What's a Hardcore Triathlete?

Triathlon Forum
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I’ve heard the phrase used many times by various people and I admit to being a little puzzled about what this really means. The phrase is generally used like, “I’m not a hardcore triathlete like some people, but…” It surprises me that I hear that so often, so I’ve decided to take a poll on the slowtwitch crowd–

What does “hardcore triathlete” mean to you? No names, but what behaviors would a person demonstrate to suggest that they are “hardcore”?

If you find yourself using the phrase, what do YOU mean when you say “hardcore triathlete”? What prompts you to use such a phrase?

Disclaimer Note - I’m considering using some of this material for an article in our local Tri Group’s Newsletter. Could be an interesting topic, but we shall see. Also, I have my own ideas on the answers to these questions, but would like hear what you have to say.

aliciap

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Hardcore = will make any sacrifice necessary to succeed. Sometimes that includes future health, if performance enhancing drugs are used.

4

It’s someone who doesn’t have a life outside of training.

5

It was 15-below today in central Wisconsin and I was out running in the dark at 5:30 a.m.

Does that make me hard-core, or just stupid?

– Big EE

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This guy in my team. He rides his bike 45 minutes to the pool at 5AM, swims the 2 hours practice, then rides his bike back home 45 minutes. Not bad in the summer, but try this in the snow at the average -20 degrees C (-4F) we’ve had in the past 3 weeks. He was there the morning when it was -44C (-48 F) taking into account the windchill factor.

That’s hardcore.

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Does that make me hard-core, or just stupid?

To me, you answered that question when you said you were from wisconsin. Big Grin

Later. RyanB … who happens to be from Illinois … and a big Bears fan. Hence the remark about Wisconsin.

8

Well, the opposite of hardcore is “Studio”. When you’ve “got the look”, but don’t act the part, you are officially “Studio”.

I would say that anyone that schedules the majority of their life (outside of work) around training and racing is hardcore. You can “have the look” and still be hardcore, but at its essence, “hardcore” is about action, not looks.

When you find yourself showering more at the gym, pool, other workout establishment more than your own home, you are officially hardcore. (also of note…skipping showers entirely to fit in more workout time is also hardcore!)

9

If you train 5 hours a week, anyone training 10 hours or more is hardcore. If you train 10 hours a week, anyone training 15 or more is hardcore. If you train 20 hours a week, anyone who beats you is hardcore. If you train 30 or more hours a week, your coach and your one uninjured buddy are hardcore!

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I think Marty nailed it. For a good article on this I don’t think Tom Demerly will mind me referring you to: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/editorials/0000021.shtml

Happy trails,

Chris

11

To me hardcore always meant “priorities out of whack”.

A hardcore fan thinks sports are more important than other areas which they are not (time with family, human well-being, etc). Due to that, they spend much more time and effort participating in the viewing of sports than does the average fan.

A hardcore accountant over-emphasizes the importance of accounting in their life (compared to the average accountant) and therfore spends more than the average amount of time doing acocunting stuff, often at the expense of other aspects of life.

Logicaly, a hardcore tiathlete over-emphasizes the importantce of triathloning. They spend much more time and effort doing the sport than does the average triathlete. Often times, like the other hardcore examples, this is at the expense of other aspects of their life.

To comment on some other post in this thread.

a normal person (i.e. the avergae triathlete) plans his/her training around work, family, etc.

A hardcore triathlete plans his work, family, etc around his/her training.

The “hardcore” debate is one that you see in other venues as well … sports fan, bodybuilding, powerlifting, weight-lifting, etc. It seems to be a label those folks, especially younger folks, desperately want to achieve. I guess it depends on your perspective and your interpretation.

dictionary.com (just for S&G) says this “Intensely loyal; die-hard:”

12

With a few exceptions(gear), your statement indicts me. But I can’t be hardcore, because I suck. I hardly ever work out more than 15 hours a week! And I can’t swim worth a damn.

The way I see it, anybody who beats me is hardcore no matter what gear they’re riding, but if I beat them and they have better gear than me, then they’re a wanker(I got that from my cycling buddies). And the guy who beats me on his mountain bike? Well, he’s just sick!

This is a great thread, because I am conflicted about this right now. It seems like triathlon training consumes all my spare time, even though I *only *work out 10-12 hours per week average. I seem to be maintaining my fitness, but not really improving it, and my distance performance swimming doesn’t seem to be improving. My bike and run are both pretty steady. It makes me wonder just how much you have to train to stay in shape, and how much more you must do to improve.

So if you train all the time but still aren’t very good, are you hardcore, or just obsessed?

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<<This is a great thread, because I am conflicted about this right now. It seems like triathlon training consumes all my spare time, even though I *only *work out 10-12 hours per week average. I seem to be maintaining my fitness, but not really improving it, and my distance performance swimming doesn’t seem to be improving. My bike and run are both pretty steady. It makes me wonder just how much you have to train to stay in shape, and how much more you must do to improve.

So if you train all the time but still aren’t very good, are you hardcore, or just obsessed? >>

I recently went through this myself and decided to focus on duathlons versus tri’s. IMO, swimming is a miniumum of five days a week in the water. I have a lifetime of hiking/running recreationally and mountain biking under my belt so I seem to have a high level of fitness from the waist down. I decided that with a full-time job, heavy academic load and a suffering social life, it was time to make some changes. I still hop in the pool once in awhile to maintain some resemblance of a stroke but I can now spend a little bit more time with my friends and go out to a movie once in awhile and have fun incorporating training into my busy schedule. After all, isn’t “fitness” supposed to be a part of an overall “healthy” lifestyle? One day, I will have the opportunity to train/race all three sports again, but until then I plan to enjoy the benefits of mulitsport rather than dread another workout.

Brett

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Any triathlete without a chewy/creamy filling inside?

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I think “hardcore” has a slightly different meaning than someone is addicted and hence has their priorities mixed up.

The hardcore triathlete turns up to swim training in winter and finds out that the heater hasn’t been working. Rather than wimp out he does his training as planning adjusting it for the colder water.

The hardcore triathlete cycles in all types of weather. A great example of this is the Swede Bjorn Anderson (sp?) saying how he goes out in Winter for 3 hours, comes back home, and then goes out again. In Armstrong’s autobiography he describes training in some bad weather as he knew others wouldn’t be.

The hardcore triathlete runs in all conditions. etc.

Hence it is not someone who is doing more hours than anyone else. It is someone who will not let nature/adversity get in the way of them doing their training. And on days when they’ve planned to go hard they go very hard and relish the pain.

Similiarly a hardcore fisherman would be out there in “The Perfect Storm”. Vinnie Jones comes across as a “hard” person in films like “Lock Stock and two smocking barrels” or “Snatch”. Hardcore dance music has a heavier beat to it IMO.

17

Your definition/description fits perfectly with the “supremely dedicated” type of definition.

I likely went to far and concluded that the supreme dedication would aversely affect other aspects of life.

18

While it’s probably just semantics, I think that someone who neglects important aspects of their life because of an overindulgence in anything (sport, food, god, sex, et cetera) isn’t so much hardcore as they are simply irresponsible. (But hey, who am I to say what’s irresponsible for anyone but myself?) Hardcore is not synonymous with irresponsibility, at least in my view. Just because someone trains more than an average triathlete (whatever that means) doesn’t mean they do so at the expense of or in total disregard to other important aspects of their lives. I’m sure it does happen, and in that case it’s called sacrifice. I can’t think of anything more worthy than making sacrifices for something you love. After all, it’s those hardcore people that are on the posters we hang and in the news that we read.

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Hardcore? Definitely, that would be YOU, Alicia :slight_smile:

I agree with JHendric - “While it’s probably just semantics, I think that someone who neglects important aspects of their life because of an overindulgence in anything (sport, food, god, sex, et cetera) isn’t so much hardcore as they are simply irresponsible. (But hey, who am I to say what’s irresponsible for anyone but myself?) Hardcore is not synonymous with irresponsibility, at least in my view. Just because someone trains more than an average triathlete (whatever that means) doesn’t mean they do so at the expense of or in total disregard to other important aspects of their lives. I’m sure it does happen, and in that case it’s called sacrifice. I can’t think of anything more worthy than making sacrifices for something you love. After all, it’s those hardcore people that are on the posters we hang and in the news that we read.”

You have made time to devote yourself to this sport you are so gifted at and still leave time to help support it by volunteering in various aspects. You also have that wonderful, supporting husband of yours to help you out! It is amazing to me what you have accomplished on so little training time and have the stamina to do this after working all day. Keep it up, girl. I need a signed Alicia poster on my wall…

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  1. You no longer have the word excercising in your vocabulary because everything is “training.”

  2. You bike more miles per week than you drive.

  3. You think nothing about “training” twice a day.

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16692miles…321 miles per week avg. On the bike.
Thats gotta be hardcore! My butt hurts just thinking about that.

Dave

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I think TriPA described me…exept I rarely smell of chlorine. I just swim open water from jun to sep, so I end up smelling like neoprene. Pretty well most of the other posts in this thread apply to me, except now, I only train 12-14 hours per week instead of 18-22 (2 hours per day vs 3 hours per day) :-). Thus there are more hardcore guys than me out there now ! 5 years ago, when my son was two, he even thought that a training buddy who showed up at my front door on a red bike was Hellriegel (Hellriegel was sporting a red bike at the previous Hawaii)…its pretty bad when you put Hawaii videos in the TV when hanging with your 2 year old rather than Elmo videos !