The other day I was on a “short” 40-mile bike ride with a friend when we hit the turn around point. Just before the short climb up Rabbit Mountain I decided to stop on a small bridge and stretch to try to help the PF in my right foot. I told my friend to keep going and that I would wait here and meet him on the way back.
The sun was out and it was quickly chasing away the chill of the morning. I took off my jacket and began stretching. For the first time that day I noticed the spectacular snow-capped Rockies. There was a gentle breeze caressing my cheeks. In the surrounding fields some hardy mountain flowers were yawning and spreading their purple pedals.
A small steam gentlly ran beneath my feet as a curious bluebird jumped from rock to searching for any stray worms.
I sat down, leaned back on the rallying of the bridge and closed my eyes feeling the warmth of the sun as it played across my body.
It was just a few short minutes ago that I was working hard flying down the road thinking of nothing but my cadence. Trying to concentrate on keeping the same cadence up hill while spinning my feet downhill. In the back of my mind was that ever-present fear of cars and crashing. My mind was only concentrating on the cadence of the moment and keeping up with my friend. The world around me meant nothing more than the pavement flying past my wheels.
As I now sat on the bridge perfectly still and happy, it reminds me that the sport of triathlon can be a jealous mistress. It can easily become all consuming. As age-groupers we often strive to do longer races at faster times. One way to achieve this is to train like a pro.
In a nutshell the issue is that many pro’s are young, single childless and actually get paid to train and race. We, Everyman athletes, tend to be older, married with a family and we have to actually pay to race. That means that in order for us to train like a pro we have to give up a lot…sometimes too much.
A friend of mine recently got divorced. Him and his wife started out the way most age-groupers do in the sport, and that is by having a goal to finish a sprint triathlon…which they did. But they caught the bug. Next came an Olympic distance race which took more training. Over the years the half-hour jog turned into the daily one-hour run. Their two kids began to see much less of their parents, especially the mom for she had some natural talent and success.
In her middle thirties she decided that she had the potential to turn pro, or so she believed. She threw herself into the sport with reckless abandon. Perhaps it was for the love of the sport or perhaps it was to make up for something she was missing in her life. Like many women she had spent much of her life caring for the family. It was now her time to spend on triathlon.
As in any divorce there are always two sides to the story and this one is no different, but triathlon was certainly a central character in this sad drama that ended up in a broken family. I suspect that triathlon has played a similar role many times for triathlon is a most jealous mistress.
Have you ever been to an all triathlete party? I have and the conversation can be pretty dull. It tends to go something like this:
Triathlete 1: So how you doing today?
Triathlete 2: I’m pretty tired as a I just swam after my recovery run.
Triathlete1: How far did you run?
Triathlete 2: I ran an easy 5-miles today, but I ran 17 yesterday.
Triathlete 1: Yeah, I know what you mean, I just biked 70 miles and I’m a bit tired as well.
Triathlete 2: Yup.
Triathlte 1: Yup. I think I’ll go home and take a nap.
Not only is the conversation a bit dull, but only a triathlete would consider recovering from a 17-mile run with another run. Many people would consider a 17-mile run a great accomplishment, but for a triathlete is just another day training.
Another problem with training so hard is that you can’t really get up at 4:00 in the morning, go for a swim, go to work, come home, cook dinner, do the homework with the kids, go for run on the treadmill, and do it all again the next day…at least I can’t. To start with anytime I run or ride over a certain threshold distance I need a good nap to recover.
The pros I know nap all the time. In fact they get paid to nap. They’ll get up in the morning and go for 3500-meter swim followed by an easy 6-mile run. They eat, take a long nap to give their body time to recover before they go for a longer afternoon run or ride. More importantly they can do this because they not only get paid to do it, but they also have the support of their family. Triathlon is their fulltime day job.
Most of us don’t have this arrangement. We have to punch the clock and put bread on the table before we can train.
But more importantly, since triathlon is not our day job we don't have to train so hard. We don’t have to sacrifice our lives in the name of a faster few minutes in our next race. Nobody is sponsoring us, so nobody is calling wondering how come we didn’t do so well, and yes, what about that money we are paying you to win.
So while triathlon may be a jealous mistress, we don’t have to pick-up the phone every time she calls. We have the luxury to sleep in on the weekends and have a beer or two with our friends. We can use triathlon to complete our lives, not to rule our lives.
We can stop, stretch and smell the roses.