I think you have to love training to be any good at racing. I feel bad for people who train only to race. When they have completed their last PR and will never be any faster will they continue in the sport? In a sport that is largely aerobic, most of the time we just have to get out the door and go run/ride to see improvement.

In Virginia I used to race more because it was more convenient, but train less because there was not that many safe roads in Northern Virginia. In the California high desert, the training is much more fun, there is less traffic, more mountains and better weather so now I enjoy training more than ever.

That said, at some point I love the "testing" that racing provides, as well as the competition. If you don't like the competition then just have fun living a healthy lifestyle.

Chad

Chad,

I think that you have got it. Bottom line with any endurance sport is that you have to have a passion to get out the door to do that sport no matter what the circumstances are. I agree with you that if that is NOT there, then one of two thinsg will happen: 1) You will not see the improvemnet you want. or 2) your time in the sport will be short.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I think that's it. I'm hooked on the life-style. And, after 100+ tris, I'm not going to quit racing. It's great to see friends, etc, and I usually win the bottom half of my AG, or better.

I guess I'm saying that I no longer see racing as justification for training.

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Jim

I've stuck at it for 20 years. I only used to race 2 or 3 tris a year. Really enjoyed training more than the race itself. Now the local tri club is growing like crazy the past few years, and it's a lot more fun knowing more people to train with and see at the races. I was injured this past year and only raced 3 tris, but the year before I did 6 tris, a du, 3 cross races, 2 mtb races and 3 running races.

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"It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster"

I once had a canoe coach that told me that you need to enjoy the trip getting there more than the destination, because sometimes you never reach the destination, but you always take the trip. I thought at the time that was a losers attitude, but looking back my fondest times wern't my successes, but the anticipation and planning to achieve those successes.