Guide · updated 18 October 2026
Strength training for triathletes: gym next to swim, bike and run
Write one repeating week that already includes two gym sessions, a swim, a ride, a run, and rest. Keep heavy legs off the day before your key bike or run. When a race or travel day lands, move a session for this week only — do not rebuild the whole week from a blank calendar.
Jamie Firth, triathlon and Hyrox. This is planning advice, not a coaching programme or medical advice.
A simple triathlon week with gym work
| Day | Session | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Swim (easy or technique) | Water work while legs recover |
| Tuesday | Strength (squat and hinge) | Gym while you are fresh, not the day before the long ride |
| Wednesday | Bike (endurance) | The midweek engine session |
| Thursday | Easy run, optional second swim | Keep run volume without stacking on sore legs |
| Friday | Strength (upper, single-leg, trunk) | Useful gym work that does not trash Saturday |
| Saturday | Longer ride or brick | The key bike day of the week |
| Sunday | Longer run or rest | The key run, or a full rest if Saturday was enough |
That is a starter shape, not a race build. Swap the Thursday run for a ride if you are short on bike time. Drop Sunday’s run to rest in a race week. You still choose the sets, distances and intensities.
Rules that keep swim, bike, run and gym honest
- Two gym days is the usual ceiling once the endurance week is already full. A third lift often steals the ride or the run.
- Protect one key bike and one key run. The gym yields first when something has to move.
- Heavy squats and hinges belong at least a day away from the long ride and the long run.
- An easy swim on a gym day is usually kinder than two hard land sessions back to back.
- Put rest on the plan so it is visible. A blank day is easier to fill with “just an extra spin”.
- Log the sets you did, not the ones you meant to do. Plan versus actual is how a paper week shows up.
What to do in the gym
Keep the sessions short and compound. A squat or hinge, a press, a pull, and one single-leg or trunk movement is enough. You are supporting swim, bike and run, not running a bodybuilding split. Record sets, reps and the load so next Tuesday is not a guess.
If legs are heavy after Tuesday, Friday stays upper and single-leg. Do not chase a personal best the day before the long ride.
How Crave holds this
In Crave you save one default week (strength, hybrid, structured, cardio, rest). Today shows the sessions for the day, plan versus actual, and whether the week is on target. You can move or add a session for this week only. Swims, rides, runs and walks from Apple Health appear on the week; you can match an Apple Watch workout to a lift you logged. There is no standalone Watch app, and Crave does not sync Garmin or Strava yet. A muscles-worked body map sits next to the strength log. Training load and a daily train / easy / rest verdict use that history, plus HRV and sleep when Health has them.
Crave does not write the triathlon programme for you. You still choose the sessions.
Further reading
Related notes on this site — these sit with the other guides, not on the home page:
- Crave Fitness home
- How to plan a hybrid lifting and running week
- All guides
- When a coaching calendar is a better fit than a self-planned week
- The social endurance feed, and the week that also includes the gym
Questions
How many gym sessions should a triathlete do in a week?
Two is enough for most people who also swim, ride and run. Put them on the repeating week so they do not vanish the moment a long ride appears. In Crave you save that week once and move a session for this week only when a race or travel day lands.
Should I lift on the same day as a key swim, bike or run?
Keep heavy lower-body work off the day before a long ride or long run. An easy swim on a gym day is usually fine. Record what you actually did so you can see if the week only existed on paper.
Does Crave write a triathlon programme?
No. You choose the sessions. Crave holds gym, swim, bike and run on one week, logs the sets, and reads Watch workouts from Apple Health. It does not assign a coach plan.