Friday, July 1, 2016

You know you're a triathlete when...

There's a million articles about this on the Internet and most people are far more qualified to write them than I am. Just as I struggle with the word "athlete" I struggle with calling myself a "triathlete" because there are so many people who are far more intense than me out there.

But the other day I had a moment that made me laugh a little in a tough situation and think to myself, "You know you're a triathlete when..."

So, before I go any further, I am okay. But this week, on my way home from work I got rear ended. It sucked and it was scary and I cried. You ever have that feeling where you're just totally wiped from the day and need a moment to yourself? I was driving home, radio off, just having some peace and quiet after a long day. Was sitting at a red light and BOOM.

Hopefully none of you reading this have been in a car accident before, but in reality probably all of you have so the details don't matter. Except that the stupid idiot JUST DROVE AWAY after. Ugh, that's what pissed me off the most. Who does that? We made eye contact, I pulled over expecting him to follow, then he just sped off when the light turned green. But ANYWAYS, once I realized I was okay, or maybe even before that, my first thought was "Oh my gosh, I am SO happy my bike was not on the back of my car!!!"

Yup, before even seeing if my car was okay or any other thoughts processing, all I thought was that I felt really happy my bike wasn't on my car. I laughed a little to myself later thinking, "You know you're a triathlete (or at least a biker) when the first thing you think about in a car accident is your bike."

Which got me thinking doing some research wondering, I wonder what other "You know you're a triathlete..." things would resonate with me. As I mentioned there are a number of articles and forums throughout the web I started reading some of them.  A number of them made me smile. A number of them didn't apply (maybe someday.) And a number of them just had me nodding and saying, "Yup!"

In case you're interested into a little bit of my life right now, these are the ones that relate pretty directly to my life! You know you're a traithlete when...

- Baggage for any out of town trip includes running gear and goggles (and lots of really stinky clothes packed in a hotel laundry back to bring home...)
- The inside of your car looks like the Sports Authority going out of business sales.
- You consider work, recovery time between training sessions.
- You have a water bottle when you drive your car.
- You take more showers at the gym than at home.
- 6:30 am is sleeping in.
- Your cologne of choice is chlorine (it never goes away!!!)
- You consider ‘bonking’ a bad thing.
- When you use the words “easy” and “long run” in the same sentence.
- You take two showers a day.
- When you think the ultimate form of wallpaper is all your racing bibs.


- After you meet someone and they tell you they race, you go home and look them up on Athlinks.
- You plan vacations around where your next race will be (Australia!!!!!!!)
- There is a group of people in your life about whom you are more likely to know how fast they can swim 100 meters than their occupations (my entire morning crew at the gym.)
- There’s a separate load of laundry every week that is just your workout clothes.
- Your bike is in your living room - possibly mounted on your trainer (see above. Note bike location.)
- You know you’re a triathlete when nobody believes you when you say “I’ll never do an Ironman”.
- Your car smells like a locker room (it's gross.)
- You spend more money on training clothes then work clothes.
- You long for the days when you only have to work out once.
- You haven’t gone out on a Friday night in 6 months (currently at home blogging!)
- You often go to work with goggle marks on your face.
- You get up earlier on the weekends than any other day of the week.
- You have completely forgotten what it feels like to sleep in.
- Your favorite day of the week is your rest day, even when that falls on a Monday.
- You panic when you have to travel out of town because you don’t know where you’ll bike.
- Your appetite is larger than anyone else you know (to be honest, this was me even when I am not training.)
- You look at all the age group race times from the past 3 years before every race.
- You get annoyed that you have to go to work because it interferes with your training.
- Just hearing the words “trainer” and “3 hours” is enough to make you shudder.
- You need a sports massage like the desert needs some rain.
- You’re constantly thinking about your next meal (this was long before training too...)

I guess I live this lifestyle just a little bit, huh? With this, I am going to wrap up for the night because I've got an early morning wakeup call on account of some training. Hope you have a great weekend!

2 comments:

  1. Almost all of these apply to me...well except the ones that reference swimming. I guess I'm a triathlete too! 😀
    - You have a water bottle when you drive your car. Lol
    I accidentally called Windy Hill "home" the other day! LoL

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