Tri / Triathlon / Triathlons - do they float your boat?

yeah nice read,
makes me feel extremely normal.
Think thats why Tri dosent really do it for me,
life becomes, train, sleep, eat, train, sleep, eat,

impressive stuff in the interview but its a totally unbalanced life.

your suggestion opens up all sorts of questions,
sportsperson-- an individual racing against others, and singularly pushing themselves to absolute extremes,
or
sportsperson -a team captain winning titles for years on end through superb leadership and example,
youre choice.

yeah nice read,
makes me feel extremely normal.
Think thats why Tri dosent really do it for me,
life becomes, train, sleep, eat, train, sleep, eat,

impressive stuff in the interview but its a totally unbalanced life.

Aye definitely an unbalanced life, Chrissie says it herself and certainly very difficult balance in my case. When I'm training properly I average between 10 and 12 hours a week and peak at about 18 hours. That goes up when you factor in all the additional stuff like getting to and from the workout, showering etc etc. An hour in the pool takes more like 2 hours of my life. Balancing that with being affective at work (ie. not sleeping on my computer) and trying to have a social life (Ha... I wish!) is the biggest challenge for most people. For me the goal is simply to go as fast as I can within the constraints of the rest of my life.

your suggestion opens up all sorts of questions,
sportsperson-- an individual racing against others, and singularly pushing themselves to absolute extremes,
or
sportsperson -a team captain winning titles for years on end through superb leadership and example,
youre choice.

I thought that as soon as I wrote it. Personally I'd gravitate towards the former, firstly because I think individual successes are more noticeable in individual sports, and secondly because I think it is harder for a single team player (no matter how good) to exert that much influence on a game since their performance is buffered by that of their team.

In Chrissie's case I think that there are very few athletes who have completely changed the expectations of their sport in the way that she has. Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele both seem almost unbeatable to me and so would be contenders. Both Federer and Woods would also have been up there but recently both have seemed a little shaky.

A couple of envelope calculations that I thought were interesting (assuming my maths is OK):

Usain Bolt was 1.3% and 2.0% faster than his second placed opponent at the Beijing Olympics and 2009 Berlin World Champs respectively.
Chrisssie Wellington was 3.6% faster than her nearest opposition at the 2009 Ironman World Championships.

Usain Bolt's current WR time of 9.58 is 1.6% faster than the previous incumbent's WR time of 9.74 (2007 Asafa Powell).
Chrissie Wellington's WR time of 08:19:13 is 5.0% faster than the previous incumbent's WR time of 08:45:48 (2008 Yvonne van Vlerken).

The fastest time ever recorded by someone other than Usain Bolt is 9:69 (Tyson Gay 2009). Usain Bolt's WR is 1.1% faster than this.
The fastest time ever recorded by someone other than Chrissie Wellington is 08:39:24 (Rebekah Keat 2009). Chrissie's WR is 3.8% faster than this.

None of this proves that Chrissie is better athlete than Bolt, there are obviously far to many factors, many of which are impossible to quantify (saturation of competition etc.). But, given the hype about how Bolt changed the world of sprinting it is interesting to see that Chrissie is almost twice as far ahead of her field as Bolt is ahead of his.

well argued, can see your point r.e. making an individual difference in a team.
18 hours is the lower limit of what the one who never gives up does weekly,
since I started going with out her we have NUUN tabs with dinner...

I wish I could train 18 hours a week! Does she find that training volume affects her other commitments? If i'm organised and diligent about sleep/food etc. 10-14hours is just about manageable but 16 and above really starts to impact my ability to work during the rest of the day.

I'd love to see what my body is capable of if I dedicated myself to it full time. It's a long way off but I'd seriously consider having 6-9 months dedicated entirely to training once my PhD is finished. Sadly I'm not a natural athlete, so sport will always have to play second fiddle to a real career!

I love NUUN.

its pretty hectic I must admit, but then, she has cut out any stuff like t.v, internet, girly shopping, slouching, swoons

its pretty hectic I must admit, but then, she has cut out any stuff like ...internet, ...

*Logs off LFGSS...

hehehehe, note I said she not me.

18hrs seems lots but 2 longish bikes, 1 long run, then 3 x 1hr swim sessions will be well over 12 hrs already, off less than 1 session a day across the week

As for work life balance i took 6 months off to go long distance, but racing up to standard distance was easily doable around a 9-5 job with commute by car.

Now i do more cycling than ever for work it's actually harder to find time / energy / mojo to both swim and run, plus keep some balance for the finer things in life, so whilst training i do is still giving me lots of fun and fitness, racing tri has been out the question for a year or so now.

wheres the multisports freeks gone?
did my first aquathlon today, 1k swim , 10k run
19.46 / 40.32 came 33/86 buzzing about it as I couldnt even do continuous crawl til jan.
comeon!

I killed the thread. Well done today, sounds like you enjoyed it. What's next?

mate it was ace, check the results here:-
(check first female, thassmygal)

http://www.tauntondeanetri.co.uk/TDaqua/aqua1000results2011.pdf

dunno whats next, a good sleep I reckon ;-) 0641 in a..m to bath....have fun.

wheres the multisports freeks gone?
did my first aquathlon today, 1k swim , 10k run
19.46 / 40.32 came 33/86 buzzing about it as I couldnt even do continuous crawl til jan.
comeon!

Oh that's inspired me. I have decided to do a tri or 2 this year and am struggling with the swim so reading that has reminded me it is possible. There's an aquathon in London Fields in April, that's got to be a short term target for me.

hows the training going?

right my gf is pushing me to do this tri, its 600m swim, 28 k ride, 10 k run

I know I could do it easy enough, but cant see the point in getting wet for 600m,

really cant be arsed tbh, should I do it to shut her up dear forum ?

If it requires no additional training or fitness regime then fuck it, why not?
Morning of suffering, pampering and praise for a week after.

Do it. They're pretty good fun.

hmmmm.

Let me put it another way. If you don't you're a massive pussy and your girlfriend will be lusting after other men in speedos. ;)

right you bastard,
Im organising an event the day before, then after this got a free coasteering session from mates, will do it anyway
its this one http://www.220triathlon.com/race/ringwood-triathlon
Im gonna txt her now and say Im in,
at least there will be fit girls wearing little clothing there

Ringwood? Ha! Oh, not the one in Melbourne.

yeah I wish, it better be good weather

anyone got a spare cervelo they wanna lend me, buy you a pint ?

mebbe Ill just stick some aero bars on ma fixeh?

there was a Poole wheelers TT out Wareham way today,
saw one headbanger on a TT fixeh with a dinner plate chainring on the bastard
:/

If it requires no additional training or fitness regime then fuck it, why not?
Morning of suffering, pampering and praise for a week after.

this. about 10 mins swim, then the race starts, jfdi.

oh, I've entered one of these triathalon thingies. must get my eastons fixed, it's a flat n fast one on a dry still day.