Stand up If You're a Triathlete

Originally posted by Damage Inc Any-Hoo,Back to the reason for this thread; Triathlets need a thread on this site to feel good about themselves and not be ashamed of being a USMS member and participant. So whats your favorite Tri Swim workout? That's a pretty solid workout except on the bike ride home I make sure to wear a sleeveless jersey and try to find some roadies to ride with. Or solo in front of, you see the swimming helps build the shoulders and arms so gthe sleeveless jersey is essential. Th roadies dislike it so much they have rules madating that in a biek race you must have sleeves on your jersey. That's because they were embarrassed by the massive guns of the triathletes that showed up.

Ladies, Listen carefully. You can hear the primitive tribal chest beating and knuckle dragging. Very interesting...almost as good as the great jammer and speedo debate! hahaha Swimmy:)

First of all, I'm glad I have company in the bottom 10% at nationals. While comforting, it's also a little discouraging. Second, I acutally have taken 15 hours of sensitivity training this summer, believe it or not. It's actually called something else and it's at my church but it's the same basic thing. I'll lay off the tris. I'm happy to swim with anyone.

Posers: Triathletes make this exact point about each other. One of my old college swim team mates turned pro on the Tri circuit in the 1980s. I went with him to watch him compete in a tri (coincidentally, the first he won). Just before the race, he pointed out to me guys who had the cutting edge, thousands of dollars bikes. He pointed out that none of them would be anywhere near the leaders, and in fact a superexpensive bike was an indicator it's rider was NOT a serious threat to win the race. Like one of the Australian olympic swimmers said about fastskins just before the 2000 Games, if I'm ready to swim, I could be wearing a brown paper sack and it wouldn't matter. Triathletes who work hard: some swimmers have accused tri-guys of not wanting to work hard at swimming. Some of the tri-guys have shot back that in the swim workouts they observed, the triathletes were more focused and business-like, with less "yiketty-yak" than the swimmers. Both are partially true, and this clearly illustrates the differing mindsets. Swimming ain't running or biking. Tri-guys want to do swim training the same way they do the other two sports: high volume, low rest interval, go as fast as possible in as much pain as they can take as long as possible. In short, pure aerobic training. (hence the term "aerobocops") What they don't get is that in swimming, pure guts will only get you so far. Many of them resist the idea that just improving technique would result in far more improvement in their swim times than any amount of conditioning with their old and lousy swim habits. I have inadvertantly eaves dropped on triathletes complaining about TI instructors who want them to focus on balance drills when they are 4-6 weeks from their tri-race. To a tri-guy, swimmers look like they are slacking off in workout. Swimmers think they are doing slow stroke drills to work on technique. Or, they are doing speed training that can only be done with lots of rest between swims. Swimmers and triathletes trying to talk to each other is sometimes like two people who don't speak each other's language trying to communicate by speaking ever louder and more slowly. Posers, part deux: I resent (and resemble) the remark that posers finish in the bottom 10% of the race, and that those who finish in the bottom 10% are posers. It's all relative. I sometimes swim at USMS Nationals, where I regularly finish in the bottom 10% (and this would be the case if I broke personal records). I may look like a "poser" at that level, but I can show you some other venues where I'd look much better. Let's look at what else we could mean by poser--someone who does not work as hard and looks unsuccessfully for short-cuts to going faster. Well golly Sgt Carter, compared to my college days, I am absolutely, positively a posing slacker 'cause I don't do near the same volume or intensity of work. (Comes with have A JOB, and BTW the same applies to all but a handful of the people reading this post.) In that sense, we swimmers ought to acknowledge that the one thing triathletes do better and more off than we do (on average, in general) is spend countless hours on road work. They may be technique block-heads, but they kill us when it comes to the number of hours spent working-out. Mediocrity: I have met several serious triathletes who pursue that sport with all their heart, then dive into the pool where they are among the fastest swimmers on the team, AND leading the stroke and IM sets too. It is a false dicotomy to claim that pursuing triathloning prevents you from being an outstanding stroke swimmer. Excellence is excellence (and to be blunt, God-given athletic talent usually trumps both coaching and conditioning). So will someone please tie Aquageek to a bicycle frame, and give him 50 lashes with a heart rate monitor? If you really want to have fun, give him a choice between that or 20 hours of sensitivity training. I'm betting he'll take the heart rate monitor. Matt

"it just seems that there are far more in the "tri world". Posers luuuv equipment so combining bikes and suits is killer! Guaranteed those legs are shaved and shining! A triathlon is a race of all posers. The worst one wins. Triathletes are typically born late after each individual sport passed them by. It's an attempt to claim lost glory. I apologize; I'm just laughing at myself. I'm lower than a triathlete. I run, cycle, and swim but I don't officially compete. My heart is with the triathlete but I've never had good enough recovery time to be great at any individual sport let alone three together. I'm relegated to being the poser of a poser. I even buy my cycling clothes from tri stores.

Originally posted by gjy A sport for late bloomers? This thread might have more relevance to this USMS community than I originally thought. Do you have opinions on V02Max?

Originally posted by Kevin in MD The roadies dislike it so much they have rules madating that in a bike race you must have sleeves on your jersey. That's because they were embarrassed by the massive guns of the triathletes that showed up. Ha! That's really funny! I agree with you! I just joined a fully sponsored road racing team and I can barely squeeze my swimmer arms into a size medium womens jersey. And I'm barely swimming right now. Looks like I'll have to buy an XL jersey next year! But really, I think they made sleeved-jerseys a rule because sponsored road racing teams have many sponsors that need to be advertised on the jerseys. And if they allowed sleveless jerseys to be worn in races, then many teams would have trouble squishing all their sponsors onto the jersey. And there's a rule that states the team name must be on both the front and back, clearly visible, and not swallowed up by a montage of other sponsors logos.

I thought this was sensativity training.

Originally posted by Damage Inc No, I dont have one but I sure wish I did, because making it to the IronMan Kona Championships is quite difficult where only the top guys in there national age groups make it in by qualifying in other IronMan races. This is much different than The USMS National Championships where there are qualifying times, but, well, you dont really have to be that fast, you only have to write it in. There is something known as the Lotto for Kona. I had a guy couple of years ago showed up to my Masters practice at the end of August. Said he was doing the Ironman in Kona in 6 weeks and needed to get in swim shape. After watching him swim a 100, my first thought was "they have a swim time cut off time don't they". My first question for him was when did he qual? His response he had not qualified he made it in via the lotto. As I know several Tri-athletes who worked there butt's off to qual I really thought it was disservice to them to have the lotto. By the way as Tall Paul can attest, there have been many of us who would prefer provable qual times at nationals not the honor system. Somewhere there's a thread on that.

Requirements for swimming - pool/lake/ocean, suit, goggles I think Damage has summed it all up. There are 15 requirements for being a triathlete, 11 of which are solely to make yourself look "cool." In swimming I find to be the best you have to beat the best (a quote I will attribute to Ric Flair, a Charlotte resident). Apparently in triathloning you just have to look like the best to be the best. It's also mandatory to get the ironman tattoo or bumpersticker. Admit it, Damage, you have one on your car, fess up.