Over the last few months I have read numerous comments on ST stating that triathletes are lazy and just don’t train hard. EXAMPLE: “the real reason is triathletes are lazy”. I’m curious, how many of you feel that you don’t train hard?
Since this is a multi-sport event, an athlete can not focus on just one event like a pure runner, swimmer or cyclist can. Therefore, unless they came to the sport as a great runner or swimmer, they will not become one. Is it possible to become a great swimmer when you are training hard in two other events. What do you think perpetuates this myth or is it a myth?
swimming: they swim slower longer sets than regular swimmers. they use paddles, pull buoys, kick boards, huge garmin on their wrists, and hrm. they dont look at the huge clock but rather their anchor on their arm. they have their workouts printed out and the majority and spend most of their time doing drills improperly.
cycling: overall triathletes tend to be best at this portion. but tons are very lazy. they spend all their time out of the aerobars while riding their zipp 808s in a peleton of 15mph cyclist. then they say they cant get lower and more aero b/c they never spend 5mins in the aerobars. they do epic long rides to fill up the log book, but when it comes to pushing a little out of their comfort zone they cower in fear.
running: a close 2nd, in terms of poor ability, to swimming, triathletes suck at running. theyre always easy to spot, slow running weird like overly high cadence for their slow speed, forfoot striking.
im not sure where this stems from. i know americans are lazy, but triathletes seem to be exceptional. triathletes have too much money and constantly look for gimmicks to solve their lack of training problem.
obviously this does not apply to the fop age groupers and pros.
While I agree with most of what you said, and have witnessed a lot of it, I don’t see how it constitutes laziness. Misguided effort, perhaps, but not laziness.
Yep, you are right. I am lazy. I have all the toys. I am old. And I love representing our country on TeamUSA. Sure would hate to see how I might race if I were not SO LAZY with all my toys. :o)
you always seem to miss the point in pretty much every thread so ill break it down for you.
triathletes are lazy and suck at their individual sports
triathletes are generally financially well off
triathletes throw their money at the problem
most things that they throw money at in triathlon are gimmicks.
triathletes dont get faster and continue to suck at their sports for years until they quit.
Yep, you are right. I am lazy. I have all the toys. I am old. And I love representing our country on TeamUSA. Sure would hate to see how I might race if I were not SO LAZY with all my toys. :o)
Dave, at your age, pretty much anybody w/ a pulse, who can finish a qualifying event, and actually gives a rat’s ass about wanting to be on Team USA, and can write the check, can be on Team USA.
You keep throwing that out there as if it’s some sort of validation of your abilities.
I hate to break it to you - it’s not. Nobody besides you cares.
you always seem to miss the point in pretty much every thread so ill break it down for you.
triathletes are lazy and suck at their individual sports
triathletes are generally financially well off
triathletes throw their money at the problem
most things that they throw money at in triathlon are gimmicks.
triathletes dont get faster and continue to suck at their sports for years until they quit.
Yep, I am lazy and suck at individual sports.
I have no job, so not longer financially well off.
I had spend money on things that allowed me to enjoy the sport more. (I have no power meters, HRM’s, etc.)
Yep, my disc wheel was a gimmick. My aero bars are a gimmick. My pedals are a gimmick.
Yep, as I have gotten older, for some darn reason, with being so lazy, I have gotten faster. I wonder why I beat so many younger guys, and most women. Yes, I am lazy and terrible.
So, did I get your point correctly? Man do I get funny looks when I bring my big bag of toys to the pool from the “real” swimmers. And all my running is LSD. And all my lazy biking is in the 8 to 14% grade hills.
Yep, we are so so lazy.
Maybe we will meet at Worlds or Boston in the future and we can talk about how lazy we are.
I have heard a lot of crap advice on ST but yours must be the biggest pile so far. How can an athlete at any level train for 3 disciplines and be lazy. They may not be the best at each discipline or have the best techinque but they are there doing it, and you have obviously noticed that by your comments.
Can someone at ST bump this type of garbage??
Yep, us old guys suck. I wonder why I beat most of the young studs at races? I wonder why 5 of the top 15 in the Auburn sprint tri were 50 and over. Yes, you just need a pulse for those guys who do 2:10 Olympic races in their 50’s.
So easy to talk. So, what were you results at Nationals? I hope no one older than you beat you and you were not chicked.
If it was that time of the month like it always is for SeasonsChange, AND your screen name came from a crappy 80’s pop/dance hit, then you’d be pretty grumpy all the time too…
For what it’s worth, I think you have some very valid points, but perhaps meant to say lazy athletes, because in their professional lives, triathletes are some of the most productive, hard-working people I know.
I have heard a lot of crap advice on ST but yours must be the biggest pile so far. How can an athlete at any level train for 3 disciplines and be lazy. They may not be the best at each discipline or have the best techinque but they are there doing it, and you have obviously noticed that by your comments.
Can someone at ST bump this type of garbage??
You really should come out of your shell and tell us what you really think
Swimming - Athletes from a swimming background have had coaching (some good, some not so good) so they already know what it takes. Most of us that never swam competitively have never had coaching, so we start out pretty much clueless in regards to swim workouts. That does not equate to being lazy.
Cycling - I was a roadie prior to entering tris. We NEVER rode with someone on a tri-bike. Tri-bikes not allowed. Now I train alone, down on the bars 90% of the time. I do agree that good group rides were much harder, but that has due to crushing our friends, not being lazy when training alone.
Running - I do agree that a lot of the stuff I read here about running is pure BS, but running 5 days per week, cycling 3 and swimming 3 ain’t being lazy.
I wonder how many runners or swimmers put in the time and effort that us BOPer do.
I think you and Alanis Morriset need to hang out. She seems to not understand the word ‘ironic’ like you seem to not understand lazy.
your examples (like Alanis’s) are examples of things/people sucking. I think what you’re trying to say is that Triathletes as a group suck at the indiviual sports that make up our sport (as compared to good athletes in the individual sports). Maybe you are right in that sense. I mean I know a lot of Triathletes that are average swimmers, bikers and runners. Then again I know a lot of slow runners, swimmers (well not so many swimmers), and cyclists.
I think your big mistake is comparing the average Triathlete or beginner triathlete to experienced or good cyclists, but in anycase I’m not sure how you get ‘lazy’ out of a group of people that train an average of five days a week. They may be slow, misguided, and technology heavy but I’ve not met many that are lazy as compared to jsut about anybody else.
i agree that some triathletes fit the description for the three different sports; but i know plenty of single sport athletes that fit the bill too. i think you’re just generalizing racing athletes, not triathletes specifically. there will always be pure distance runners that do all lsd or pure cyclists that just want to draft and not hurt; does this make them triathletes? no. there are just as many single sport athletes that are just as “lazy”. i busted my butt as a runner, and i bust my butt in all 3 disciplines as a triathlete, it’s depends on the individual athlete in any sport, to think otherwise is retarded.
i also see no correlation between wearing a watch while swimming and being lazy. being slow doesn’t necessarily mean being lazy either.
that begs the question, why do triathletes suck at individual sports.
the answer is obvious, they dont train enough or fast enough and each of their problems stems for this.
if they spent the time training, they wouldnt ask questions about handling, gearing, nutrition ect they would know these answers due to trial and error.
triathletes are lazy because they dont put the necessary training time to answer basic questions or make adaptations needed for racing well.
a 17 hour ironman finish is downright pathetic for an average healthy human being and is quite uninspiring.
its not misguided information. in the age of information and access of tons of books and coaches, this type of retarded training is inexcusable. theyre too lazy to be a student of the sport and get better.
If it was that time of the month like it always is for SeasonsChange, AND your screen name came from a crappy 80’s pop/dance hit, then you’d be pretty grumpy all the time too…
Dave - I’m too lazy to bicker and argue with you. You go on telling us know awesome you are, and we’ll go on knowing you aren’t.
That might actually be worse than a rick roll…really not sure why I could not stop myself from clicking on it. Also sucks that I am so lazy that I actually watched it for about 30 seconds hoping at least the girl was hot.
Seasons change just comes across like some loser young kid who has his panties in a bunch cause people can afford zipp wheels.
Dave, I can truly say that my buddy ML is lazy, but lazy in a smart way. He does not waste a lot of energy training his ass off like I do, and finds all the intelligent ways to acquire free speed.
I think Doug Stern said, “The strong will beat the weak, but the smart will defeat the strong”.
ML falls into the latter category (smart defeating the strong). I tend to straddle the line between strong and some semlance of “smartness” for acquiring free speed. ML is lazy in a smart way. He defeats strong guys who train 3x as much by training and racing smarter and using his energy well.
I think Seasonschange is referring to those who are both weak in that they don’t train enough for their aspirations (this is relative, in that a pro that goes 8:40 can be weak because he did not train as hard as the guys that went 8:10), and they are not smart in that they give away free speed (again the guy could have been an 8:55 guy but did a lot of dumb things and went 9:01).
Now getting to the point, while ML normally does not get chicked, he’s currently on a 1 year long losing streak and has been dev’d in three events in a row. Hopefully that ends on June 10th.
