The quick and dirty answer for triathletes is – NO.

Racing yourself into shape sounds easy enough, but as triathletes it’s a very hard thing to accomplish.  Cyclists can race themselves into shape very effectively, simply by racing multi-day races, racing both days of the weekend – week after week, or by doing weekday evening criteriums and time-trials.  Triathletes simply do not have the luxury of tackling that many races back to back, which is essentially what’s required for this strategy to work effectively. For the most part we’re restricted to one-day races, typically only on the weekends.  By trying to race too much, say every week or even every couple weeks, you’ll never (rarely) be able to properly commit to a block of consistent training.