For those of you that win your age group in large events or are always front of the field, does triathlon have to become your life?
Seems like anyone who is any good (especially at longer 1/2 or full IM) their entire life is triathlon. Train, work, train, eat, sleep. No time for family, friends, other hobbies, etc.
Can you be top at this sport and still find a balance? I’ve yet to meet anyone.
I want to get good at triathlon, I mean really good, but I don’t want to sacrifice other interests or obligations.
I know you were speaking about 1/2 and full but I have been able to regularly win my ag at sprint and Olympic races and I still have plenty of time for family and fun. I have 2 kids and a demanding career. There are sacrifices but I enjoy the process as much as the racing. I’m sure you can achieve the same at longer distances with the proper planning and execution.
Presumably the very talented ones. Look at road running, you’ve got the couch to 5k people who kept running-and are proud they broke 27:00 with 10 hours of running a week after cherry picking a small, flat 5k.
Then you have the d1 cross country guy at 25, notices a bit of a gut developing. Rolls out of bed to do 19 around their neighborhood.
So take a fish, somebody who does one long run/ride a week, and lots of HIIT, it doesn’t have to take a ton of time if you’re super talented with a good base and work out/get coached intelligently.
Can you be top at this sport and still find a balance?
I imagine you can find a balance. I just have the feeling that your idea of balance is not putting anywhere near the same amount of effort in as those who are at the top who have their own version of balance.
For those of you that win your age group in large events or are always front of the field, does triathlon have to become your life?
Seems like anyone who is any good (especially at longer 1/2 or full IM) their entire life is triathlon. Train, work, train, eat, sleep. No time for family, friends, other hobbies, etc.
Can you be top at this sport and still find a balance? I’ve yet to meet anyone.
I want to get good at triathlon, I mean really good, but I don’t want to sacrifice other interests or obligations.
Here is the deal…it has nothing to do with triathlon. You want to be good at anything let’s say at the national level, then other interests and obligations need to become secondary. That’s just the way it is. If you are content to be average at anything then sure you can have balance. Top lawyers, CEOs of fortune 500 companies, pro baseball players, top academics…they just live and breath whatever they want to be “top at”. Triathlon is the same as any competitive thing. If you want to be best at something, there is someone actually doing it and honing his craft while you sit around talking about it or trying to figure out how to have balance. Its a cut throat world. That’s just the way it is.
You can’t be “really good” at anything without some sacrifice of other interest and obligations. There is no room for other hobbies because the guy beating you who has the same genetics is it not squandering time on other stuff…
Sorry for the tough love…I’d say exactly the same to my son. It’s all about priority management and optimizing how you apply the 168 hours per week that we all get. None of us get or have more time than others. It’s how we apply our 168 hours to what matters at a personal level. But some guy is getting better at what you want to get good at while you are off doing other hobbies…it’s fine if you want to do other hobbies, but don’t be surprised if some guy with singular focus “with no balance” cleans your clock.
For those of you that win your age group in large events or are always front of the field, does triathlon have to become your life?
Seems like anyone who is any good (especially at longer 1/2 or full IM) their entire life is triathlon. Train, work, train, eat, sleep. No time for family, friends, other hobbies, etc.
Can you be top at this sport and still find a balance? I’ve yet to meet anyone.
I want to get good at triathlon, I mean really good, but I don’t want to sacrifice other interests or obligations.
If you did not start with the right parents, for many, no matter how hard you work at it, well, …
I wouldn’t say that triathlon is my life, but i do have to put in the hours. I work full time and i train 15-20 hours a week. But i also have a girlfriend. I see my family often. I play hockey, read, play the guitar and do things with friends outside of this sport.
It’s a big part of my life. There’s no doubt about that. But i think if you manage things and are good at balancing your time, you can certainly get better without sacrificing the things that matter.
For those of you that win your age group in large events or are always front of the field, does triathlon have to become your life?
Seems like anyone who is any good (especially at longer 1/2 or full IM) their entire life is triathlon. Train, work, train, eat, sleep. No time for family, friends, other hobbies, etc.
Can you be top at this sport and still find a balance? I’ve yet to meet anyone.
I want to get good at triathlon, I mean really good, but I don’t want to sacrifice other interests or obligations.
I wouldn’t say you can’t achieve balance because you absolutely can. However, you are going to have to make tremendous sacrifices along the way - if you are not willing there is always someone who is and they will beat you.
Here are some made up estimates (for those who like bogus statistics).
In sprint triathlons a person can reach:
50% of their potential with 3 hours training per week
75% of their potential with 8 hrs
85% with 12 hr
95% with 18 hr
100% with 24 hrs
Olympic and 70.3:
50% with 4 hrs
75% with 10 hrs
85% with 15 hrs
95% with 20 hrs
100% with 28 hrs
(No difference in hours. Olympic would require more swim. 70.3 more bike).
140.3
50% with 8 hr
75% with 12 hr
85% with 18 hr
95 % with 22 hr
100% with 28 hrs
Now to answer your question:
It depends what you consider “too much time” and how much talent you have.
At most larger races, age group winners will be performing at 75%-95% of their potential. (More and they would probably be professionals or over all winners).
Thus they will be doing between 8-22 hrs of training.
Personally- I can raise two kids by myself, hold a 6 figure job and train those hours.
(Unfortunately, I lack the talent to win my age group).
I want to get good at triathlon, I mean really good, but I don’t want to sacrifice other interests or obligations.
Are you talking about good in terms of what your potential is or good in terms of the overall field?
I think the problem you will run into with the aforementioned expectations and limitations is that there are genetic freaks out there who not only have a huge head start on you, most likely, but they are ALSO willing to ‘sacrifice other interests and obligations’. So, if seeing your name at the top of the OA results at a big time competitive race is your goal it’s almost certainly going to take serious dedication. There are tons of AG’ers out there in all the age groups already who have the full spectrum of talent from average Joe to genetic freak show…and they are more than willing to make it their life. The mountain is tall.
To that end I have yet to participate in any aspiration in life that doesn’t take significant sacrifice to be ‘really good’. One of my buddies is one of the best AG’er in the country in his AG and has a body custom built for tri…genetic freak. He pushes 20 hours a week. I also know mid pack and BOP guys around here who are doing no less than 15. It’s just a big big world out there if your goal is the tip top. Personally I don’t know any top AG’ers let alone OA talent who aren’t making it tri a priority in their lives.
Here is the deal…it has nothing to do with triathlon. You want to be good at anything let’s say at the national level, then other interests and obligations need to become secondary. That’s just the way it is. If you are content to be average at anything then sure you can have balance. Top lawyers, CEOs of fortune 500 companies, pro baseball players, top academics…they just live and breath whatever they want to be “top at”. Triathlon is the same as any competitive thing. If you want to be best at something, there is someone actually doing it and honing his craft while you sit around talking about it or trying to figure out how to have balance. Its a cut throat world. That’s just the way it is.
Well said.
If you want to be at the front, you need to train like the front runners. And for those that claim there’s “natural talent” - I would tell you that such natural talent separates the finer end of the 1% of AG winners. Hard work will bear more fruit in the long run, and your “hard days” need to be harder.
Good points. Interestingly, this reasoning also applies to why the best triathlete will never be the best single sport athlete as well. You can balance swim, bike, run, and become pretty good at all three, but the best pro runner will beat the triathlete in an open running race every time due to the difference in training priorities of the two.
hard work is required, but you can’t take average genetics and turn them into world champion results. Likewise, you can have world champion genetics and probably dominate the local scene on far less work than an average dude that crushes training to finish near the front (locally).
Life is about sacrifices. It boils down to what you want out of yourself and what gets you out the door to train. Is it for general fitness? Is it to see how much you can improve yourself with the time at your disposal? Or is it about toeing the line, knowing that you’re going to be sprinting towards the tape at the end of the day? If that’s what gets you training, you won’t have to worry about the other things in your life.* It depends on what you really want. Be honest with yourself and go from there.
I used to play music a lot. However, once I started triathlon, I got hooked on the competition and the idea of “building my machine” by training. Now I wake up at ungodly hours (normal by ST standards), strive for the body composition of POWs, and forego many other hobbies (ie. music) to feel that rush of competing and winning.
*Coming from a 24yo w/o a gf/spouse, kids, hectic job, or any other real responsibilities.
As somebody who was “good” at triathlon. Or at least I think I was (“toot toot” thats my own horn). I think the simple answer is yes. It was my life and because of that I became 110% burned out on the sport.
I think that there are a very very few amount of people that have just pure talent (or raw speed to reference an old ST classic thread) that simply do not have to put in the time like the rest of us. Lucky bastards.
But for the other 99.9% the simple answer is yes. At least IMO
i train every single day except the day after a half im or the week after a full im, other than that, its 45 - 75 minutes before work, 45 - 75 minutes after work monday to friday, then weekend, long run/bike, so a couple hours one day, 4 to 5 hours the next day, im not missing out on anything to do this, its not like there are amazing things going on from 5:45 am to 7:00am on a wednesday, or from 6 am to 11 am on a sunday, i can go out with friends fri and sat night if i want or spending time with family all day after morning workouts on weekends, i cant get drunk and stay out past 10, but im done with that part of my life regardless, so basically, i train a lot but im not missing anything even if i never trained, i train 15 - 20 hours a week while others are watching tv 15 - 20 hours a week
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