Hey guys,
A few of my buddies have picked up this training called Crossfit, and Ive done it a few times and really liked it. Its great for strength and core, and Ive improved considerably. However, there is an offshoot called Crossfit Endurance, and a triathlete friend of mine swears by it, used it to train for his 70.3 (which he ran in 5:30)…IT is considerably less time than traditional training (ie: pool, long bike, swim…variations on that.) He said he only swam twice, and his longest run was a 10k, in difference to myself, who, on saturdays, I run nearly 20k… Any experience, does this hold water at all?
Regards
Trev
uh oh. im sorry if i wasnt supposed to talk about this here…
Do a search on Crossfit, and you’ll see some threads with pretty heated debates.
I did a 5:30 half ironman using no weightlifting at all, 5 hours a week of training, none of it spent swimming and only a little biking
just saying…
perhaps if he DID swim more, and DID run more than 6 miles at a time, he wouldn’t have been so slow?
that is always the question. You spend X hours swim/bike/running and Y hours crossfitting and go fast
great, but what if you had spent X+Y hours swim/bike/running?
how in the world could swinging kettlebells around be more effective at getting good at something…than DOING THAT SOMETHING
Hey guys,
A few of my buddies have picked up this training called Crossfit, and Ive done it a few times and really liked it. Its great for strength and core, and Ive improved considerably. However, there is an offshoot called Crossfit Endurance, and a triathlete friend of mine swears by it, used it to train for his 70.3 (which he ran in 5:30)…IT is considerably less time than traditional training (ie: pool, long bike, swim…variations on that.) He said he only swam twice, and his longest run was a 10k, in difference to myself, who, on saturdays, I run nearly 20k… Any experience, does this hold water at all?
Regards
Trev
Crossfit claims a number of things and the people that have accepted the Kool-Aid will do any number of not so brilliant things to prove that Crossfit is THE answer.
You either work hard to achieve great results or you work some and achieve mediocre results. 5:30 on a 70.3 is not a great result IMHO.
It’s all about what you want to do. Survive or Thrive???
sorry fellas. I searched under cross fit, not crossfit, and nothing came up…lol didnt mean to start the war all over again…
Crossfit claims a number of things and the people that have accepted the Kool-Aid will do any number of not so brilliant things to prove that Crossfit is THE answer.
You either work hard to achieve great results or you work some and achieve mediocre results. 5:30 on a 70.3 is not a great result IMHO.
It’s all about what you want to do. Survive or Thrive???
I agree that Crossfit is perhaps not the best way to train for an endurance event, but please do not denigrate those of us who cannot go as fast as you. For some, 5:30 is a very good time and as fast as they can go. For many it’s as much about the journey as the result.
A friend of mine is a Crossfit devotee and once said that we endurance athletes overtrained. Recently he went out to do a 100km trail run and bombed at 45kms!
There is room for Crossfit principles in training, but not at the expense of all else. Isn’t it all a question of balance?
For some, 5:30 is a very good time and as fast as they can go. For many it’s as much about the journey as the result.
unless you are old or handicapped in some way, 5:30 is probably not as fast as you can go. you gotta believe! and pay attention to details, and work hard!
There is room for Crossfit principles in training
what does that even mean? theres room to drink beer too but it doesn’t help me go faster
Isn’t it all a question of balance?
What the question is, would be up to you. Some might be looking for overall fitness balance. some might be looking to go as fast as possible…
both are ok!
After my first Ironman last year, I wanted to try the crossfit + crossfit endurance training. But I also looked deeper into the program and the crossfit community to see how it works.
I am very much in favor of adding resistance training to triathlon training but the cult of crossfit and crossfit endurance wants you to believe that you can be the best triathlete (or football player, martial artist or whatever) by drinking the Kool Aid and following their program blindly.
Yes, a couch potato can get in good enough shape via crossfit endurance to finish an Ironman or Marathon. But just finishing really isn’t that hard. You could get in good enough shape doing crossfit, P90X or anything else an finish whatever your mind will let you.
The concept that you do 4-6 crossfit workouts and 6 or less swim/bike/run workouts and become a better triathlete is very questionable. The kicker is that they advise if you have a hard time recovering during the crossfit endurance training, you cut back on your S/B/R training, not the crossfit training!
If you closely examine the crossfit system (especially the business and marketing side) you see that it is a brilliant money maker for Greg Glassman- the founder of crossfit.
If you really want to be good at working out and improve your phsyique, by all means, do crossfit. But to be the best endurance athlete you can be you should be doing mostly specific training.
Sounds like bad pacing or nutrition or both which can kill anyones race no matter what type of training or who’s plan they followed.
Crossfit claims a number of things and the people that have accepted the Kool-Aid will do any number of not so brilliant things to prove that Crossfit is THE answer.
You either work hard to achieve great results or you work some and achieve mediocre results. 5:30 on a 70.3 is not a great result IMHO.
It’s all about what you want to do. Survive or Thrive???
I agree that Crossfit is perhaps not the best way to train for an endurance event, but please do not denigrate those of us who cannot go as fast as you. For some, 5:30 is a very good time and as fast as they can go. For many it’s as much about the journey as the result.
A friend of mine is a Crossfit devotee and once said that we endurance athletes overtrained. **Recently he went out to do a 100km trail run and bombed at 45kms! **
There is room for Crossfit principles in training, but not at the expense of all else. Isn’t it all a question of balance?
It was neither. His knees and quads packed in.
Sounds like bad pacing or nutrition or both which can kill anyones race no matter what type of training or who’s plan they followed.
Crossfit claims a number of things and the people that have accepted the Kool-Aid will do any number of not so brilliant things to prove that Crossfit is THE answer.
You either work hard to achieve great results or you work some and achieve mediocre results. 5:30 on a 70.3 is not a great result IMHO.
It’s all about what you want to do. Survive or Thrive???
I agree that Crossfit is perhaps not the best way to train for an endurance event, but please do not denigrate those of us who cannot go as fast as you. For some, 5:30 is a very good time and as fast as they can go. For many it’s as much about the journey as the result.
A friend of mine is a Crossfit devotee and once said that we endurance athletes overtrained. **Recently he went out to do a 100km trail run and bombed at 45kms! **
There is room for Crossfit principles in training, but not at the expense of all else. Isn’t it all a question of balance?
what is your half Im time and are you still not struggling to go under 2:20 for an OD and you a healthy man in his 30’s
.
My response was not to down any of the people that do 70.3 races in 5:30. I was merely stating that it was a mediocre time. While that time be a PR for many, it will be far from a podium placing in any 70.3.
I am not a fast triathlete but I am a realist and while I am overjoyed with any finish that I can achieve, I know that I am far from being competitive.
I wasn’t healthy when I was struggling to go under 2:20 at OD, I had a knee injury that didn’t allow me to run at all
I don’t expect sub 2:20 to be a struggle this year =)
what is your half Im time and are you still not struggling to go under 2:20 for an OD and you a healthy man in his 30’s
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I wasn’t healthy when I was struggling to go under 2:20 at OD, I had a knee injury that didn’t allow me to run at all
Knee injury? Well, of course you know that Crossfit can fix that, right?
Without opening this can of worms totally… use as a supplement to your traditional tri training it cant hurt. Simialr to the cross fit stuff last summer up in our HS wrestling room we got a few sets of “Yoke bars” the circuits you run though on those are amazing! certainly not tri specific but for wresting you wont find a better core focused workout and the kids love it. But… you better put your time in on the big 3 before you start looking for short cuts through core work. nah mein!
it fixed itself, I can run again now.
praise biology
I wasn’t healthy when I was struggling to go under 2:20 at OD, I had a knee injury that didn’t allow me to run at all
Knee injury? Well, of course you know that Crossfit can fix that, right?
link to the results or it didn’t happen, but serioulsy wish you all the best, injuries are no fun, ruptured achilles a few years back and my first 10 K back was 59 mins after being a sub 40 runner prior to that
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if your a good enough athlete, you probably finish a HIM with whatever program you want, but if you want to perform your best, crossfit is probably not the way to go. If you look at the best in the world, they aren’t using crossfit to get it done.