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This weekend, I realized just how different my training is this summer as compared to last summer.  Last year, I was focused on 70.3 training, which meant much higher mileage, especially on my bike.  A 60+ mile weekend ride was the norm, and that was easily 4-5 hours, including a stop at the gas station for snacks, a bathroom break, and refilling water.

This weekend, I did have a 9 mile run on the schedule, so not so terribly different from last summer, but my bike ride was only 2.5 hours.   I didn’t have to start at the crack of dawn and I still had a good amount of my day left.  I have to admit, I really enjoyed it.

I got out around 7:30 and rode 17 miles, then joined up with the group at Princeton Sports and rode the same 17 mile course a second time.  Somehow, I swear those hills grew between the two rides.  It really was the perfect way to do the ride.  I had to push myself through the first part to ensure that I made it back to join the group ride, and the presence of other cyclists kept me moving through the second part.  I was still slower on the second loop, but some of that is likely also due to the warmth of the day.

(And no, I didn’t quite hit 2.5 hours – I was off my 8 minutes.)

I finished the ride not feeling completely drained, did a quick 2 mile run, went to the grocery store (sorry, fellow shoppers), managed to not buy all the food in the place, and by the time I was home and showered, still had plenty of time left in the day.

That’s not to say that I won’t ever race a 70.3 again, but I’m really enjoying the balance that I get focusing on the olympic distance.  I still worked out over 8 hours this week, and that’s with missing a workout due to work commitments.  So it’s not like I’m being lazy this summer, but I feel like I have decent balance.

Given what I have planned in my life for next year (a northern European cruise in August), I’m not sure a 70.3 fits next year, due to scheduling, vacation hours, and funds, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.  I definitely don’t want it to be a one-and-done type of thing, but I also think I may be an olympic distance athlete.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I think in running and triathlon, there’s this push to do the next thing.  If you run 10ks, you get asked when you’re doing your first half marathon.  Once you do a half, people ask you when you’re going to do a full marathon.  And don’t get me started on ultras.  I did two marathons.  I don’t have any desire to do another, not because I didn’t like them, but because I just didn’t want to be spending that much time training.  I still get prodded about doing a 140.6 triathlon.  I’m completely uninterested.  I need balance in my life.

People seem to always find a way to cheat.  Doping is nothing new in triathlon.  It’s clearly wrong, but it’s not new, and we all know it’s continuing.  The above is a screenshot from a post on SlowTwitch.  For anyone who can’t see the image, to summarize, a woman was caught letting air out of the tire of one of her competitors just prior to IM 70.3 Syracuse.  Thankfully, she was reported, disqualified, and the victim’s tire was reinflated.

I’m sure more reporting will come out, and I would very much like to hear from this woman why she was messing with someone else’s bike (allegedly, she claimed she was trying to inflate someone else’s tire, but got the bikes confused – if so, why did air come out of a tire and not go in?).  But the sad thing is, this isn’t a unique situation.

When athletes dope, they’re only risking their own health.  When someone messes with someone else’s equipment, they’re risking injury to that other athlete.  You might think that letting air out of someone’s tire will just make them slower, or make them have to stop to change the tube (thinking there was a puncture in it).  But this could also lead to a crash and physical injury to the athlete (or to other athletes if the crash takes down others, which can very easily happen).

You hear of all sorts of suspected sabotage.  An athlete’s seatpost suddenly drops during a race because the clamp has been loosened, even though it has never fallen before.  An athlete leaves transition and finds her brake pads are misaligned and rubbing (though this can happen from the bike being accidentally bumped in transition). Tires mysteriously go flat.  Items disappear from transition.

Of course, some of this can happen randomly or by accident.  I don’t understand how you can accidentally grab someone else’s shoes in transition, but I suppose it’s possible. And when something mechanical goes wrong on your bike, sometimes that’s just dumb luck.

But sometimes, it’s because people have decided that sabotage is a great way to cheat.  Conveniently, I’m not really competition for anyone, so let’s hope my stuff is safe.  But this really mars the spirit of triathlon.  I have seen plenty of people stop to help others during races.  We’ve all seen people helping others over the finish line.  That’s the sport I love.  And sure, you can be competitive.  You can push to be faster than someone else.  But the goal is that you are faster, not that you make someone else slower.  And there’s certainly no glory in getting there by cheating.