Andrew Hyde lives in Boulder, Colorado and travels frequently.

Training Hacks for Ironman: Traditional Vs. Crossfit

I didn’t do this on purpose for any means, but over the last two years I have completed two Ironman 70.3 distances (Boulder both times) with radically different training programs. Today I looked at my times and think there are some pretty interesting conclusions.

2009: I raced the distance for the first time with pretty beginner, but not poor, gear.  My training was a six day a week, at least an hour a day, schedule.  About 14 hours a week if you included the longer bike ride on Saturday.  Three ‘bricks’ or multi sport days (a run then a bike).  It took a great deal of effort and I was very proud of my first 70.3 distance:

2009
57:23 swim
2:44:14 bike
2:30:18 run
6:18.15 finish time

race report

Recovery from the race took a full week of very sore knees and legs.

2010: There were so many weird things about this year, but I never really got my traditional training into gear.  I was training at Crossfit Roots in Boulder and loved about everything they had.  A intense challenge with a focus on a fun community.  I didn’t have to worry about solo runs or workouts, they had quality coaches to keep you in check and push you when you needed it.  When I raced in August, it was my longest swim, bike and run of the year.  I was proud of my effort as well (especially for my three hours of training a week):

2010
45:14 swim
2:44 bike
2:50 run
6:25:06 finish time

After the race I drove myself to town, had drinks and dinner with friends and went for a nice relaxed run the next day with very little soreness and a massive racing suit tan.

race report (and I got this medal that says I swam 13.1 miles)

Ironman Boulder finisher medal. We swam, biked and swam, according to them. 13.1 swim. Arms still tired. #fail

What does the data tell us?  What did other things contribute to the races (such as, in 2010 it was much hotter and as you can see I bonked on the run).  I finished within seven minutes with completely different training styles.  In 2010 I had a nicer bike but also a foot injury.  Offsets.  I wasn’t a rookie and knew what to expect for my swim (the time shows this) and was more relaxed.

If I were to do it again, I would do Crossfit with some longer bike rides to get my cardio up.  Mix in some 400 meter running sprints and a once a week mile swim (400 meter sprints as well).

The final word: you don’t have to train traditionally for longer endurance events.  My longest workout going into the 2010 race was 38 minutes.

That is crazy talk. It worked well though.

Posted

in

by

Andrew Hyde

Tags:

Comments

7 responses to “Training Hacks for Ironman: Traditional Vs. Crossfit”

  1. Tim Letscher Avatar
    Tim Letscher

    I was just checking out the post and noticed the funny typo on the medal. You swam 13.1 miles?? WOW!
    😉

  2. NULL Avatar
    NULL

    They sent a replacement, but a funny typo on their part.

  3. Jackson Miller Avatar
    Jackson Miller

    That is a really inspiring post. I am running my first marathon later this month and am thinking about a triathlon (though likely a shorter distance to start).

    My favorite part of the post though: the typo on the finisher medal. A 13.1 mile swim would be really impressive.

  4. Ride The Divide Avatar
    Ride The Divide

    Congratulations on 2 awesome completions!

    A couple comments:
    1. Not being a rookie your second time around is actually pretty significant. You had a pretty good idea how your body might react from the first experience.
    2. Muscle memory. It takes less time to get yourself back into shape once you’ve reached a certain level of fitness.

    Beware the idea of not having to train “traditionally” if you are a beginner and have not really reached a base level of fitness. You could be in for some serious injuries.

  5. NULL Avatar
    NULL

    That is a great point. I wonder how a marathoner would transition to
    triathlon if they just did core work. I did get an injury earlier in the
    year from running with some poor footwear too fast, but besides that felt
    much less injury prone than the year before.

  6. Nicholas E Massie Avatar
    Nicholas E Massie

    AH, I wonder if doing fewer long distances or more short ones put your body in a different state of readiness. Though the ease with which you resumed daily life would indicate that you didn’t burn off reserves during the big event. Maybe you hit a sweet spot with a tapering off of exertion before the tri? Congrats regardless!

  7. jeremyvaught Avatar
    jeremyvaught

    Ahhhh, good points. I think you are absolutely correct, a full body workout on a regular basis with some sport specific workouts is plenty.

    When I merely ran a half marathon, I had done about 6 sprint triathlons is the year previous, but time became an issue during the half training and I ended up only doing my long runs. In other words, I ran once a week only I think from 6 miles up. So 7 weeks out, I ran 6 miles, 6 weeks out I ran 7 miles, 5 weeks out I ran 8 miles etc. One long run a week and nothing in between.

    I ran it in 2 hours, 22 seconds (at 6’1″ 235lbs with a BMI rated at obese btw 🙂

    So there you go. Untraditional but effective.

Leave a Reply