After an extensive conversation with Terry, I managed to find out several different aspects of triathlon life.
His list of triathlon accomplishments include one sprint triathlon, six olympic distances, 4 1/2 Ironman races and 1 Ironman. When we discussed his races for this upcoming season, he mentioned doing two olympic distances then going to the USAT national championships. However, I'm unclear whether it's to qualify for a team or just to compete for a title.
In this transcript, we touched on the subject of body image, which was quite humorous.
Here are extensive snippets of our interview, edited ever so slightly for content, impact and humor.
**Note: All of my questions and comments are denoted with "C:". Also, some parts are from the previous interview that I didn't fully include. So there might be some repeated content. Not much though.
Here's a key for understanding the conversation:
Brick = a workout that combines two of the sports (i.e. cycling and running in one session)
Trainer = a sort of stand that allows people to mount their bikes and cycle indoors
C: OK, with that being said (we just talked about the hubris belt), you think that’s why you stay with it?
Probably. Another thing is if you look at a world class runner, say a world class 10k, there’s a really ... small group of guys who are at the world class level being a 10k runner. And their running time is around 27 minutes, which is just insane to think about. There’s a much larger group of people who can run more comfortably in the low 30s and that’s where you’re going to find you’re world class triathletes. They’ll usually come from athletes who have gotten to a really high level in one sport, they can’t quite break through, but since they’re sort of used to working you — and that’s just an a part of their life.
You can pick up the other two fairly quickly and there’s an old saying about triathletes: They don’t do anything well, but they do the three sports well enough. So I think that’s why you’ll find a lot of people who’ll start with triathlons and really stick with it. Because not only does it present a challenge to you to try and get better at all three of the sports, but you can kind of get away with some stuff. Laugh
C: I know exactly what you mean. My friend used to be a water polo player and a swimmer, and those guys are a beast in the water. And he had 8 minutes on me out of the swim and it took me the whole bike portion to catch up to him…
Once you do that, you know. So I think the challenge is getting all three of them up to a high level where … you have as little weaknesses as possible. And if you look at the guys, any athletes who are consistently the top guys (in triathlons), you’ll find they don’t really have a weakness. But it’s really, really hard to get to that level in all three sports.
C: I mean it takes, what does it take?
Well I don’t know.
C: What do you think it takes?
I think it takes uh … tremendous amounts of mental focus and tremendous amount of belief in your own physical capabilities as well as some kind of situation where you have a good 25 to 30 hours a week just to train ... I would love to be able to kind of experiment for an off-season to a season, just training basically full-time.
(At this point, I realized that training full-time was equivalent of having a full-time job. Terry had accomplished his races as a part-time athlete.)
***
C: I mean when you get to the Ironman level, when you were training for the Ironman, how closely did you watch your diet?
I was conscious of it but I wasn’t really strict about it. Just trying to eat a fairly balanced diet is always good? Definitely when you’re doing a lot of heart training it’s even more important. Just kind of looking, watching the quality of my calories was the biggest thing I paid attention to.
C: The quality as in what you put into your system?
So like, you know, say I’ll go for 1.5 hour bike ride, roughly burn 900 to 1,000 calories doing that and then go for an easy 6 mile run that night and burn around 500 caloreis. That’s 1,500 calories extra you have to eat during the day as well as the rough the 2000 calories your body needs in order to function that day. So you can go to Popeyes and throwdown 3500 calories pretty easily, but you know it’s not the best source. Trying to be conscious of the quality of the calroies I was getting was definitely the hardest part. Days I do the real crazy 6, 7 hour brick workouts, oh man, you burn a ton of calories so just replacing that was just a good kind of challenge in itself.
Diet, it’s something you kind of get accustomed to being aware of, and I’m sure if you look at the real elite athletes, they’re much stricter about their diets. It’s tough living in New York and having any kind of crap food easily available at all times. But it’s definitely something to be aware of. I’m sure if you ask triathletes, they’ll say yes. On varying levels of seriousness.
C: I know a lot of people that go into the running, particularly running, they do it just to lose weight. People who want to be triathletes, is it that reasoning or is it something higher?
I think um…I would say probably any triathlete you question would say they are at least aware of their body image. Because you have to spend anywhere from an hour to over 10 hours in some cases in spandex. So you’re definitely used to seeing yourself in your own skin I guess.
C: What was it like to put on the spandex for the first time?
The first time I was in one of the dressing room here. It definitely was a little awkward.
C: When you looked in the mirror what did you say?
“Uh….this looks goofy. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
C: Were you wearing a singlet or a top and bottom?
Top and bottom. I haven’t yet braved a one-piece tri suit.
C: Ah…it takes a brave man to wear that. A very brave man.
Yeah. Maybe someday though.
***
C: So tell me about your training schedule when you were training for the Ironman. What would your typical day be like? What time would you get up?
I get up usually around 7 (a.m.), so not really too early. At this point I was a senior in college so I had maybe something real easy, like 11 hours of a class a week. So that was cool, but I was working here probably 40 hours a week. I was definitely busy, but the earliest obligation I would have during that time would be 11 (a.m.). So I try getting up at 7 or even a little after that, I would have plenty of time to do like a morning hour… hour-and-a-half workout.
And then … after school or work or whatever, I would get in another workout. Usually, I did two or three two-a-day workouts from Monday to Friday and it was convenient at the time. I really didn’t have a ton to do for school and I didn’t really have a social life. So that was cool. And then on the weekends, Saturday would usually be um…a longer ride or brick day. So ride was anywhere between three and six hours. The bricks would last anywhere between four — the craziest one was eight.
C: Wow.
That was just sick. That was a good day. (He smiled with some satisfaction after he said this.) So that would be like my biggest hours day. And then Sunday I have to work here all day from 11 to 7. So I usually just try and get in like a longer run in the morning. Occasionally, I’d get back on the bike after work, but by the time Sunday night rolled around … I probably didn’t make that second bike workout on Sundays.
***
C: When you like, I know you know what a base is, you know I know what a base is. Can you explain what it is to me?
Yeah, you’re just training large muscle groups to do prolonged amount of work at the most efficient level.
C: And how long was your base for that year?
It was roughly… So, see the race was in April of 2008, which kind of sucks coming ... cause I had to train over the winter rather than have my summer to train. So much of my — pretty much all of my bike miles were on an indoor trainer. Even though it was crazy, 4, 5, 6 hour rides on a trainer. Which was really boring.
C: Wow. Did you want to…you probably wanted to slam your head against the wall a couple of times.
Well, I kept myself busy just with either music or I had a netflix subscription so I just got a lot of movies and just sat on the trainer for 4 or 5 hours. But so it was, I kind of started training for the Ironman at a good time because all of 2007 I had a tri season that lasted from june to the end of sept. that year. I got four races in over those 4 months.
C: This is your Ironman year?
This is the year before the Ironman because the Ironman was in the early part of 2008. So this is 2007, like June of 2007 to late September. I was doing tri training. And I was doing the New York City Marathon in November. so I had a really nice fitness level coming into Ironman training.
So I was starting definitely where I wanted to be or even ahead of where I wanted to be as far as fitness level went. It was just a matter of doing like, upping my swim endurance and definitely getting the bike up to speed. I wasn’t too concerned about the run just cause I had done four marathons at that point and I know I wasn’t going to race the run section of the Ironman, I was just going to kind of survive it as much as possible. But I still wanted to get the mileage, but the run wasn’t quite biggest concern of mine, it was definitely the bike and the swim, which are the two that I can always work a little bit harder. Especially the swim.
So yeah, most of the base period was just focused getting more mileage on the bike, getting comfortable on the bike, getting more than you know, 3 hours. Which takes a while cause like you know for a long time it’s difficult, but you definitely need time to kind of get your body flexible enough to be in that awkward position for six hours and also to develop enough core strength to be in that position for six hours and not keel over.
C: And then the build period. Can you tell me what a build period is?
Yeah, so the build period is after your base period where you start out with a little bit of intensity. Definitely your mileage and the distance for all three are staying fairly close, but the intensity is building and that’s where you’re really developing your race day fitness and form.
So the swim workouts you’ll get to do some more intense sets, and some speed work on the bike and running, you’ll add some kind of moderate tempo runs there depending on what you’re training for — this is for Ironman training. But definitely for short distance, then you’re doing a lot of track work on the run, a lot of biking intervals and a lot of short pool intervals. So that’s when you’re really adding the speed, or kind of developing those fast twitch speedy muscles.
***
C: Now when a person goes into an Ironman race, do they go with a sense of individuality: Meaning this is me, this is my race, or this is us, we’re all training?
Well that’s…I’m sure it’d be different if I trained with a group and we were all training for one race. I’m sure there’d be a little bit more kind of a commune group sense, but you get really lonely doing an Ironman. So it’s definitely a pretty…pretty individual experience. But yeah, I mean it’s having done all the training by myself, I definitely prepared for that kind of “All right, it’s all on me” mentality going into the race. So I was pretty terrified.
C: OK. You just said it was pretty lonely. Being a triathlete or being a triathlete going into a race?
I think that doing an Ironman is pretty lonely.
C: The training for the race or the whole thing?
The whole thing probably.
C: Why’s that?
Just cause you’re, and this is from my personal experience cause I did it all on my own, so I’m sure if I’d done it in a group, it would’ve probably felt a lot different.
At least for me, I’ve done all the training together, maybe I had done out of hundreds of workouts leading up to the race, I had maybe done five with other ppl. And that was probably casual runs on the track with someone.
So and then on the race, you know you’re on your bike by yourself for a sort of long time. And at the beginning, everyone gets out of the swim roughly at the same time, so a lot people at the beginning and then the further you get into the bike the more it thins out. Then there are portions where I couldn’t see the next cyclist in front of me. And it wasn’t cause I was so far behind them, you know it just thins out.
You really have to uh…be comfortable with talking to yourself I guess. Or just kind of have the mental focus to keep everything in perspective and always have the “All right, just keep moving forward” mentality. It’s..everyone…people are doing everything from running to hobbling. It’s not like you can really run with anyone. The greatest part were the aid stations because it was 97 degrees for the high, I think, and they had ice...
Yeah, the aid stations. Like they just had ice so you could cool off. Those are the highlights of the run. I find really small things that are really exciting
C: Oh, ok. Well I know what you mean. When you do marathons do you talk to yourself too?
Yeah, definitely. I mean any race, even if it’s a sprint, I’ve only done one, but I do remember talking to myself a little bit.
Goals for next time:
Questions~
-Ask about heart training
-What an average triathlete looks like. Is he average or beyond?
-The sacrifices made for the sport
-Ask about symbols of accomplishments (bib numbers, trophies, mental trophies?)
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