One day a wise man told me that triathlon is not three different sports but one discipline that has 3 moments. Only by considering it as a whole can it be addressed: its parts (swimming, biking and running-for those who do not yet know) make up a unit that is a sport.
In truth, he was not a sage (nor a soothsayer of Terzanian memory) but a friend. Triathlete, needless to specify.
As those who read me (and those who listen to our podcast “Outliers” know) between Sandro and me, I am not the one doing triathlons. I look at him with respect and admiration but I am not very friendly with him. Basically, I still see him as a three-headed beast: when I talk to him, I don’t know exactly which of the three I am addressing. And then how much effort: as if running wasn’t already enough, let’s add swimming and biking.
If I talk about my experience, however, it is not to talk about me-I think it is useful because it is similar to that of so many others who have perhaps thought that maybe they could try it but keep putting it off. I turn to you to say that the first step in trying is to put it off. It sounds like a paradox, but it means that you are thinking about it and therefore see that possibility on the horizon.
So what follows are somewhat more general tips and thoughts that might apply to you. In fact: they concern you because if you have come this far to read it means you are thinking about it. Oh yes, confess!
1. You don’t have to start with a ball
If you have a distrustful relationship with triathlon, it means you already have a relationship. Let’s say you’d like to try but you don’t want to give him the satisfaction of giving yourself away and give him your body and mind for the next few years.
An easy way to create a healthy relationship with the sport is to approach it with a certain calculated detachment, without giving too much away. The message you have to give is, “I don’t care, but running I’ve decided to go alongside biking or swimming. And then it’s my business.” In other words: you can approach it by becoming familiar with biking or swimming, even without including them (for now) in an integrated triathlon training program. Start talking to each other for now. Then it will be seen. If you are interested in the bike here we tell you how to choose it and how much to spend. And you can find everything about how to cope with swimming here.
2. A lesson in energy economics
There is one thing that has always fascinated me about triathlon: the fact that it teaches you to rationalize (and rationalize) your energy. You can’t do a triathlon by using them all up in the first swim session because that would mean not having any more for the next two sessions. In short, you have to be able to figure out how much energy you can expend per session and then use it. Not only that, you also have to be able to calculate which one will take you the most effort depending on your ability to practice it. Let me explain: even the greatest triathletes have a favorite discipline, or at least one in which they know they will perform the least. There are those who are great at swimming but less in the other two, there are those who rock on the bike and can make up for lost time in the water, etc., you get my point.
When you take on a triathlon, you need to know where you certainly won’t make a good time and where you can make it up and accordingly measure your strength in those fractions. In short, there is a lot of applied intelligence, a lot of race strategy. And the great thing is also that it is by no means certain that those who “come out of the water poorly” (i.e., those who had a disappointing first session) are destined to lose: they could make up a great deal while riding their bikes or running. Triathlon is one sport but is still made up of three different moments.
3. You are already a triathlete
Perhaps this is a bit of a consolatory speech: people who do not do triathlons but want to let it be understood that they have internalized its message might do so. Me, basically. It is either you or him and also her that you are thinking about it.
This is the most philosophical and final reflection I offer. It starts from the observation that our society sees us in one dimension. Make a point of it: when you meet a new person, ask them what they do for a living. You need to place it in a context, to understand who it is, what segment of society it is in, etc. These are labels that allow you to hastily-and very often erroneously-understand what kind of human being we are dealing with. As if all engineers or bakers or actresses are the same.
It would never occur to a triathlete to call himself a swimmer or a cyclist or a runner: he is that, too, but he is first and foremost a triathlete.
We are not the work we do but we are something more: everyone has a third dimension, a depth. They are the passions, the loves, what, besides the profession, defines them as human beings.
I finally realized what appeals to me “philosophically” about triathlon: that it is three-dimensional. It has a length, width and depth. Each of these dimensions is a discipline and together they define a being-athlete.
I conclude with a thought I often have about music. It is a simple theory of mine, but it has a foundation. He says those who are passionate music performers eventually end up playing jazz or classical. It also happens to those who simply love to listen to music: the more you love it, the more you are drawn to delve into it and the more space in its myriad expressions, the more inevitable it is that you will come to love jazz or classical music, by far among the most complex forms of musical expression that exist.
Triathlon is a bit of the jazz and classical of sports: it is more strenuous, it is more complex, and for many it is incomprehensible. However, if you love playing sports and running in particular, it is almost inevitable that sooner or later your attention will shift in that direction.
I, meanwhile, am looking with an increasingly ravenous eye at bikes. I’m not saying I want to buy one but I’m just saying that it’s never a given. Meanwhile, I look at them. How about you?