Haha maybe. Not really sure what the boomers did. Maybe I should go on the other thread and start reading.
The job for a generation is to piss off the generations before them.
Young people are suppose to like different music, do different thing and in general push old people to think differently.
This is why since humans start walking upright we have complained about the youth.
“When I was young I worked harder, walked longer, in worse weather, for less pay, never ever complained, …”
I am sure the generations before you said that your generation was the worse ever 
I think young people are doing great. They have to make their own mark on life, not copy.
**social media/internet set a pretty high bar for free time competition. **
True. But the bar can be pretty low when you’re stoned and/or drunk.
I, too, defend the younger generations when my geezer, curmudgeon friends start bashing them. Every generation seems to do this. Personally, younger people give me hope for the future. They’re at least as good (however you want to define that) if not better than previous generations.
Traveling, brunch - experiences over things is the common trend for people under 30 with disposable income.
I am not in this demographic.
But have not experiences been a draw for a certain segment of the pop for all of time??? AFAIK, there has never been a time where there were not a number of people who wanted to do various diff things to see what they’re like. Certainly triathlon and endurance sports in general would come under the category of a “different experience”, would you not agree???
Totally agree and I know several millennials who have tried out a triathlon or 3. Many I know are interested in breadth of experience vs depth. Do a couple triathlons, drop into a yoga/crossfit/boot camp/spin class a couple days a week. Stay active. Go scuba diving. Explore new places.
None of those things tend to vibe with the Slowtwitch raison d’etre: Qualify for Kona.
What I see a lot out of my cohort (let’s call it 30-50 yrs old) is the pursuit of a singular hobby - competitive or not. I’m a runner. I’m into yoga. I play rec league basketball. I do crossfit. I rock climb. I surf. I golf. Much more siloed with little crossover.
This. FWIW, I was born in 1984. Also, as others have pointed out - it’s the expense and time required. A lot of the millennials I see doing triathlon will do a couple sprints per year. 5k, 10k, and 1/2 marathon running races seem to be doing well, I think because of the reduced time/money requirement compared to triathlon.
The decline of tri also seems to be self-feeding. When fewer of your friends do it, you’re less likely to do it. My training now is focused on jiu-jitsu and thai boxing. It’s an incredible workout, a ton of fun, and a really good social atmosphere. It may seem strange, but there are very few bad attitudes in the MMA gym compared to what I see in a lot of road group rides (there are exceptions to this, of course). Everyone is going to lose and get their ass kicked over and over again - there is an undeniable ego-crushing that happens. Most guys who insist on being a jerk don’t last. I’m also very lucky to have a great gym that fosters such a supportive atmosphere. I started as a complete novice in both jiu-jitsu and striking, and it’s hugely rewarding to see real improvement (and help others improve). I got a lot out of triathlon, and I still have a lot of love for the industry (I’ve worked in it for my entire post-college career), but it’s not my entire life any longer. I still do some limited swim/bike/run to help my endurance, but I don’t have a desire to race. I scratched that itch, and it just doesn’t light my fire any more.
Sports and hobbies come in waves. Aerobics classes were huge in the ~80’s-early 90’s. Can you still find them today? Sure, but not like it was during the boom. Maybe it’ll come back. Maybe it’ll come back in a slightly different form. Could be the same for cycling/triathlon.
Last year I was asked to do the run training for 3-4 sessions on the track to get the team members into speedwork. I tried to do a workout where we’d do a w/u, then some 400s with jogs in between with the number based on ability, then a w/d. a few folks showed up for the 1st session, took lots of selfies putting on their sneakers, ran a couple of 400s, got tired and took off. I did the rest of the sessions solo. I asked the folks who had shown up - what went wrong? The answer was pretty much uniformly along the lines that it was not fun. What would be more fun, I inquired? A less strenuous workout.
I am so done with that team. I’d rather endure a 2 hr masters swim workout than be subjected to whiny bullshit like this.
So, if I understand correctly , they wanted it to *look *hard without actually *being *hard?
Any person can give kids the work outs and proper training plan needed for success. It takes a good coach to be able to motivate and make the kids enjoy what they are doing.
I actually think JSM83 (and a few others) is on to something.
SoulCycle, Orangetheory, Crossfit…
As JSM83 called it…“The social side of fitness.”
Usually when people say “tri participation is down”…the answer is “well, duh, cyclocross is essentially exploding”. Although, I don’t know if that’s true for younger folks. The people I know into cyclocross…almost exclusively are Gen Xers like me. But maybe that’s because I’m a GenXer and therefore I know a lot of them.
These new options like SoulCycle and crossfit seem to be sticking (unlike the more fadlike fitness introductions of the 90s and early oughts that were usually a guy/gal on TV trying to sell a video or a essentially an MLM fitness plan…the Amway of fitness). And now tri has to compete with them for younger people looking for a fitness experience.
If this is the case and this stuff continues to stick, tri will have a fight on it’s hands. Part of the lure is the one man/woman against the world…“with no outside help”. Yet, it’s still quite social. But in a weird way for those not in clubs or those who don’t race with friends. You spend a lot of time chatting with strangers. Maybe getting to know someone sorta…who you see 2-3 times a year at local races but never really connect with.
The people I know into cyclocross…almost exclusively are Gen Xers like me. But maybe that’s because I’m a GenXer and therefore I know a lot of them.
The one’s I know who are doing it are coming from the beer side; dudes with local craft breweries and doing it for promotion … Drink Beer - Ride Bikes
Kinda like Hashing on Wheels
OK, clearly they are not doing triathlon, or running races in the numbers that previous groups did. Harley Davidson stock just got hammered after new research shows young people have no interest in their motorcycles. Serious question - how are they spending their free time? What are their hobbies? Help me understand.
I know people will come up with smart a-- answers but I would like anyone who knows tell me. Any good marketers in the group?
depends on what you defined as millenial. some consider late 70’s as the start, some consider early 80s, some consider late 80s early 90s.
i was born in 1984.
i have my bachelors of science, then i went to graduate school for my clinical doctorate. i work 40-50 hours per week to pay of said degrees (done this year, whoop whoop). i commute 40 mins each way to work, and i have a 11 (soon to be 12) year old mutt that i adopted in college and still walk/play with 30-60 mins a day. i do my own laundry (3-4 loads a week), do my own grocery shopping, do my own mechanical work, manage the house i live in (do all the little fixes for landlord as well as screen new tenants) and cook all of my own meals.
free time? what free time? oh, you mean the time when i’m not on slowtwitch? i hit the rock gym 2-3 times per week to boulder, i go to yoga 2-4 times per week, i swim 2-3 times per week, i run 3-4 times per week, and i ride 3-4 times per week, with one ride always being 70-100 miles (saturday long rides), and i maintain a social life (went paddle boarding right after my century ride on sunday for 2 hours, got margaritas afterwards)
these threads are so stupid, they are indicative of ignorance and just old age. old farts make threads like this to make themselves feel accomplished.
wtf, 3-4 loads of laundry per week?
1-2 load synthetics: i work out 7 days a week. that means a lot of dirty sports wear
1 load of work clothing
1 load towels: hot yoga 2-3x per week means 4-6 towels, then add in the 2-3 towels for the trainer
sometimes a sheets load.
adds up, it’s annoying.
I mainly just play with fidget spinners and complain about how Bernie Sanders got robbed in the primary.
I suppose on a real note…
I suppose i’m also more on the tail end of the millennial generation, born back in 1986. I believe I was an early adopter of the online video gaming craze, as none of my friends except for a few were big into gaming.
I ended up going against the grain and joined the military, went overseas and then came back and promptly started college.
Got a bachelors in Nursing while working full time hours as an EMT. Subsequently started working 3/4th’s time as a nurse and went to grad school. During this time I participated heavily in triathlons, mainly focusing my schedule around the 15-17 hours of training that I put in per week. I worked night shifts and went to school full time, so there wasn’t an ounce of free time for me. I got my graduate degree in public health/physical activity.
Now I’m 30, I live up in central Oregon and work as a House Supervisor. I just continue to focus on my career and utilize my free time to better my education and increase my skills as a nurse. I bike sporadically as I dropped the whole triathlon gig back in 2014 and just biked/raced cyclocross because I enjoyed it more than I did anything else.
That being said, I’m at a job that I work 3x12 hour shifts… I have a lot of free time more often than not…So I either get to pick up a ton of overtime and pad my wallet a bit with this thing called expendable income or I do stupid things like brew beer and bike… I’m definitely not like a lot of my peers who have to work 2 jobs or i see suffering from living paycheck to paycheck.
Look up how much a soul cycle class costs, or an OTF membership costs, or a trendy yoga studio membership costs… the “disposable income” argument should also apply. But the social fitness element is a definite sell.
Here are the participation numbers by wave from the Door County Triathlon this past weekend. Destination race, lodging required, and yest solid composition from the millennial crowd. There definitely isn’t exactly a tidal wave working its way through, but look at the strong numbers from the F-29 and under crowd. The sport will continue to pull in ex-swimmers/ ex-collegiate athletes and young women (like my wife) will prop it up, just as they have with running participation.
When they apply for jobs, they think they go as well as this:
With all the money I spend on avocado toast, how could I possible afford triathlon?
So I’m in the middle of the millennial age group (born in 1990) and I’d say a lot of what has been said here is accurate. My view on it is that with the rise of snapchat, facebook, etc, there is an increased need to “show off” as everyday you’re flooded with pictures of things that your friends are doing. This leads to many wanting to do as many different, cool things as they can as I think this helps one think they are more “well-rounded,” which is important to people my age. Especially since a lot of dating these days is online and seeming “interesting” at first glance is quite important.
On the social side, people just talk to each other less in general and so I think any opportunity to meet new people and have an excuse to talk is attractive.
Triathlon on the other hand is a bit of the opposite that requires many long hours of training, maybe by yourself, to get a reward. It really requires someone who gets pleasure from self-improvement just for its own sake, which is rarer these days.
Personally speaking, I happen to have a self-improvement personality and spend my time training, trying to learn languages that I find interesting (Japanese and German - I like efficiency I guess), keeping things in order (chores, etc), and trying to figure out what to write next on the blog (https://www.engineeringfitness.org - I appreciate the visit!). And most of the day is working towards the PhD, which unlike ungrad work, never seems to have an end point and drains an ungodly amount of time, sometimes.
The job for a generation is to piss off the generations before them.
Young people are suppose to like different music, do different thing and in general push old people to think differently.
This is why since humans start walking upright we have complained about the youth.
“When I was young I worked harder, walked longer, in worse weather, for less pay, never ever complained, …”
I’m thinking about instagramming what you just said!
With all the money I spend on avocado toast, how could I possible afford triathlon?
I can’t believe how much would someone PAY for a clogger* on toast?
- cloggers. Avocado and hot sauce mixed and wrapped in a tortilla. A food named for its effect on the body
The sport will continue to pull in ex-swimmers/ ex-collegiate athletes and young women (like my wife) will prop it up, just as they have with running participation.
Yes, USA Swimming membership (mostly age groupers) was on a strong, steady growth path from 2000-2013. Membership has plateaued over the last 4 years, but historically there’s a bump in the year after a Summer Olympics so chances are 2017 will be another record year. That pipeline to triathlon is still being well supplied at the far end. It just frequently takes a long time for them to come out the other end, especially for the men. In my case, 29 years!
Something interesting I found while hunting around for youth swim participation figures was this report by the Physical Activity Council which shows, among those who currently aren’t active, the age group with the most interest in the 3 disciplines of triathlon is 25-34. (page 19). In other words, there’s a huge chunk of Millennials who aspire to do what we do. It’s just not necessarily the ones who are active in another area. If this report is correct, maybe the sport (governing organization, event organizers, equipment manufacturer’s, etc) have been targeting the wrong audience when fishing for potential new participants. Instead of trying to get tough mudders, cross-fitters, and combat sport/marshal arts/“Ninja Warrior” types to switch sports, maybe we should be targeting inactive millennials with “couch to super-sprint tri” type programs. Or even “couch to super-sprint duathlon”…we can always work in swimming once they have confidence in their abilities in the other two disciplines.
Look up how much a soul cycle class costs, or an OTF membership costs, or a trendy yoga studio membership costs… the “disposable income” argument should also apply. But the social fitness element is a definite sell.
My triathlon habit is much more expensive than my fiancee’s OTF, pilates, and barre classes. She doesn’t get a membership, goes to a class 4-5 days a week, and it works out to be less than $100 per month. I’ll admit, she’s very thrifty and she probably spends less than the average person by buying classes in bulk and waiting on sales.
I’m spending $360 a year on gym (aka pool) fees, $400-500 a year on race fees, $500 a year on running shoes, and assuming my bike lasts me 10 years it’d be $300 a year. That doesn’t include any of the bike upgrade/maintenance expenses, swim equipment expenses, or travel expenses. So that’s considerably more expensive than OTF/Soul Cycle/Yoga.
Not to mention the initial start up cost to get into triathlon is expensive. Bike/wetsuit/goggles/watch/running shoes is a minimum of $300. If you don’t like it, you just blew a bunch of money. If my fiancee doesn’t like some new yoga class, she probably went for <$10 on a trial membership and won’t go back.
I totally agree with the social side. A lot of people need the peer pressure/group involvement to get through a workout.
I was born in 1984. I raced bikes through college, then after college started traveling. Spent 5 years living in Asia and another year and a half traveling around the world a couple of times.
Moved back to the States and started racing bikes again. I have a family, including an infant, and I’m a teacher so my summers are free. I don’t have any hobbies besides bike racing. It’s what I read about and watch on the internet. It’s what I spend my non-essential monies on. It’s what I think about when I’m bored.
I go back and forth about actually doing a sprint triathlon. I even bought a tri-skinsuit. I’ll pick one out once or twice a year but then bail because paying $100 + bucks for an hour long sprint seems even crazier than paying $50 bucks for an hour long crit. At least bike racing has prize money and spectators (the big races, at least). All of the local triathlons I’d consider doing just look lame and not super competitive. More of a hobby thing with lots of participants but not a lot of serious racers. And again, the expense is silly for what it is, and for no prize money.
Anyway, I like to race, and I’ll likely do a sprint at some point… but bike racing is much more frequent, more available, more cost-effective, and I already know what I need to know about it. And I only race with people who supposedly know how to race. The stories I read on here about random triathletes on bikes are a bit harrowing.
I’ll be 30 in January, and honestly I have very few peers with any interest in endurance sports. None of the usual debt-ridden, underemployed millennial stereotypes, I work in O&G and know many successful sub-35 year old folks, and with one exception none of them have any interest in triathlon. A large portion of them are very much into fitness, but it’s more gym work and the occasional run. They work out to stay in shape, and that’s it. They choose to rent rather than buy because a small place in the city is more appealing than a mortgage in suburbia hell (Houston) to them. They’re flush with time and cash to burn, but would rather spend it on family, travel and food/drink.
I had my first kid back in February and trained for IMTX at the same time, and while I pulled it off, it was brutal. The time sunk into training for long course stuff exceeds the reward part at this point in time. I definitely plan on returning to the sport in the short term and doing more full IM races once my son gets to schooling age, but for now I’d rather spend the time enjoying the family and let finishing up my pilot’s license replace triathlon as my discretionary income black hole.
As for the H-D question, I’m a motorcycle rider myself, and unless you buy in to the “Harley lifestyle” the bikes are a tragic value proposition. We live in a time where you can get a 500 lb bike with ABS, traction control, side cases, maybe even cruise control and damn near 200 hp for $15k. The cheapest Soft Tail retails for more than $15,000 now, for a 700+ lb bike with none of those features and half the power. They hold their value reasonably well, but that’s about their best trait. Harley has made the same product for the same demographic for far too long, and they’re becoming the architects of their own hardship as that demographic starts to hang up their leathers for the last time. There are definitely people my age interested in the bikes that made 1960s and 1970s motorcycling what it was, but they’re more apt buy a 1960s or 1970s motorcycle, fix it up and ride it than shell out five figures for a marginally-modernized version of one.
I’m 26, and definitely am very much in the minority in triathlon where I live.
All of my friends spend their time doing the following: drinking, going out for dinners, sand volleyball league, slow-pitch softball, and easy as fuck bike rides to bars that are <5 miles apart.