Cross Fit Article in Triathlete (Page 7)

Just read through this entire thread and have to say I'm pretty disgusted with how it turns so ugly. Of course its all the usual suspects spewing off at something they know little about — clearly too much time on your hands (as evidenced by some of your training logs).Many of the most incendiary posts in this thread seem to come from some folks who train very little and have acccomplished very little... just sayin'

I'm not posting here to tell you that CF/CFE is the only way and if you don't agree you're a loser, i'm just saying train the way you want to train and let other do it the way they want to do it and maybe try to open your mind to the fact that there IS more than one way. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa.

I'm a three time ironman and have been road racing and doing tris for a several years. Didn't really get started til I hit age 40, but have been doing it ever since. I do okay in my age group and sometimes land on the podium. I race because its fun and I've met a lot of great people through the sport. I've done three IMs in the last three years. LP08, LP09 and AZ10. For both LP IMs, I coached myself using the BeIronFit program and had good success.

For Arizona this past year I knew I couldn't put in the time I had in the past due a new and way more demanding job and other life stresses. Additionally, mentally I didn't want to spend 5 hours on a bike on a Saturday morning — add prep time and cool down/clean up and its easily an 8 hour day. Work, my family, the dog and other interests keep life balanced.

I worked with Max to prepare for Arizona using the CF/CFE. In addition to the CF workouts, I did plenty of s/b/r, but not as much as I've done in the past. It took some adjustment I will admit to go from long slow to short and intense. Most of my 2010 season was just working through this transition AND dealing with my busy work and personal life. But it got me to Arizona where I was able to achieve a 42 minute PR. Additionally, I PR'd a half iron in September before AZ. So it worked well for me and I found new ways to be fit and get strong.

For 2011, I plan to continue with CF/CFE as I really dig the overall fitness I've gained not just for racing but for everything else in my life. I'm strong all over, eat really well, have been able to simplify my race nutrition strategy and just generally enjoy more time and balance in my life.

So my point is — don't discount it because you don't think its the way for YOU to train. Just open your mind to fact that some people have had success with it and maybe there's something you can take away from it.

My message to most of you though is that it would be great if you could just grow up... maybe go for a run or something instead of spewing your ignorant rants on what could otherwise being an interesting discussion.

pam

www.itri2.blogspot.com

I don't use BT to log my training.........just sayin

Actually not here to do anything for you. Rarely read or post in these forums at all because most discussions end up like this one. Its of little or no value to me...

and so it goes on...

The weather in AZ was not particularly ideal. It rained and hailed on the bike and there were significant wind gusts. My bike time was 6:17 versus 6:54 at LP. Riding a relatively flat course but dealing with high wind and bad weather render them fairly equivalent in my opinion (yes, we can start another debate around this ). LP 08 was terrible weather. It rained heavily from start to finish and my bike was not operating properly. LP 09 showed improvement on the bike but most likely just due to my bike working properly and the weather being better. Had a great swim based on doing shorter, hi intensity swim workouts (per Max) rather than lots of long slow yardage. My run suffered due to higher humidity.

AZ10 bike was pretty difficult. Yes its flat but that can be difficult. You are pedaling and down in the bars constantly which takes a toll on your body. Add in 30 mph gusts and hail and its a tough ride. The swim is one loop in very cold water. Harder to site on this swim course due to the weird curves of the "lake". The run is not that flat and lots of surface changes.

I was able to do it with CE/CFE protocol. And I think I can leverage where that took me to get to a better place this season.

I've done the training both ways. Either one can work. Working hard and being consistent is what gets you there. I enjoyed having more balance in my life with the CE/CFE protocol and I enjoyed achieving some new goals like stringing together 3-4 full pull ups in a row which is difficult for most females.

Feel compelled to defend Max a bit here as I think some of you have put words in his mouth that aren't his.

Scout7 - 2011-01-21 12:08 PM

Gaarryy - 2011-01-21 1:02 PM

Scout7 - 2011-01-21 11:52 AM

JohnnyKay - 2011-01-21 12:39 PM

Scout7 - 2011-01-21 12:36 PM So is Endurance Nation like FIRST for triathlons? I need a frame of reference.

Sort of.  Basically replacing volume with intensity for portions of the training program, especially on the bike.

So is it periodized? I assume that it's specific to preparing for a race, and not general training, yes? I suppose I could go google it or something, couldn't I?

 I"m not sure what FIRST is so I can't help

but yes to other stuff you are asking.   Not that i'm doing either program right now.. I'm just curious since the draw is that you can train effectively on less time, or less time than some traditional approaches might be a better way of putting it.

FIRST is a running program. It boils down to 3 runs a week, a short easy run, a tempo or interval workout, and a long run. You fill the remaining days with cross training (so cycling, swimming, whatever). The argument is essentially quality over quantity. Which is generally what I think this whole debate is based one. CFE looks for "quality" in the sense of more intense workouts (albeit not sport-specific), with less time spent doing all the easy miles/yards. Generally I am not a big believer in the "less is more" approach. It works for some people, but I don't think the reason is that it's because they are training less. I think it's because they are adding in elements they were missing before, namely the harder stuff. I think people lose sight of the message when they see Run lots, mostly easy, sometimes hard. When people talk about volume, it's not in place of harder stuff, it's that the hard stuff is in addition to the volume.

ahh... Thanks for filling me in...    I"m doing that 100 runs in 100 days challenge hoping not to get 100 but around 80 and think it's helped my running quite a bit running 5-6 days a week, so I'm glad I don't know about that