Training for multiple sports.

Hopefully all of your sports are either strength/fastwitch based or edurance/slowtwitch based. If that's the case there would be quite a bit of crossover from one to the next. With that much on your plate, it would probably be best to strive for excellent overall fitness and then work on the specific skills you'd need for the individual sports when you've got the time.


In triathlon for example there is quite a bit of crossover fitness between the bike and run, especially in the "early stages" but because it is so technique dependent swimming is the only thing that will help with swimming.

I'd also be curious to know what the five sports are. Are there any that are very technique driven?

Thank you so much for your replies, it's good to get some fresh looks.
I do surf most days, but I live in NW Oregon so it's not like S Cal where you can surf every day. We get really good, fairly large but inconsistent surf so when it's on I surf my brains out and whEn it's off I focus on my other events. I do, however, plan for surf every day and when we don't have it I re-arrange my workouts. I feel surfing can be a fast twitch activity in that the movements when your actually on a wave are quick and responsive but often the paddling lends more to endurance. I also train between 2-4 nights in Jiu Jitsu which also combines speed and endurance as well as more lateral movements versus the forward motion that runners and bikers get.
I train weights 2 days a week which I mix up endurance lifting and strength, which because I have a hereditary degenerative joint disease in my left hip I have been recommended to make my lifting sessions priority by my sports doctor.
I don't do any swimming exept about 3 weeks before a competition because I swam competetively for 14 years so I feel that if I swam consistently I may be faster but I don't think I'd improve enough to justify the extra time I'd have to put in the pool.
I guess what I'm wondering is how do these people who compete in adventure racing which requires the possibility of run, swim, climb, kayak, hike with a load,etc etc train without constant exhaustion, and get all these sports dialed in to a level where they are competitive? Even if one had 40 hrs a week to train (which most of us don't, right?) the body can only do so much.
I do respect and like the cross fit idea, however most of our warm ups in Jitsu as well as many of my weight train session are already cross fit -esque so I don't know how much more cross fit would benefit me. My husband actually does it 3-4 days a week and I am still faster than him in our tris (I believe the rule of specific training is why, he's probably naturally faster than me but trains less for tri's).
Thanks for any additional info.

As far as adventure racing goes, most of those events are about being adaptable and constantly keep moving forward. Lots of them also have a team element, so all the better when you have a climbing expert, a paddling expert etc... Beyond that, endurance is endurance. Everyone is bound to have strengths and weaknesses.


It sounds like you're mostly focused on BJJ and lifting. BJJ is actually excellent cardio, but won't give you the kind of endurance you'd need for really long distance stuff. Are you thinking about adventure racing specifically, or just looking to it as an example of how to train for a multitude of events?

I'm definitely interested in adventure racing (don't really know where I'd start!) but I was really interested specifically in how one trains for an event that involves multiple disciplines with different cardio needs. It's funny because there's pretty well used methods and 'training plans' for triathlons but I haven't seen much for the adventure racing (I think what is appealing about these is there are so many different activities in these races). But ultimately I'm spending about 4 hours a day working out including my surfing and with that and my job and coaching I get pooped out, so I was hoping to get some ideas from other athletes on ways to train smarter, not harder!
Do you do adventure races?