Fitness treadmill as a personal trainer hammered a client through a relentless form of circuit training. I first heard about Crossfit two years ago when I watched from an L.A. Rutter is now preaching the gospel admitting, “I can’t return to the old ways I used to coach.” She also saw that three Crossfit athletes doing their first Ironman, one a mother of three in her late 40s, all recording impressive times. And my physical therapist asked me, ‘Do you know how much better off you are?’ My hips were looser and my iliotibial band was healthy.” At Ironman Lake Placid she finished in less than 12 hours and PR’d her run. They’d tease me later with text messages: ‘Are you taking a nap yet?’ They did not get it.”ĭespite the lower volume Rutter burned off six pounds. “They’d go out on their five-hour bike ride and I’d go off on my 30-mile time trial. I was the only one doing the Crossfit,” she says. “I have five friends that were training for Lake Placid. The training was shockingly intense-she had one interval workout that consisted of five one-mile repeats, each mile an all-out effort-and at times isolating. There were no 60-minute recovery runs or easy spins. “I thought, ‘This is going to be the biggest waste of my time.’” I wasn’t ready to give up but I knew I needed to do something different.” Rutter went to a Crossfit Endurance certification and despite her skepticism-she would be trading in five-hour bike rides and two-hour runs for time trials, intervals and high-intensity gym sessions-she followed the program to the letter almost as if to prove it was wrong. From Seabright, N.J., Rutter, a longtime coach and personal trainer, had been frustrated for years trying to get back to a 2003 Ironman Lake Placid PR of 11:33 despite multiple attempts. He has decided to train the Crossfit way for the entirety of 2011.īrittany Rutter, a 34-year-old age-grouper and USAT-certified coach had a similar surprise using Crossfit. “I haven’t run like that since college,” he says. 24 he raced an Olympic-distance triathlon and recorded the fastest split on the 10K run course, 31:48. I asked, ‘How the hell is this happening?’” On Oct. “And my lactate threshold on the bike was up 33 percent. “I was skeptical, but I committed myself to doing everything exactly as it was written.” A few weeks after he was cleared to begin running again in August, Petruzelli performed a session of mile repeats at 5:15 pace. “I’m an old-school endurance guy,” says Petruzelli. Impressed with the effect, he immersed himself in learning about the Crossfit-based plan for endurance sports, a philosophy that hinged on low-volume, high-intensity training designed to constantly shock the body. Petruzelli says he was stunned to notice that not only had he lost no fitness, but his power intervals showed an upward spike. Two weeks later he was cleared to ride an indoor bike. The Crossfit team started him off with simple, non-jarring lower body movements and agility moves. “I told them I wanted to do two things: First, get healthy faster than my doctor’s projections, and second, get stronger and faster at the same time.” “I went to see my guys at Crossfit, Nate Aye and John Conquest, and my coach, Jen Garrison,” Petruzelli says. Virtually his next stop after post-op was a gym on the west side of Chicago, a Crossfit gym, Crossfit being an aggressive approach to fitness that in the last decade has stormed across the country with cultish fervor. Pity the doctor issuing orders to a driven triathlete-the surgeon’s words had the impact of elevator music. Said the doctor to Petruzelli, “I don’t think you’ll be able to train hard until December.” Ten days later he was told his season was over, and then the surgeon drilled seven screws and a plate into his breastbone. He suffered multiple fractures to his collarbone and three broken ribs. On June 18, 2010, Guy Petruzelli, a 37-year-old professional triathlete from Westmont, Ill., was on his bike when a car struck him. This article originally appeared in the February 2011 issue of Triathlete magazine. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!Ĭan a high-intensity training method favored by special operations forces, elite police units and MMA champions transform the sport of triathlon?
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