Stop & Smell The Roses

An article copied from xtri.com which make sense to a breed called "Age Groupers"

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"The other day I was on a 'short' 40-mile bike ride with a friend when we hit the turnaround 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 there and meet him on the way back.

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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 petals. I sat down, leaned back on the railing of the bridge and closed my eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun.

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Just a few short minutes before I had been flying down the road, working hard and thinking of nothing but my cadence. Trying to concentrate on keeping the same cadence up hill, whilst spinning my feet downhill. In the back of my mind was that ever-present fear of cars and crashing. I was intent 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.

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As I now sat on the bridge perfectly still and happy, I was reminded 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.

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In a nutshell, the issue is that many pros are young, single and childless and actually get paid to train and race. We everyman athletes tend to be older, married with a family and when it comes to racing, we are doing the paying. Nobody is opening their wallets for us. All this means that in order for us to train like pros we have to give up a lot … sometimes too much.

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A friend of mine recently got divorced. He and his wife started out the way most age-groupers do in the sport, that is by making their 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.

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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.

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In all divorces there are two sides to the story, but triathlon was certainly a central character in this sad drama of 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:

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Triathlete 1: So how are you doing?
Triathlete 2: I'm pretty tired. 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.
Triathlete1: Yeah, I know what you mean, I just biked 70 miles and I'm a bit tired.
Triathlete 2: Yup.
Triathlete1: Yup. I think I'll go home and take a nap.

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Not only is the conversation tedious, 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 it is just another day training.

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And when you're training so hard, there's no way you can 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.

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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 3500m swim followed by an easy six-mile run. They eat and 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 not only because they get paid to do it, but also because they have the support of their families. Triathlon is their full-time day job.

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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 the truth is that since triathlon is not our day job, we don't have to train so hard. We don't have to sacrifice our domestic and social lives in the name of a faster time, a few minutes off our PB in our next race. Nobody is sponsoring us, so nobody is calling wondering how come we didn't do so well and asking us about that money they are paying us to win.

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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.

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We can stop, stretch and smell the roses."