Stop Changing Your Hybrid Goals So often

By Dr Phil Price

Becoming a hybrid athlete is a creative endeavour. You can pull inspiration from across the sporting world to set hybrid goals as difficult as you can imagine. However, the freedom to choose any hybrid goal has often led to athletes changing their goals too often. Whether driven by boredom or the desire to try and be good at everything, many athletes fail to see the progression they’re capable of because their hybrid goals keep changing.

Fergus Crawley is a great example for long-term hybrid goal setting. By anchoring his challenges in powerlifting and triathlon, he’s been able to build on the training adaptations he’s made from training for each physical challenge, resulting in excellent long-term performance improvements in each sporting discipline.

This compounded effort is why massive hybrid challenges, like the Tenacity Project (10 Ironman distance triathlons in 10 different cities in 10 days), are possible. He hasn’t trained for 16 weeks to complete 10 Ironmans in 10 days; he has spent years performing specific hybrid training and hybrid challenges.

So, how do you decide on your own hybrid goals? Here are my recommendations to help you choose:

1. Make sure you enjoy it. Hybrid goals demand a massive time investment. You’re going to spend a lot of hours being uncomfortable, grinding through early mornings and harsh winter conditions. If you hate the training, you won’t last. If rowing feels like a chore, don’t set a rowing goal. There are plenty of ways to be a hybrid athlete.  Choose an endurance path you actually enjoy.

2. Build short-term goals. Your overarching goal sets the direction, but short-term milestones keep you on track. If you’re chasing a 200kg squat and a sub-5-minute mile, use your current fitness level to map out smaller, achievable wins. These keep the momentum high and the progression visible.

3. Be cautious with timelines. Athletes love setting “8-week” deadlines, for example, but these often don’t take into account how quickly your body can actually adapt. Overestimating your adaptation rate leads to missed targets and frustration. This does not mean this goal is not achievable, but quite often it is overestimated leaving many athletes not reaching their goal in the time they have given themselves.  Unless you have years of training data and a deep understanding of your own training history, avoid strict time limits.

4. Know your why. Whether it’s intrinsic (personal growth) or extrinsic (external rewards), you need total clarity on your motivation. That “why” is what allows you to train with intent when things get difficult. How does your current “why” align with the sports you’ve chosen to combine?

If you want help structuring your training – how to build a hybrid training week, how to periodise strength and endurance together, how to avoid the interference effect and balance your nutrition — you can apply to work with us here.

Or, if you’d like an introduction to hybrid training – you can download our free hybrid training guide here.