I hate genetics

Fender, i hear ya, brother! genetics are a be@tch. i'm in the same boat as you. in fact, i just had this conversation with a few friends the other day.

but, we all came from monkeys, so, compared to them, you're doing great! maybe not as strong or hairy, but you get the idea

Yah I understand your frustration.

We need to make peace with our natural abilities or genetics and train smart to maximize what we have. We all have plenty of room to improve.

That's what we people who are built like, as my friend who eat sausage and provolne grinders every day for lunch, says "frozen yogurt machines" would like to believe.  

I agree.  It sucks.   

I would say that MOST people in the general population are more genetically suited to tris than I am.  I decided not to let this stop me from trying to become good at it.  As is true for other areas in life, some people just have to work harder for their achievements, and maybe the upside is that your accomplishments mean more to you.

But I can definitely see how losing to chicken wing guy would be super frustrating!!

reminds of an old saying..."It ain't no thing but a chicken wing."  Proper verbalization of it makes it read, "It ain't no thang but a chicken wang." 

Considering I am barely sub-Clyde, I feel you pain.  I feel like I gain weight eating a single soybean sometimes.  Great for the weight-room...sucks for Tris.

Sure they eat like that now, but who knows what their long-term health effects are going to be.  They could be damaging themselves and not know for 10 or 20 years.  That's one of the frustrating things about being in medical research.  We don't have a good understanding of how these things work.  I wish we did.  In the long run, I think you're better off eating healthy and doing the best you can with what you've got.

"He plays soccer for his college team..."

'Nuff said right there. Look at him again in another 20 years.

It's like what I keep telling guys who look at these young actresses and say "they're hot." My reply is: I won't even know if they're "hot" for at least another 15 years. Until then, they're just young.

Hard work beats talent hardly working every time

When I stopped bike racing in '98 and got married in '99 and then we had kids from then on I went from my 6'-1" and 170 lbs. all the way up to close to 230 at my highest ....... in the span of about 5 years .......

All because I continued to eat like I did when I raced.  But without any excercise.

Now I'm back down into the 170's again.

It is not all genetic.  Your metabolism can be trained just like the rest of your body.

I knew a guy in volleyball, that could jump out of the gym and NEVER workout.  His idea of training was sitting on the couch stuffing his face.  He could just walk onto the court and dominate.

Where my training paid off for me, was at the end of a long tournament, and he is gassed and cramping, and I'm still going strong....

"I hate losing to the chicken-wing guy."

 Ha - I love it!

I was lucky enough to win my age group at a few triathlons back-in-the-day and, in my experience, it added little to the joy of the sport.  No matter what one's genes+training+wings score is, there will almost certainly be someone faster.  IMO, one of the great things about doing triathlons is that there is something about it that makes it a self-satisfying endeavor no matter your AG place at the end of the day. 

The only exception I can think of is if you are fast enough to be a professional.  But even then, the added fun would I think come from being able to dedicate more time to the sport rather than from being faster.

 Just my 2c.

 Rob

(p.s.  Maybe you should try some of those wings! )

 Thank you!!! You just hit the pause button on my mid-life crisis.

(Tonight's run will hit "play" again.)

Try being the older brother (by just 18months) to a complete genetic exception.  He could just about whip anyone at anything even if he never played before.  It was no fun being in his shadow as the older brother.  I stopped playing football my 10th grade year much because the team could never stop comparing us and it was more fun being his fan than teammate.  I still played baseball but the competition was not nearly as bad.  

I was a above average athlete as well but that never mattered to others.  The only thing that mattered was how good I was against my brother.