Priorities / Wetsuit Whizzin'

I have a friend, I consider him one of my best friends, who has had a shift in his priorities. With this change of priorities he has to neglect something that he himself introduced me to--cyclocross.

My friend is going to go for the whole enchilada, a real Ironman. It will be his first one and in order to train for it he basically has to forget about cyclocross and perhaps a fair bit of mountain biking too. He lives in Utah, so neglecting mountain biking there is sort of a sin in my opinion. Maybe I am wrong about the mountain biking part--if so I am relieved. However he stated there would be no cyclocross. How sad. In fact, I have gone out there for the past 3 or 4 years to visit him and ride out there. Each time I have totally enjoyed myself, he is a very gracious host.

If you have not trained for a triathlon, it is a huge amount of work. Swimming 3 days a week. Running two days a week and biking two days per week. Your long training weeks are around 13 to 15 hours total. The training rides are not normally rides that are just for fun. No, most plans call for targeted heart rates during these rides and so you have to plan accordingly. No max heart rate rides up steep mountain roads followed by long fast descents. Nope, the goal is normally a consistent heart rate in order to train to swim, ride and run for something like 13 hours on race day without cracking.

So I get it why he has to forgo cross. The race is at the end of November, and cross races fall on probably the only day he has time for long rides/runs. Still, I feel like I might tear up just a little bit for the guy. To miss a whole season of cyclocross just so that he can suffer from sun-up to sun-down for the Ironman. I can maybe see doing this once to say he did it, but I just hope he doesn't make a habit of this. I mean I did my first Half Ironman and I felt like I really accomplished something, so I get why he is doing it. But there is this part of me that was shocked to hear that he would not be doing any cross races.

Nevertheless, best of luck, man!

Addendum: Wetsuit Whizzin'


This fellow's wife is also a triathlon competitor and she recently wrote the following on their family blog

There are two types of people: those who pee in wetsuits and those who lie about it.

I thought this was sort of funny. I swear I have never whizzed in my wetsuit, but I think I would be honest enough to admit if I have done so. Anyway, no big deal. Then about two hours ago I realized something sort of startling. My wetsuit used to be this fellow's wetsuit. I have only used it 3 times and never washed it or anything. I wonder what the chances that there was some residual whiz in the wetsuit when I first put it on? Oh well, whatever. Whiz is probably cleaner than some of the water I have swam in. But still, it was an odd/disturbing realization to make just a bit ago--swimming in a wetsuit he has whizzed in. A little late to use Lysol now. Something to think about next time you buy a used wetsuit or rent one.