Cross Fit, the new fast?!?!? (Page 3)

4 months late.....nm

Fantastic thread.

Seems like everyone is behaving themselves and making somewhat valid and researched arguments.

It's nice to see a thread that's arguing against CFE. Not praising it for reasons unknown.

Jorge... Keep up the great arguments.

I am late to this party but I just read the full article.  The gyst seems to be if you spend more time lifting, you'll see improved results at endurance events.  He even suggests that McCormack needs to bulk up.  I find that comment interesting as so many pro level endurance athletes try to lose weight before the season.  As an example, pick up the recent issue of Cycle Sport and read about how Bradley Wiggins went from track stud to top 10 TdF finisher.  To summarize that article, his professional coaches got him to shed muscle from his upper body.  It is just a fact that carrying more weight in long course is harder to do than carrying less weight.  I know.  I have lived it.  Plus, it just makes logical sense that it takes more effort to move more weight. 

My personal anecdote: for several years I used a coach who trained me to avoid injury.  In other words: limit the long training days.  Well, I succeeded in not getting injured, however my times did not improve.  And, when I got to the run, my run suffered.  I could blame hydration, nutrition, weather.  But the reality was my legs were cooked by the time I got into the run.

When I switched to a coach who upped my volume, here is what happened: shaved 40 minutes off of my 1/2 IM run time (that was last week and it yielded a podium spot for me - not overall though  ; shaved 90 minutes off of my IM PR and I am comparing Arizona to Austria.  So I could argue I PRed by more as Austria, where I just PRed, is significantly tougher than Arizona.

Also, I used to be able to squat and deadlift way more than what what was mentioned in the article.  Back when I could do that, I could not run far.  It seems to me that the heavy lifting routine as applied to endurance only serves to maybe help people finish.

I think CrossFit is great for people looking for fitness.  But I don't think it will serve people well who are looking to improve performance at endurance events.

From someone who does CF off-season and enjoys long distance training... I like CF because i consider it to be a great compliment to my tri training, especially of-season because it helps me stay in shape and i train all my muscles groups. However, some training sessions come with running. For example we would run 800m fast, then do some lifting... repeat.  No one in a group can run to save their lives except people who actually are runners, or used to do CC/track at high school, etc. No one is the entire group of 40 people became a better runner over a period of 7 month. The running workouts are my favorite because I manage to recover from lifting during the run. It kills all the non-runners, period. I challenged my instructor to do a sprint tri on CF training only when he told me that CF fitness was superior to long distance training. Needless to say he did not accept my challenge. No CF training in this world will prepare one for a mental challenge of 4 hours marathon, or iron distances triathlons.