Triathletes

Look, it has obviously been established by ESPN that poker players are the greatest all around athletes... Of course! The other night I flipped through the channels and noticed a poker game in which some of the players were wearing heart rate monitors....

One positive aspect of the surge in triathlon popularity is the spillover into open water swimming popularity. Now we swimmers just need to convince the tri crowd to lengthen the swim leg. Consider the time difference: a 2.4 mile swim takes 40 mins or so. A marathon run is at least a 3+ hour slog. Equitable? Hopper http://www.swimvacation.com

Funny... If I spend more than 20 minutes swimming freestyle, I usually get asked by a someone whether I'm a triathlete. Around here, people seem to have a hard time imagining swimming as a separate sport.

Posted on this thread two years ago: Powerful the dark side is. I am still chuckling over this post from a few days ago... Anyways... Tris fill up the numbers on a lot of teams that might go under otherwise. This is not a bad thing, IMHO. Our team is heavily tri-based and most of the tri-background folks have seriously improved their swimming and thus their tri times. The friction between those with a swimming background and those with a tri background is pretty minimal. Though I think we do a lot less stroke and sprints and a lot more distance free/aerobic stuff due to the large tri base on our team... and I would like to do more sprints! I've completed a few tris in the past... it's a nice break in the summer from swimming. And, when I had a few years a while ago of being totally burnt on swimming, at least tris kept me active and in the water a little bit... Now my knees have completely derailed any running (or biking for that matter) at the moment... but maybe I be able to do a tri next summer just to try and beat my little sister. I'll start training for the biking and running on May 5! :D

Question: Would you rather swim with a dedicated triathlete or a swimmer who consistently arrives at workout late, rarely does the assigned set, and frequently demands the coach’s undivided attention to do a roll start timed 50? I was not aware of a requirement that masters swimmers had to be on time to practice or get their hands slapped with a ruler. As adults with busy lives we do the best we can. It also seems to me that it's the 24/7 freestylers who are the ones not doing the assigned "choice stroke" sets. And since when is it a crime to modify a set? The key is not to disrupt the practice or your lane mates. But, sure, I'll swim with tris as long as they let me go ahead of them when I'm doing backstroke. There is no god given right to lead a lane.

When triathletes sneer at real swimmers -- and they do -- I find it vaguely offensive. Mutual respect would be preferable. That's funny. Back when I decided to start swimming to lose some weight, I was going to a community lake to swim laps in the swim area. There was a group there on a regular basis with full body suits, fancy goggles and funny looking snorkles. And of course, there I was overweight, wearing red board shorts and an old pair of goggles (goofy green ones!). Needless to say they weren't very friendly towards me. After about a month of getting the cold shoulder I joined a masters team. As for the tri's on our master's team...I suppose they are there, but they don't swim in my lane. Kevin

Ouch!! Glad I am not a Triathlete or I'd have to find some way in which to retaliate. So are swimmer who do IMs, mediocre at 4 instead of excelling at one and incapable of doing anything on land? Just thought I'd Tri.:rofl:

But, sure, I'll swim with tris as long as they let me go ahead of them when I'm doing backstroke. There is no god given right to lead a lane. If they've seen your backstroke, they'll be diving out of your way left and right...or get runover.

For example: an Ironman is run (by pros) ~12 hours. 12 hours? More like 8-9.

I fell off my bike into a shrub yesterday in front of my daughters, who then cried and put Barbie bandaids on my scraped up arm. I am, therefore, reconsidering this whole triathlete thing.