There are not enough hours in the day to train for an ironman, have a job, have a girlfriend, and have a life. At least it seems that way, an unemployed friend of mine joked about being lucky because he can hit the gym whenever he cares to, which would be really nice, however I think my biggest hurdle will just be to give up a little bit (or a lot) of fun on the weekend and get myself in gear with some long training rides and runs. The week just holds too many things that need to get done, and not enough time to do all of them.
I'm also a big fan of sports leagues, currently playing in a flag football league and a basketball league, however I'm not sure how to quantify the training benefits of such activities (if there are any). Which is giving me trouble, and will most likely result in me dropping them after this season, or maybe after the next, or the one after that, but definitely at some point. This same inability to quantify benefits is making it hard for me to decide to buy a Triathlon Bike. Here is a link to a decent article explaining the differences: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/difference.shtml
Well written, and semi-informative but the claims just seem vague to me. So my fellow ironman cohorts and I went to a bike shop to talk to some experts. I got pretty much the same sort of vagaries from him as I did from the article. This exchange summed it up pretty nicely:
Me: "So all in all, does a tri bike make a huge difference in a triathlon."
Bike Guy: "I wouldn't say it makes a huge difference."
Me: "Ok"
Bike Guy: "But the difference is drastic, you'll definitely notice"
Not sure how to quantify the difference between a drastic change, or a huge change in performance, but I can say that having a perfectly good road bike already is making me hesitant to drop about 2 grand on a tri-specific bike. Maybe I'll just train on the road bike and rent a tri-bike, or pull the trigger later in the year. At the distances we'll be covering a drastic improvement may be what I need to complete the event.
In other news, New Year resolutions continue to piss me off, my basketball skills are improving, and I'm enjoying bike riding around this city so far. Stay tuned, 3 weeks down 45 to go.
Miles covered:
Biking: 154.7
Running: 38.8
Swimming: 10.25
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Mr Spittal told me today he's put 650 miles on his road bike so far this new year, riding after school with lights front and rear, so he can stay out until 8pm. Plus, it's freak'in cold. Now that's hard core dedication.
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