i only work upper body...i did legg press and other legs before and they hurt my kness....for distance runners i suggest not doing any leg weight training..

i lift onoce a week for upper body...nothing to heavy but i started out don 3x10 at about 70-80% weight and now do 2X15 and will soon b doing 1x30...im working more on strength endurance.

i do alot with free weights for my chest..basically any way u can thnk of to work it i do...and for the back..i do lat pull down and the seated row thing and pull ups.

i do abs about 4 times a week

I've been lifting weights, on and off, for 25 years.Triathlon training for 2 years.

A muscular upper body might impress the girls, but except for swimming, the extra muscle mass just weighs you down in a triathlon. So I lift a little in the off season, for tone --- don't want to disappoint the girls :rolleyes: ; but I haven't lifted a weight in four months. For leg strength and endurance, I'm on my bike 2 to 3 hours on an average day.

thehitman

I think this is really, really gonna depend on the individual. I very, very strongly feel that if I had been allowed to do leg work in HS, I would have been a LOT better runner. My basis? I was a skinny little dude without much leg muscle. I had off and on problems with lactic acid accumulation. My mile PR in HS was 11:15. After a year of lifting and some running, I ran a 10:45. Hmm....

I pretty much just lift in late fall through early spring... I sort of follow a training bible plan with how much I lift and reps and stuff. I lift during the time period so my strength is at is best during cycling season where I need it most - during tri season, my peak power declines, but tri's are not like crits, you don't need that top end strength so much, and by the time xc season rolls around, I'm not carrying that unnecessary muscle weight. Due to boston winters, I don't tend to get quite as much cardio during that time of year I have more time for strength training too... If I have a long stretch of time during the rest of the year when I am not racing (rare - I race pretty much every weekend from march through mid may for cycling, do tri's or other races at least every other weekend, and then cross country from september to november) then I might to a maintenance weight session once a week or at least a little core work- but not often, I don't really like lifting.

Well put Hitman!

Sounds like a good question for Jose. Take a peek at the thread When does this start to get fun/enjoyable?!
There was lots of feedback on weightlifting there. Thought it was interesting if not purely amusing. Too bad the fun ended.

Blitz

I think there are well designed strength training programs (including weights) that can be benefical to endurance athletes. However, these programs require at least an 1hr. of time to complete, I believe I'm doing more good putting that time directly into one of the three disciplines (seeing how my time is limited). But for pro athletes; more time=more options. Even if Lance goes 7hrs. a day on a bike, he still has time to eat, rest, and maybe even hit the gym in the PM. Training is life for that man. In these specific cases, I just don't see how a professionally designed strength program is a detriment.

Now, for me on the otherhand, I don't have the time or a Chris Carmicheal designed routine, so I'll stick to the push-ups and pull-ups at night and my normal workouts. They help!

Personally, I welcome rebuttals, especially if they are well thought out.

The Mark Allen story should not be taken as a put down of weight training, rather it should be seen as demonstrating that it is possible to excel at triathlons without employing weight training - a fairly straighforward conclusion.

It is quite wrong to think that it demonstrates that weight training is useless. What I was saying, I thought clearly enough, was that your weight training program specifically has no use for you as a triathlete, with the possible exception I noted, that you are a hard-gainer when it comes to putting on muscle. This opinion is based on the fact that your list of exercises "..back shoulders triceps biceps and abs with lots of pushups for the chest.." is all upper body.
While you declare yourself as a beginner, you say you have "8,8,8" rating for endurance. Putting all this info together, I can't see that any benefit you might gain in the weight room could be critical to your success at ironman distance. Perhaps you can explain which effort action in our sport is benefitted by "lots of pushups for the chest?"

Your Armstrong comparison seems dubious because 1) we don't ride in packs, 2) our hill climbing is minimal, and 3) is never a sprint aimed at breaking the will of an opponent by a withering acceleration, all of which may mean a greater need for Lance's weight routine.
Which makes the comparison I made with Mark Allen more to the point since his accomplishments tower over the sport of Ironman triathlon. Lance doesn't train for triathlon anymore.
By the way, Mark has changed his tune recently, and does advocate weight training in his coaching nowadays, but as a specific remedy in particular cases where the athlete has a certain weakness.

There is more to be said about this of course, so feel free to reply.

PoC

You're still going with the Lance comparison, yet the kind of riding we do in Ironman and what he does in the TdF are like chalk and cheese. Look at what we do most of the bike race - we are down on the aero bars resting our weight on our forearms. Lance spends 90% of his time sitting up with his hands on the hoods, a completely different riding position. The TTT and the individual timetrials where he uses the aero bars are an insignificant period of time in comparison.

He needs to be strong and stable in the pack as he gets bumped during the turmoil of the final few kilometres. Nobody is allowed to get within 6 feet of us in IM triathlon so we don't need the upper body of a boxer to survive..

He faces hours of climbing where he is pulling on the handlebars and needs his upper body strength. We don't. Our climbing is limited in length and can be managed in a different fashion. I've never seen two guys racing up any hill on the IM bike course the way they do in the Tour. Only the pros typically ever even see another direct competitor on the bike. We age groupers seldom encounter anyone in our age group with whom to race the way Lance does running up La Mongie or Alpe d'Huez.

Lance focuses on one special race a year, a race like no other, the Tour de France. The TdF has almost nothing in common with IM biking. The time of a single stage may seem the same but look more closely. They start rolling along at 30kph and maintain it for 4 or 5 hours on a flattish stage (forget the mountain stages, they are totally foreign to IM racing) Then as the peloton speeds up to reel in a breakaway, the pack accelerates to 45-50 kph and they still aren't in aerobars. They take shifts of 30 secs or so at the front and fade back for a minute or two. This is like riding intervals. Then they finish the last 2 or 3K at 60kph in a breathless rush just to maintain contact with the leaders so they will get the same time.
On the other hand, in an IM we ride steadily for 5 or 6 hours trying to maintain a dynamic equilibrium. We don't want to surge like that because we don't have a peloton to share the workload.

We train slow twitch fibres for sustained effort. Despite the specialist roles within a team, TdF riders train for power!
Boyer, Udo Bolts and more recently Larsen have come from stage race riding to try IM and I think demonstrated that there is a great deal of difference between the two disciplines.

Training like a TdF rider is of no use to an IM triathlete. We have different needs. Impressive as Lance is he is not your best model for IM training.

Over to you,

PoC

I just started triathalon, but because I had a lifting background for about 6 yrs prior, I have discovered it has made me very strong on the bike. I can not think of any other explanation, because I have done little bike training up until now. My first race I my ave. speed was 20mph with just a plain road bike, no shoes, aerobars, nothing. I know some guys who would die to reach 20. I figure its just based on pure strength. Now that I have added a few components, and added some volumne and hill training from time to time, I expect to add another 1-1.5 mph. When I do weight train (maybe less than once a week in the summer) I do single-leg leg press to balance out my strength specifically on the bike. Then some back and chest work. Core work on the bosu ball, calves, etc. It is a full body, aerobic strength maintance workout that seems to work for me, but like another guy said it is based on the individual. For me, I am probably still stronger than the average guy just because of my background. Now, my training is just sport-specific.

This may not make me any friends but I just cringe when I see this kind of error.

The name of the sport is "TRIATHLON"

That's pronounced "TRI-ATH-LON" not "tri-atha-lon"
and we are not "tri-atha-letes"

I think it's important. So sue me.

PoC

[QUOTE=
. I don't know why you're having a problem finding weight lifting routines. It makes me wonder. Weight-lifting routines are included in many triathlon specific books, as well as bicycle racing books, swimming books and running books. Not to mention countless weight-lifting and body-building books, magazines, videos, and DVDs. Borders has many such books, as does amazon.com. Add plyometrics, too, if you wish, to add power --- I recommend Jumping into Plyometrics.

Good luck in your training.

thehitman