The older I get, the faster I go.
Triathlon is a great metaphor of life. Life is about balance. It’s easy to get a little more focused on something’s and inadvertently let some other things slide. Triathlon is exactly the same. The 5 legs of a triathlon are Swim, transition 1, Bike, transition 2, and run. All five are very different and rely on balance and efficiency to move from the word “GO” to the finish line. The best swimmers, runners or bikers will never realize their full potential in a triathlon without this paradigm. There is so much going on in a triathlon that the most able bodied athlete will lose out to the efficient athlete every time. Notice that 50 year old men are beating their 25 year old counter parts. These aging athletes have learned to move efficiently in all 5 legs of a triathlon. With respect to athletic conditioning, the swim is all about hydrodynamics and moving efficiently through the water. The bike, draft legal or not, focuses on aerodynamics. The run is all about the technique. Anyone can go for a run but if you want to go faster and farther without injury, the efficiency of technique plays a rather large role. The transition is all about flow. Now I’ve only been involved in triathlon since 1999, but in that time, I’ve never seen a transition area labeled “Rest Area”. The Transition is a “transition” from one leg of the race to another and when done efficiently is a thing of beauty. A smooth flow of steps prepared in advance for an in and out that can be accomplished in seconds.
Notice that the triathlon over-all winning times have been getting faster over the years? The genetic composition of the human species has not evolved that much in 25 years. We’re not getting in better shape, we’re becoming more efficient.
My most recent race is such a great example of what I am talking about. I am 44 and I just shaved over 2 minutes off of my best Olympic Distance Triathlon race time. Every year since I started racing triathlons, I’ve set a new personal best. Every Year! No, I was never a fat tub of goo and having been tested, I am not a gifted athlete either. I am an average guy with a passion for fitness.
The cool thing is that I can still see ways to shave more time without necessarily putting in much more training time; just being more efficient in the time that I do train.
So the bottom line here is that as long as there are guys older than me with faster race times, I know that I’m NOT getting to old for this sh!%.
