Originally Posted by evanyc
i have no problem getting to a pool and have been swimming three times a week for the last several months. now that i've decided to do a tri i'll probably cut that back to 2 days a week to make room for running in my schedule. my question is, how useful/necessary is it to supplement swimming workouts (and running/riding for that matter) with weights? i can't increase my workout time all that much due to job/school schedules, so should i spend that time swimming/running/riding as much as i can, or should i throw some weights in too?
this is my first tri, so i'm not aiming for some awesome finish, but i definitely want to finish and would like to do relatively well without having to become obessive (yet).
Generally speaking, if time is the limiting factor, your time is better spent working on swimming/biking/running rather than weightlifting. There are a few exceptions to this - if your weightlifting is critical to injury prevention or if "force" is a limiting factor, then weightlifting is definitely recommended.