When I see these people out on my training rides/runs, I have nicknames for them in my head:
*Upright Tri Guy- He is a bit overweight, rides a tri bike, but I’ve NEVER seen him use aerobars, and he wears a helmet with a visor and a baggy shirt, so being aero obviously isn’t his priority.
*Miss Daisy- This is a lady that rides a hybrid bike and is covered head to toe with clothing. She even wears a scarf over her head covering the side of her face and neck and stuffs that under her helmet. She wears gloves year 'round too. I think she must have a skin disorder that makes her sun-sensitive or maybe she’s had skin cancer…not sure, but she just sort of reminds me of Miss Daisy from the movie because her scarfs are all floral print.
*Mother Earth- This is a sort of hippy woman that has long, wavy gray hair and never rides with a helmet. She’s on a mountain bike riding the same route every day with her long, wavy hair flowing in the breeze.
*Mr. Hot Pants- This is a guy who swims at my local pool. He recently did IMAZ and swims in these super short lycra shorts.
Hahaha…great thread. When I used to work out at the gym, we’d have tons of these dudes. The one I remember most was “Malibu Ken.” He was probably late 50s, 80s blonde hair (but shorter and moppy, not mullet style), and short white shorts like the old coaches used to wear. Nice guy though…talked your ear off.
It makes me wonder what nicknames people had for me…
I forgot another one…
*The Shuffler- This is an older lady that walks along the same route every day and sort of shuffles her feet along. Takes her about 30 minutes to walk a mile.
The deep winter asian striders - little asian ladies dressed for -30 deg temps walking hellbent for somewhere. Always a headscarf, always on a death march.
Longboarder - rocker dude in leather jacket being pulled 25+mph on a long board by his tongue lolling Akida dog. Only spoke to him once…moving too fast for anything other than “Hey”. -Routine occurence.
The Clubber - not what you think…actually older black guy who always carries a golf club (to defend himself I guess). Lately he’s just taken to carrying a baseball bat.
The “I’m Serious” Single Mom - rabidly focused athlete who has exactly 43 minutes to train before packing up to pick up Little Jimmy. Which includes 10 minutes to unpack the bike and 10 minutes to repack the bike into her sports car.
The DragBoat - swim guy who only does 25m swim sprints, all noise and fury. Sometimes will flip over to backthrash for variety, still 25m.
The Clubber - not what you think…actually older black guy who always carries a golf club (to defend himself I guess). Lately he’s just taken to carrying a baseball bat.
The Clubber II – ex-cop from Chicago, I think, who runs on Oracle here in Tucson carrying a police-issue billy club.
Leathers- The 50ish year old lady from the gym in my apartment who has leathery skin and raises the treadmill to a 45 degree angle and power walks while holding the front edge so she does not fall off while wearing a sports bra and jeans that her muffin top hangs out of.
The Sprinter - we’ve got this one guy near my house that we always see walking the hike and bike trails. However, whenever the trail crosses a driveway, roadway etc he breaks out into a full on Carl Lewis sprint to the other side. This occurs regardless if there is a car in the area or not. For the life of me I can’t figure out what he’s doing.
Not someone I see while training but on my commute to work everyday…the barefoot guy. Seen jogging very slowly on the footpath, wincing in pain with every step. Oddly enough I never see him in winter.
Junkman-We have a guy at our local Y that always and I mean always wears what looks like swim trunks pulled up real high on his waist so that his “junk” is highly visible and he is constantly “adjusting”. He wears these in the weight training area of the Y. I have never seen him at the pool in his “swim trunks”.
On guy I see that sticks out enough to earn a nickname is just “Brah”. Surfer look. Super tan, short shorts, long bleached hair, skinny legs, huge upper body. He’s a walker, and I see him on one stretch of road when I ride. I’ve seen him on parts of this road that are close to 15 miles apart, so I think he really gets around.
Usually I see enough people that I just don’t notice anything unless it’s really odd.
I’ve got a guy here my girlfriend and I call - Tan Man, a 60 year old triathlete that runs around the neighbourhood and is tanned year round and even in 0-10 degree celsius weather runs outside with his shirt off. -
We used to call one female runner, 30’s, Candy Pants. She used to always wear these black shorts with what looked like pieces of candy, or funky polka dots, all over them. Years after she quit wearing them, we still called her that. I saw her once at a Moes and turned to my biddy and said, “Look, Candy Pants!” This went on for 10 years or so. Haven’t seen her in a few years. Assumed she moved.
Just thought of another one, and again while commuting rather than training (I train odd hours)…
The Leatherback.
Rides around on a mtb with a weird position (looks like 20cm of drop), always in baggy shorts with a balaclava under his helmet…always shirtless. Dude has the meanest tan…sadly, he’ll probably be taken by skin cancer one day. Another person I only see in the summer months…
I do alot of my training on a popular 4 mile loop. I go counter clockwise. There are folks who go clockwise who I have literally seen 1000 times over the last 10 years who I have never actually talked to other to occasionally shout out a “hello” as we pass.
Lady Gadiva - woman with hip length hair who is always out walking.
The Dog Lady - woman who is out walking her 3 dogs almost every time I train
Visor guy - old man who rides with a helmet over a hat with a giant visor.
Fred Gwyn - guy looks exactly like Herman Munster. (This guy is one of my favorites. I’ve watched him progress from jog/walking at a 20 min/mile pace wearing khaki shorts and a polo shirt to becoming a pretty decent runner).
The Weezer - a runner in his 70’s who sounds like he is about die with every step.
Tour Guy - guy riding a bike front and rear racks and sometimes even panniers
The Prisoner - a big bald tatooed guy who rides a mountain bike sans helmet and usually sans shirt. Looks like he just got done serving 25 years for being an enforcer for a motorcycle gang.
I have nicknames for the people I actually know too but those need to stay confidential.
“Depth Charge” - a guy at the pool we used to go to. Bald as a cueball 50 - 60 year old physics professor. Wore his prescription goggles out of the locker room. Would swim for up to an hour at a time, he would often get there at the same time as us and end right alongside us. Never stopped the entire hour, not for a drink, a rest, never. Around 40 strokes per 25, almost a full minute per 25. He swam kind of crumpled over to his right side. His right arm never came out of the water on the recovery. His stroke was so bizarre looking that the lifeguards thought he had a stroke, but I saw him in the weight room and he was strong as you could imagine any physics professor being.
And the best part, every kick his foot would come out of the water and make a big booming splash on re-entry, just like you do when you are trying to splash someone intentionally. He could hit the ceiling that had to be 15’ high, people sitting in the chairs alongside the pool would have to scatter, and if someone was sharing a lane that didn’t know him they would always stop mid-lap to look up and see what the hell was going on.
Mullet Man walks into the gym with a long fur coat on and wheeling behind him his mini-travel suitcase of gym clothes. When he walks through the gym on his arrival, his hair is slicked back. Under his fur coat you can see he is wearing a white shirt, black dress pants, and black suspenders.
Mullet Man is 5’6" and not well built and about 40ish.
When he comes out of the dressing room he is wearing wrestling shoes, unlaced, white tube socks, shaved legs, daisy dukes, an XXXL sweatshirt with the hood cut off, the middle/bottom portion cut-off, the sleeves up to the armpits cut-off. He has a large gold chain. He obviously uses a tanning bed. His hair is the best though, because now he has wert it so that his bangs hang down just to the top of his eyeballs.
He loads up the squat rack and then paces in front of the mirror forever back and forth while starring at himself through his bangs (so his head is tilted down but he is looking up through the tiny hair). He does 1 squat. Not 1 set, just 1 squat, then repeats the starring phase of his workout.
He is a national gym treasure!! He really makes everyones day that much better when sighted.
He has been seen at bars in his fur coat usually sporting a 1980’s hair brush and costantly combing his mullet.
