Mark,

I think the key is moderation. I am just finishing my 25th year of triathlons and it is certainly a lifestyle that will continue throughout life, and my kids' lives too. Plant a bush, take a ride, play with the kids, then cook dinner for the family. No problem, just do it all in moderation.

BTW, I never take off more than 1 day a month. Certainly I take it easy some, but when it becomes true lifestyle you really won't take 2 months off.

best wishes,

---

David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

Winter time is home improvement time -- Gives me a break from training and racing (so triathlons stay fun) -- and during the summer I get to say "home improvement is for winter" and I have an excuse to procrastinate.

The enthusiasm over the new home should fade with time. While you are have the excess energy ' git er done' because after a year or so, just having to mow the grass becomes a dreaded task.

---

Jim

Our first home came about 2 years into my tri obsession and the big shock was how expensive ownership is. Our house is 50 years old so it's needs constant care. I have no desire to do the work myself but have to learned to do it out of cost-savings.

I bought a house too. Built in 1921, in a very good neighborhood. I am in the eviable position of being the chepest house on an expensive street and I got a great deal.

It does need work though. I put a new roof, new stairs, etc. on it. It needs a new upstairs, new kitchen and two new bathrooms, so, $60-70K. Siding and windows too, but those are cheap compared to the indoors stuff.

I asked my fiance', "So, what do we want to do here, spend some big money on the house or use it to travel and race?"

She didn't hesitate: She wanted to travel and race.

All I do is sleep at home. It isn't a priority. Also, the housing market is rotten right now and getting worse. Not much point in putting money into a losing investment right now.

That said, I do like to work on the place with her. Other than that, it is just work. I'd rather play.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I'm in a similar boat. I have to balance between training and home improvement time. I just bought my first house and it is 23 years old. I have so much to do to it since the previous owners didn't take care of it that well.

I usually train first thing in the mornings on the weekends. The rest of the day each weekend day is for house chores and home improvement projects. This past weekend, I rode 30 miles in the morning, then came home, clean the house and the garage, and finished up my closets. I was actually very productive, but I'm torn between house stuff and training every day.

---

--
01001010 01100101 01101110 01001000 01010011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110110 01101001 01101100 00100000 00101000 01100001 01100011 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110010 01101111 01100001 01100100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01110011 01100101 00101001 00100001
http://trainingoferic.blogspot.com/

She's a 22 year old non home owning kid! What did you expect her to say?! Tom, Tom, Tom, start thinking with your bigger head.

Sounds like you have nesting instinct. Are you pregnant?

---

_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

LOL! I put up drywall as my nesting instinct when I was pregnant... ;-)

---

------------------------
"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Here's a typical conversation with my wife:

Me: "hey Hon, wanna go for a bike ride."

Her: "Sounds great. Just a soon as you do the vacuuming (or substitute with some other domestic chore).

Welcome to my Post-2005/08/15 life! I moved into my first home on that day - the style is what's usually refered to as a handy-man's special, although I'm neither handy nor a man. I plan to do a lot of the work myself, with help from various friends along the way.

I pretty much worked 14h straight yesterday and didn't stop for meals. Ironman didn't even take me that long! Most of my training is the 30min each way commute to work by bike, an occasional swim and the 45min run at lunch. Fortunately, my boss is a runner so if it's just him and I it ends up being like a meeting rather than a workout. He's a stronger runner, so I let him do most of the talking while I struggle to keep up. Lately I've been taking one weekend day off to ride as well because it's going to be a long snowy winter!

I bought the house knowing that I had a huge task ahead of me. I signed up for IMC 2006 as a reward to myself for (hopefully) getting the work done. I know that if I'm going to have a successful race next year that I'm going to need to get back in the program by early spring. I've also chosen to keep the IMC thing a bit of a secret locally. If I chose not to put my heart into it (because of the renos, or life in general) I don't want to feel like a failure.

Just like with triathlon, motivation for renos comes and goes. If I'm motivated, then I work until I fall over, sometimes forgetting to eat. If I'm not motivated I hide in the bedroom because it's the only room that looks okay right now.

So far, the home renovation thing has been more of a challenge than ironman. Hopefully that means the reward will be greater. I like the challenge because it involves more than just following a schedule. I like the decision making process, the problem solving and the different sort of physical work. I love learning how things work or how they're supposed to have worked, which is often the case. I don't like it because I make daily trips to Home Depot, I worry about making the wrong choice and I have cuts/bruises all over.

Mostly I look forward to showing the place off to my friends and family and being able to say: "I did that".

Hmmm. Let's see. A week on the beach in (pick one), Moorea, Laguna Phuket, Curacao, Belize, Costa Rice, Nice, Mozambique or....

New siding.

That doesn't take anyone a very big head- regardlss of age.

New Siding! YEAHHHH! Coool. when I am lying on my deathbed, I will look back on that day I got new siding and smile. New Siding. Cool. I can't wait to take photos of it and put them in an album. I saw an article in National Geographic about new siding.

Awesome. All my life, I've wanted new siding. As a kid, I read books about siding. I saw the movie, New Siding starring Lawrence Olivier.

Yeah, new siding. And windows. I aspire to it. It is my dream.

Just not my thing dude.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Obviously didn't get my point dude.

"Obviously didn't get my point dude. "

Saber, I think what you trying to say is that women's priorities tend to change, especially after marriage.

I'd have to agree.

sorry man, no sweat.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I thought about cleaning up and repainting that flakey paint on my patio window seal before it get to cold out to paint. But instead I did a 50 mile ride and a 5 mile run brick instead. After that, my ambition to do anything other than watch the bears and vikings pretend to play football was gone. My girlfriend would have called what I was doing sleeping.

there is nothing wrong with building some extra equity in the off season.

---

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Dude-

It will fade.

I've had my place now for 7 yrs,and another one in Cali before this.
Had I to do it all over again...I'd do all the re-mods and add-ons slowly as the years pass.

I could be just as happy as a "Renter".

---

_______________________________________________________

Seeing him in deep torment, I said. " You can have my last GU , but its been down my pants for most of the run". - John Hirsch

Take care of your body, its by far the coolest thing you're going to ever own.- Can't remember who told me this, but I love it.

[reply]Hmmm. Let's see. A week on the beach in (pick one), Moorea, Laguna Phuket, Curacao, Belize, Costa Rice, Nice, Mozambique or....

New siding.

New Siding! YEAHHHH! Coool. when I am lying on my deathbed, I will look back on that day I got new siding and smile.[/reply]

agree completely. experience is worth way more than stuff.

The good thing about tri is that it has a well-defined and fairly lengthy off-season: plenty of time to do both housework and tri. Even when running/racing as a single guy, I found it useful to have a fallow period each year for R&R.