I did my first sprint in 2008... Somewhere along the line I made it a goal to do a half by the time I turned 55, and a full by 60... Both achieved... I'm signed up for IMAZ this year, so now the 'goal' is to complete a full every two years, and have a 'recovery' year between... My other goal is to "tri-till-i-die". So we'll see how that progresses as triathlon is a lifestyle...

BTY. Full-Half-Olympic-Sprint... I have a suspicion that the only people getting their jammers bunched up on terminology are those who've not done a full and feel slighted by the term... If you're not a 'one-and-done' individual, relax. You're a triathlete...

I have done 2. One where I set my own course up - just to see if I can do it. The other, I paid for an official race, where I went 3 hours faster. To me 140.6 is not interesting. Less competitive compared to shorter races

One IM every two years since 2009. So 5 total. That was as much frequency as I could take. I really enjoyed those in-between years when I didn't have to do all that long riding. I might do one or two more tops but not even every two years anymore.

Perhaps he doesn't agree that calling IM distance full has any of the negative effects you claim. I sure don't

The "Full" is intended to be in contrast to "Half". It doesn't require a decoder ring to understand that and it doesn't drag down the sport in the least.

Ironman does not have a registered mark for "140.6". That is a generic that can be used by anyone. But you are exactly right that enforcement of their IP is why full distance has come to mean the Ironman distance. Independent RDs cannot refer to their 140.6 races as an Ironman race. And even though Ironman does not own the word "Iron" they will bully small RDs with cease and desist letters if they dare call their 140.6 an Iron distance race. So even large competitors like Challenge refer to their 140.6 as full distance events (see their website here: http://www.challenge-family.com/races/).

Ironman's registered marks and designs are listed here: http://www.ironman.com/...q.aspx#axzz5FsKmOEt7

You will see that 140.6, Iron, and Iron distance are conspicuously absent, but that doesn't stop their legal department from trying to keep others from using anything with the word Iron in it by threatening lawsuits.

6 per year!?

I am always amazed that people can do more than 3 (pro or AG) and still keeping a balanced schedule, progress in sport, and maintain their health. Kudos to you.

What are your goals within racing, why do so many each year?

This is more a blanket question to those that do 3+/year as I am genuinely curious.

I don’t like to train much or long hours. I also recover quickly. I do the sport because I like to compete. I have seen steady growth from racing so much also. Racing is a good way to build fitness.

Goals in the sport are to break even at races I start, and to get faster. I’m built for the longer stuff, and to make a top 6 at any 70.3s these days, you need to be going 3:40s consistently. I am just not that fast.

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New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

I don’t mind 2-3 hour rides but when it starts getting up to 4+ hours is mentally more challenging for me.

One per year, most of the recent years, but not every single year. I think I'm done. What did me in was the 6 hours lost to bike rides every single weekend when I could be doing other things. And all the pounding from 2 hour runs. Seems like every time I extend the runs much past 1.5 hours I end up with repetitive stress injuries....

Did 4 HIMs last year and a full. Doing just 2 HIMs this year and a whole lot of sprints.

Yeah. I like the HIM distance since I don’t have to do those crazy ass long rides

this lol. did imtx this year as my first full. talked about doing Wisconsin this year. wife threatened to divorce me so it'll be 70.3 for a while for me

I've been averaging 1 every 2 years. We have a sailboat and the summers I'm training for the IM we don't get on the boat as much as I'd like.

I finished 13 IMs and had DNFs 2 in the 12 years I did IM. I did the first one with the goal of just finishing. All the rest but the final one when I knew my IM days were probably done were attempts to KQ or racing in Kona (3). I was single with no kids. I loved the training for seven years or so then it slowly wore me down. Haven't done anything longer than a sprint tri in the past 10 years and don't think I'll ever do another tri longer than Oly distance. Still have the urge to run marathons, although I've only done one since my last IM finish.

If you just want to finish IMs and have the $, I think you could finish several each year for a long time by keeping a decent fitness base in the off-season then pacing the IM conservatively. I don't think that requires much more training than trying to be competitive at shorter distance tris.