a full IM as long as u ramp up the micro aminos with a full keto paleo diet rich in bacon fats and bullet proof single plantation coffee. Stack those plates like a buffet, come at me bro, do u even lift?

But you need to post it on strava with 200 hash tags or otherwise it totally doesn't count.

Perfect.

I've been doing a lot of squats and PRed in half marathon last week. I can tell I pump out more power when I bike(indoor for now) as well. Think about your range of motion, triathletes don't bend too much, so it can be a great addition to your work. Crossfit consists with good forms, right weight for you and speed. If you do it right, you can get a lot of benefit out of it.

I've had time periods where I've needed to gain some strength while still having good endurance and done both (specifically, I followed programming from CronusFit - if you need good programming check these guys out *and no I'm not affiliated*). As a triathlete, you're already trying to do three things well, so adding an extremely variable 4th isn't necessarily going to be good for your triathlon ability.

I had success with lifting hard (the metcon circuits, EMOMs, etc) ~3x/week on average. I was able to gain strength, pick up some quality muscle in my upper body, and not slow down too much. Some weeks were 2x, and if limited with ability to s/b/r some would be 4x (but tri suffered). I was in the gym for ~60min M/W/F, and outside of that I crammed in as much s/b/r as I could outside of that (usually 2-3x swims for 5-8k, 3 bikes for 4.5-6h all indoors for time efficiency, and 6-7 runs for 40mpw of all easy running).

Be careful with doing strength training for your legs if you intend to do any quality on the bike or run. Many times I have had to do something with a shitload of air squats, lunges, or goblet squats, then had to slog through a planned workout later that day...you'll just end up frustrated. My favorite exercises that I felt delivered the most bang for my buck were dumbbell snatches, KB swings, burpees, and pullups. Limit the metcon efforts to 15-20min tops, ideally less than 15min.

---

"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

If you watch any CrossFit competition, ~75% of the workouts fall into the "metcon" category. It's a very high intensity circuit training. 5-20 minutes, usually involving one or weightlifting or gymnastics movements that require a lot of strength. But also often mixing in high intensity "endurance" activities, like running, rowing, sled push, etc.

Maybe he thought you weren't worthy?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Others have explained the "metcon," but I quoted this bit here because it's very true. Getting through Murph fast, or GI Jane, or really any of the named workouts will improve your overall "physical readiness," but will do very little for becoming a faster triathlete (unless you're relatively untrained as an athlete to begin with, which I don't think is the case). Granted that's the whole marketing ploy for CrossFit anyways.

---

"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Something that happens at a Mets fan convention?

AMRAP looks too much like AARP to me, so I'll skip over that one

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I really haven't seen a solid answer or even a great description of what you are hoping to accomplish. Are you a FOP triathlete hoping to do crossfit to increase performance? Are you a MOP athlete hoping to move to FOP and thinking crossfit is the bridge? Are you just wanting to dabble in both because you enjoy it and want to compete in both. Here's my opinion on all three topics and I'm sure there are more.

I see a lot of mention of "strength" workouts for the offseason and I really don't think across the board you will find runner/triathletes from the FOP lifting crossfit or even olympic style consistently. IMO opinion, those strength workouts FOP athletes are doing are more about injury prevention than trying to squat +315 lbs consistently like I did when I played football in highschool. I see a lot of lunges with dumballs, workout with resistance bands and body weight exercises being done. For instance, I've been trying to increase the time I can hold a plank this offseason. As a result, I've noticed my core is stronger and I'm able to hold better body position when swimming and my time per 100 is dropping. None of that involves a single weight other than my body.

If you are a MOP athlete hoping to bridge to the FOP and thinking crossfit is what you need to be doing with additional training time you have, then you are probably not going to like the result. I have a friend who always says, "if you want to get better at swimming, biking and running then you need to swim more, bike more, and run more." This guy is a 2:50 marathoner, KQ'r and surprisingly also does crossfit. What i've noticed though is that whatever he does he goes all in. If he's training for a marathon, then he's devoted to running in that season and maybe only does crossfit one time a week. If it's triathlon then the cross fit disappears. If it's crossfit, then he may just be running 2-3 times a week and none of the runs are over an hour.

And I guess for the last option, if you are wanting to switch up and do crossfit becasue it's too cold to bike outside and you've been triathlon training all spring/summer/fall then do it. I've seen to many people get burnt out on triathlon because they decided that the offseason was when they'd try to gain some extra watts and didn't back off at all. Have fun, most of us are type "a" people and we want to go all out all the time, but remember that work pays the bills and triathlon is just a hobby.

Thank you for your post.
I'm 51 and I've been doing triathlons, on and off again, for almost 20 years. I'm a MOP to BOP anymore. I'm just trying to have fun and stay healthy. I've enjoyed Crossfit but I think once I get into serious training for my A race I'll probably stop because I'm sure it will effect my training/preparation. In the future I can see myself doing Crossfit in the winter months to help me stay in shape.
Thanks,
Mike

That's a good reason. I'm 45, and though I like to think I'm FOP as pure cyclist, one thing I've enjoyed about CrossFit is that it's erased the marginal losses in body composition, strength, and flexibility that accrued from around age 35-45. It's nice to have the "functional strength" and muscle definition I had as 25 y.o. again. All without any loss to my FTP. And some gains in power at lower durations (not relevant to triathlon performance).

Of course those losses will eventually take hold...but it's nice to stave them off with a sharp stick.