CrossFit Vs. Traditional Endurance Training for Triathlon Success

There's a discussion going on over in the Slowtwitch forum about this, and while I have opinions, I'm not going to voice them over there, but rather here.

So there's this spinoff of CrossFit called CrossFit Endurance. While I do like their pirate-based logo, I cannot say I agree with some of the claims being made here. I am in no way making a statement about the value of CrossFit as an enhancement to an endurance training program. I think I have enough years of fairly serious exercise in me (18 years of strength training and 11 years of endurance training) to make some observations and comments on my little N=1 study.

First, I'll assume anyone reading here has a basic understanding of Exercise Physiology. There are many good books on this covering things down at the cellular level all the way up to the musculoskeletal system. But to frame things, I'll state the "Basic Training Principles" that you'll find in any of those books:

1. Individuality: what works for you might not work for me. This is from a combination of genetics, prior experience, mental focus, etc.
2. Specificity: You won't get better at swimming by riding a bike. Seriously! While developing overall cardiovascular fitness is helpful at maintaining overall conditionining, there is no crossover, especially when you are talking about a skill/technique based sport like swimming or tennis.
3. Disuse: Use it or lose it!
4. Progressive Overload: You need to push yourself, sometimes to the edge and beyond, to create new gains in fitness.
5. Hard/Easy: Contrary to what you see on my blog, it is important to cycle workout intensity!
6. Periodization: Overall training loads need to be varied within the context of a training/competition cycle.

I always wondered why there wasn't a principle called Change. It is partly encompassed by Periodization and some of the other principles like Hard/Easy, but not fully. Periodization needs to occur within varying length cycles--we usually think of a training "season," but when you are first starting out at a sport like triathlon, you can't jump right in and begin training 750-800 hours a year, which is what I do. So over the course of a few years you'd build up to that level.

But I digress. If a person did the same training plan from one year to the next, where that plan included all the Basic Training Principles, would they get any better/faster? For a few years, yes, because that is what people are talking about when they say "base building" and also consistency (which is just another form of the Disuse principle). The fact that I've been at Ironman training for almost 9 years means that I have a huge base compared to someone who is in their first year. Which means I am able to do crazier shit than many people with smaller bases (or else I am just smarter about it!).

Eventually, though, your body adapts to anything you throw at it, and on a steady diet of same old same old, you will eventually plateau. You've heard the old adage "it doesn't get easier--you just get faster." Like my bike and run training is time-based, so I run for X minutes, bike for Y hours, and how ever much mileage I cover is what I get. This removes things like terrain and weather and fatigue levels from the equation. On a given day, I might run further in X minutes than the prior week.

When I look across my records, I can document that I am running and biking faster than I have in the past. Not by a whole lot, but it's there. At least in training! We will see how it translates to long course racing in a few weeks. It was interesting the other day that I realized the previous time I won the Indoor Triathlon Series was in 2004, but when I won it this year, I am now 5 years older and faster! Isn't that cool?

Anyway, I keep digressing...the biggest thing I've learned in all my years at this is that the body needs, in fact, CRAVES change. I MUST change up my stretching routine, my strength routine, my swim/bike/run routines, my challenge events every single year and sometimes more frequently, if I want to see improvement. Can I document every subtle change I've made? No...I'm not that anal-retentive ;) But I can look across years and know significant changes I've made, including perhaps resting more, sleeping more, stretching more, doing more strength work, doing various focused sport efforts, etc., and see how it has made a difference.

Is what I've done scientifically based? Hell no. It's been motivated by the fact that I like change, we live in a world of change, and I am always looking for new ways to gain an edge not only competitively, but in how strong I feel in my daily life activities, such as they are.

Whenever I am asked how I have come to be in the shape that I am in, I always point to it being a combination of endurance training, strength training, flexibility, diet, massage and mental training.

I know a few people who are serious into the CrossFit thing and others who are just beginning to dabble in it. I have complete respect for anyone's method of achieving overall fitness--whether it's playing basketball, rock climbing or whatever. As an aside, I think that a serious rock climber is probably in overall generally good condition...

I just happen to have chosen triathlon as one of my vehicles. But I have a longer strength background and I keep that up because I know what it does for me. It was just coincidental that I met some CrossFitters and some other friends started dabbling in it, and I thought, hey, it's time for me to change things up a bit, and so I am trying out a few things here and there.

But my core triathlon training is not changing...I will only get stronger on the bike by working hard on the bike. I will only develop the tendon/ligament strength in my legs for running by running. As to my swimming, well, I'd need a one-on-one coach and at least 15,000 yards per week in the pool to see any serious gains there, and the time investment is just not worth it to me, so I'll settle for my 10,000 yards a week that I enjoy doing and keeps me from slowing down too much and helps my recovery from biking and running.

What about the idea that if I significantly decreased my swim/bike/run training and did more CrossFit type stuff that I'd get faster? I think not. First of all, I have a pretty balanced triathlon training program that includes a big dose of intensity amongst all the LSD stuff. And seriously, I rarely do a 100% LSD workout--my long runs and rides have significant work periods in them, and unless I am 100% shelled, I am able to execute those with regularity. Riding a bike hard works my quads hard. Swimming with paddles works my lats, traps and shoulders hard the same as lifting weights. Running hills fast makes my legs stronger. Do my muscles care that the strength they've acquired is from being on a bike vs. doing squats? I think not. I've been playing around with doing a bunch of squats, and while I haven't tried to max out, let's just say I think my quads are fairly strong, and it isn't from doing a bunch of squats!

I do believe it's very important for triathlon specialists to mix it up, even though there's this notion that because we are training 3 sports that we are cross-training. Bunk! Like I said, your body adapts to anything, and there are many unused muscles and even muscle imbalances created if all you do is swim, bike and run.

There is, I believe, an overall strength component to reducing one's level of general fatigue, and the point at which during a long workout, say an Ironman, one reaches it. For example, it's well-known that it's important to maintain upper body strength to be successful at running, because when your upper body tires, your form can fall completely apart. Ultrarunners in particular need good overall strength since most of their events are quite challenging in terms of terrain, much more so than a silly Ironman!

You also need a helluva strong core to stay on a bike, especially in an aero position, for long periods of time. I want to take one of my CrossFit friends with me on a 120-mile bike ride! Now maybe I can't do 20 repetitions of climbing 100's of stairs with kettlebells, but I'm not training to do that. If I wanted to, though, I could. And yet, I don't feel lacking in my overall general strength, at least not for the life I lead. I think I'm plenty strong, thank you. Although I suppose that if I get trapped in a collapsing building I might be in some trouble...

I do believe that no matter what your chosen sport or physical application that you need to mix it up frequently during the course of a training cycle but also across years. Change is inevitable. If a person is responding in their target sport by changing up their routine to something that favors more CrossFit-type workouts, who can say it's because it's CrossFit and maybe they would get the same results by taking up rock climbing?

It's good to experiment with different exercise modalities for overall health and strength, and also to prevent mental burnout in a given sport. But if you want to be really good at a particular sport, you gotta do that sport. I mostly want to be good at riding a bike and have fun doing it. For some reason, I like triathlon because it introduces some variety by adding in swimming and running. I come from a strength training background, so I keep doing that, too. I've experimented with various types of circuit training, have taught classes in it, have trained for and competed well at stair climbs, volleyball and softball. I may have put some of those things aside for my current tenure at triathlon, but I have never forgotten that I need to keep changing things up. It may not always be evident from this blog, but it's there. So what if I'm a little heavy on the endurance stuff vs. pure strength/functional conditioning? To each their own. My current objective, though, is not to be good or competitive at CrossFit stuff. If that is what I wanted, that is what I'd be doing. I will not apologize to CrossFitters for the way I do things, and I will not belittle what they do. It's all good!

Get out there and exercise, and if you want to compete, good, if you want to just look good and feel good, also good, but don't forget to change things up!