Jeff Rice
For several years I had been doing sprint triathlons and my times had been pretty consistent. I had been doing the traditional training (log lots of miles running, biking and swimming) but hadn't seen any significant improvement in my times. Then I discovered CrossFit Endurance.
I decided to radically change my approach to training for sprint triathlons. I stopped ALL traditional triathlon training. No long runs, no biking (at all) and no endless laps in the pool. I just focused on CrossFit, and when I ran, it was CrossFit Endurance running: intervals and sprints. Last year my times improved by about 10% across the board. I felt I was on to something…
As part of my CrossFit training I was introduced to Concept2 ergs. In all my working out I had never found a piece of training equipment that kicked my butt harder than a Concept2 erg. It was a love/hate relationship at first pull!
Since the weather in Rochester is so unpredictable, the erg is the go-to option when the weather is bad. We have been doing two rowing sessions each week since late November.
My thinking is that rather than spending a huge amount of time working on event-specific skills for triathlon, I will get a better return by concentrating on becoming strong and fast overall, and building endurance and the capacity to recover quickly (lots of intervals!). The Concept2 erg is a perfect tool for accomplishing that.
As spring approaches, I will be incorporating some swimming, biking and running into my training—all within a CrossFit Endurance framework—but I will continue to row towards my 1,000,000 meter goal.
Editor's Note: Jeff Rice lives and trains in Rochester, New York. You can follow Jeff in his training to reach one million meters and beyond at his blog, onemillionmeters.com.
