When Do I Try Tri?

Alan from Rival Angels brought up an issue in the comments yesterday that I think is worth addressing in a longer post.  He said that he likes to ride, but that his running is weak and that he hasn’t really swum much since high school, but still…  All this talk about triathlon has him curious.  Do I think it’s a good idea for him to tri a try?

Alan writes and draws Rival Angels.
Sometimes he brings the sexy.

It’s kind of a complicated question.  Alan and I’ve known each other via the independent comic scene for something like ten years now.  But we’ve never actually met in person, and I don’t have the first clue where his general fitness level is.  Still, I firmly believe that anyone who can create a groundbreaking webcomic and build it into an underground smash-hit can also find the personal drive and fortitude to train for and successfully complete a sprint triathlon.  Alan publishes three full color pages per week.  At roughly eight-hours per page, that makes Rival Angel the equivalent of at-least a substantial part-time job.  Moreover, the fact that Alan’s been at it for a few years makes me think that he’s gonna be able to stick to whatever commitments he makes to himself.  So from that standpoint, yes, I am quite sure that Alan could become a triathlete.

However.  What I think Alan’s asking is whether or not I think it’s a good idea.  That answer is a lot more complicated.

Let me start by saying this: if you—or Alan, or anybody else for that matter—is not currently doing any form of exercise whatsoever, then you probably need to make some changes in your life.  Exercise is good for the body, and it’s good for the soul, and bottom line, as a people, we’re simply not meant to sit around playing video games or working in a cubicle all day.  It’s an unhealthy lifestyle, and if we don’t take some steps to correct it, it’s going to kill us.  Or at least substantially reduce our quality of life as we approach our late forties and early fifties.

Still, a need for exercise does not immediately translate into a need for triathlon.  Triathlon is an awesome sport, and if you want to try it, believe me, I am not telling you not to.  But as I told my club last night, there are basically two groups of folks for whom I’ve seen triathlon be a good fit. 

1.        Former high school and college sports standouts who don’t want to become Master’s athletes because after decades of dedication to their individual base sports, they’ve become bored. 

That is me.  I am that guy.  I like triathlon because I didn’t get bored with competing, I got bored with swimming.

2.       Emerging athletes who’ve done some races and had some success, and now they want to see what else is out there.  These are folks who are just looking for their next challenge, and they don’t want it to be yet another 10K or half-marathon.

That is my wife Sally.  She never was on a team in high school, but she got into running and riding as an adult, and she’s now done dozens of road races, including several half-marathons, a duathlon, the 30-mile NYC Tour de Cure, and who knows what else.  She’s into yoga, and she’s tried weightlifting, and after a while, she decided that she wanted to try a triathlon, too, and this despite the fact that this time last year, she was afraid of the water.

So then, my question for Alan—or for anyone else, really—is this: why triathlon?  Is it because you know you need to get fit, and triathlon seems like the hip thing to do?  That’s fine, but going in, you need to understand what you’re getting yourself into.  Triathlon is a multi-discipline endurance sport with a strong emphasis on nutrition.  That makes it awesome, yes, but it also makes it challenging.  I mean, a reasonably fit person can perhaps fluff their way through a short sprint triathlon but really getting into the sport and training the right way is a serious commitment. 

Swim, bike, run.  Picture courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Jason DeGroot from Repercussion Comics used to say that, “Making comics is a journey, not a destination.”  Well, the same is true of triathlon, and in much the same way.  Just as you make comics by drawing them one page at a time, so too you run a triathlon by stringing together lot of different workouts, systematically building your fitness level until you’re ready to run your race.  And when you finish with one race, you aren’t done.  At that point, you’ve merely started.

My point is not to be discouraging about the sport.  Not at all.  I would humbly suggest that triathlon is maybe not the place to start one’s fitness renaissance, but if you’re already good at one or more of the disciplines, and you want to try something different, then by all means have at it.  However, if you’re still looking to run that first race, I think maybe starting with a simple 5- or 10-K run or maybe a local bicycling charity ride is a better idea.  Give that a try and see how it goes.  And when you’re ready for that next challenge, then maybe think about giving triathlon a try.