Friday, August 26, 2011

Have you seen this?

It pretty much says it all.I saw this over at Karen's blog Working it out. It comes from Trifuel.


Fact: you will not become efficient at swimming, biking or running over night. Sorry to burst your bubble. This is NOT an easy sport.

Check your ego at the door because chances are someone fifty pounds heavier than you will lap you in the pool. Not to mention she will be ten or fifteen years older than you.

You will be passed on the bike many times and you will never be the fastest runner in your town.
You will have early morning workouts. Really early.
You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run.
You are up while others are sleeping.
You are training while others are sitting.
You will discover others who also follow this blood, sweat and tears cult.
You will eventually get a flat tire... and have to change it all by yourself.
No matter what you hear, triathlon is NOT an inexpensive sport.
Warning, it is extremely addictive, hence the impulse spending on wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, aero bars, aero helmets, speed suits, power meters, GPS heart-rate monitors and many other ‘gotta have items.’
You will hate swimming more times than you like it for the first year.
You will suffer through road trips with whiny fellow triathletes.
You will suffer set backs.
You may experience an injury.
You will develop a love/hate relationship with a foam roller and ice baths.
You will at some point realize you need a coach.
You will hate swimming for the first year.
You will wear tight clothing.
You will not like how this tight clothing fits or looks.
Your age will take on a whole new meaning.
You will discover a whole new meaning for tan lines.
Food will become an extremely important part of your life.
You will learn new words such as GU, cadence and brick.
You will hate swimming for the first year.
You will spend more time on your bike than on your couch.
You may lose a friend or two because you spend too much time swimming, biking and running, and they could careless about your heart rate training, foam rolling pain or 20 mile bike ride.
You will learn patience.
You will be humbled.
You will start to realize you are paying money to put yourself through pain and suffering, but for some odd reason, you LOVE it.

This sport called Triathlon, becomes a part of you. You start to plan your entire year around sprint, international, half-iron or full-iron distance races. Your vacations become racing, and you start to realize that this sport called triathlon could become a life-long adventure.
Many people settle for things in life. They settle for a crappy job, marriage, friends, food, place to live and overall fitness and health.

Those who desire more or those who want more out of life than a drive-thru window and boring sitcom, will choose triathlon or an activity that makes them happy. An activity that will change their life. Triathlon will change your outlook on life, your career, your marriage, your goals, your friends and many other things you thought you had figured out. It’s not just crossing a finish line or a boring finisher medal. It’s the countless hours that got you to that point. A moment in time that you will NEVER forget. A moment that you will discuss with your family and friends for hours if not days after the event. These discussions will most likely be about how you could have done better. At what point could you have swam faster, biked harder or ran more efficient? This is what will go through your head everyday until you get the opportunity to suffer again.

So you wanna be a Triathlete? Enjoy the ride and train hard!

Nick Clark, Clark Endurance Training

10 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I saw this as well on Trifuel, was gonna post it, its true statement about our sport

adena said...

Love this!! Printing it out and putting in on my wall.. Thanks!!

Unknown said...

I saw that on BT. It's great!

Jill said...

I thought this was great when I saw it on FB. I laughed out loud when he said 3x you'd hate swimming the first year. I swam competitively in high school and college and have been swimming since...and I STILL hate swimming. haha. Nothing more boring than counting tiles on the bottom of the pool. :)

ShutUpandRun said...

That's awesome. You will hate swimming for the first year. Good, that means I should stop hating it pretty soon. Also, I think my couch was about half of what I paid for my bike.

Anonymous said...

This is awesome, really enjoyed reading it!

Anonymous said...

HAHA!! Like I told you before I think I'm one of the few who don't hate swimming. Because I started swimming at a young age it just comes naturally(I'm not fast but I can swim without fear) I hear from so many triathletes how they hate the swim part.

Colorado Gal said...

Love this! Definitely borrowing for my blog in honor of Iron Girl tomorrow!

Michael said...

OMG, this is like the BEST thing I have ever read! Seriously! Awesome! It says it all. I laughed/smiled through out as I thought of all the things that applied to me. Thanks for sharing this.

Diana said...

That's great....I must pass it on!

I just don't get this common thing of people hating swimming! I love the water...