Triathletes

Hey "Triathlete".......as many have pointed out his is mostly having a bit of fun, something that happens on this forum daily. A coiple of things however to keep in mind: - This is a forum geared to "masters" swimmers and my guess is that the vast majority here are 40+ (you couldn't even swim in our nationals because your to young). - Most all have full time jobs and are far past their prime and when we poke fun at Triathletes its not the "elite" who can swim in the fastest lanes but rather the "weekend warrior" version......those that typically have little if any background in any of the 3 disciplines and don't know the "rules". - Being 17 we'll forgive your spouting off about your times in this venue, but you should know that your swim time might have made the top 5 in the 40-44 age group in masters and there are some 50 yar olds that could whup your butt. By the way....wht is th QT time for USS junior nationals? Have you ever been? - As outstanding as your overall Tri splits are, especially at your age keep in mind that separately you would have a hard time getting a college scholorship in any of them if you specialized. That may not be important because you may have the talent to go pro....but to keep it in perspective the guy who started this thread was sub 4:00 in the 400 at your age, had a full ride to Texas qualified fo NCAA (Div 1) in every distance of free (50-500), plus the 200IM and 100 fly and went 1:35 in the 200 one year. - He however couldn't ride a bike without training wheels and like me can't run to the bathroom but what the hey! - See.......no one here is "safe" and most all of us give/take a lot of abuse....something you'll learn when you get to our age and live on advil, ice packs, massgae, cortisone shots, etc. etc.!

I love the triathletes on my team (on this as on many other teams, there would not be much of a team without the triathletes.) I find them fun, fast, and know the culture (but I also swim with the best swimmers of the triathletes.) The reason a person going to a triathlon team would be "always welcome" is because that person wants to become a triathlete. However, a few triathletes join a swimming team because they want to be a triathlete, not a swimmer. If I were to join a running team, but announced that I joined because I wanted to be a better swimmer, and because of that I would only do track repeats, no matter what the rest of the team was doing, I don't think I would be all that welcome, at least sometimes. There is a swimming culture that needs to be learned, and some people take a little longer -- they need to be convinced, somehow, that strokes are worth doing, and sprints need rest, for example. There is also a very irrational issue. It is, for some reason, very irritating for many swimmers when someone decides to, for example, use fins during a non fin set, or swim freestyle when everyone else is struggling with butterfly or an IM. This irritation is there even if the intervals are not affected. I'm not sure why, but I hear the comments fairly often.

I like the tris are now showing up to defend their honor. However, they are a little self righteous about this further proving that they need to loosen up the heart rate monitor strap and lighten up a bit.

personally i like to train with triathletes i admire their work ethics plus most of triathlete women tend to look great! ande

Okay, we have a lot to work with here. personally i like to with triathletes What is it you personally like to actually do with triathletes, apparently in a group setting? plus most of triathlete women tend to look great! What parts of triathlete women do not look good to you? i admire their work ethics Why? What is it about their work ethics that set you on fire? What is wrong with sprinters' swimming taper work ethics? You know, show up late, warm up, do a 50 fast, warm down, go home. Instead of pablum, how about some details? This is a serious(ly bizzare) thread!

I find this topic rather amusing!! Im a full-time athlete, at the age of 17 Im currently swimming 4.17 for 400m free, run 5km in 15.15 and cycle 10miles in 21.30. I really think you have no idea as to how tough a triathlon actually is or actually how good athletes are in all three disciplines. If all this is "tri-ing" to be an athlete I really would like to know what an athlete actually consists of???

Originally posted by Triathlete I find this topic rather amusing!! Im a full-time athlete, at the age of 17 Im currently swimming 4.17 for 400m free, run 5km in 15.15 and cycle 10miles in 21.30. I really think you have no idea as to how tough a triathlon actually is or actually how good athletes are in all three disciplines. If all this is "tri-ing" to be an athlete I really would like to know what an athlete actually consists of??? Dang, thanks for reminding me how much I suck in all three disciplines! ;-) Please make a note to email me your times when you turn 41. :D

oh and dont tell me to lighten up. I don't care that much If you didn't care so much, you would not have posted anything. Sorry if you were offended about this thread. I am sure that it was started mostly in jest, just to gripe about something. Fact is, there are plenty of "swimmer only" athletes that are just as guilty of being rude or clueless in the practice lanes. And the honest truth is that triathletes, while in terrific physical condition, by the very nature of their sport cannot compete with the top athletes in the other individual sports. One of the earliest top tri people was David Scott, who was a swimmer to start his career. And I reiterate a prior point : without Masters swimming, there would likely not be a triathlon sport. We were here first, and made it possible for tri people to train in pools. If you are over 25 and training tri, don't bother trying to practice with a USA Swimming team, they mostly won't have time or space for you.

"And the honest truth is that triathletes, while in terrific physical condition, by the very nature of their sport cannot compete with the top athletes in the other individual sports." Many professional triathletes were tops in other individual sports. Look at the Ironman swim times. 2.4 miles of openwater ocean swimming -under 47:00 and that's not even pushing it. They need to maintain some restraint in the water because after that they have to ride 112 miles and then run a marathon. Several athletes averaged under a 5:20/mile pace in the run portion last year at the Escape from Alcatraz race (8 mile run), after riding 18 miles in hilly San Fran and swimming 1.5 miles from Alcatraz island across San Francisico Bay (which Simon Lessing did in under 21:00). Sub 5:00/mile would be possible without the swim/bike portion. Pretty elite for a hilly course. Norman Stadler trained on the bike with T-Mobile last year. Sheila Taormina has an Olympic medal for swimming in her trophy case. I won't bore you with more examples because they are almost endless, especially when you compare age groupers'/non-pros' times in tri-events to times put up by age groupers/non pros in individual events (10k running races vs 10k times in an Olympic distance tri etc.). The time gaps between pro triathletes and pro individual sport athletes would be closer in each individual sport than if the individual athlete were to compete against the triathlete in a 3 sport event. Those of you who are name calling ("mediocre athletes") are dead wrong. And every time we defend ourselves, stop calling us uptight. I understand these saements for the most part are in jest, but did you expect a bunch of competitive crazed people to just roll over?

Originally posted by TheGoodSmith I'm thinking of briefly entering the "other" world and swimming on a triathlon relay in September. I may swim over the top of a few triathletes on the start and take it out hard so they can't catch me. I'll wear some fistacuffs for the start. Someone needs to remind them they have puny upper bodies and can't swim. Having a 43 year old sprinter beat them should provide some much needed humiliation..... :-) John Smith some might say that you are going to the dark side. Be careful, extremely careful, you might enjoy it!