How does one become a BT'er?

Why force yourself to do a tri if you have no desire to train for one?  You can still be part of this community.  There are plenty of people on this site who don't do tris. 

Or, just HTFU and force yourself to train for one. 

Welcome!

And there are plenty who race without really training!  Not that I know any of course.

"...and I do not have time to "train" to compete in a triathlon..."

And you're right. In fact, if you said "I have 10 hours a week to train", you'd also be right. It's choices.

But try this. Take the word "compete" out of that sentence and replace it with the word "complete" or "participate". Now how does it sound?

First, you're here and you've posted, that makes you a BT'er, so welcome to the club!

There are lots of folks here that just run, or bike, or do duathons and the love still goes around.

If you just want to be a cyclist, you can still stick around and we'll cheer you on regardless.  If you get it in your head that you really want to do a tri, we'll cheer you on for that, too.

Because looking down the barrel of something you have never done before can be VERY scary!  Check out some of the sprint training plans - you may find out that they don't require as much training time as you may imagine.

And even if after looking at that, you realize you really do have too much else going on - keep biking and stick around anyway.

Jeffrey,

 I also was a long time cyclist, but got bored riding with my buddies who year after year wouldn't try to go any faster than 14 mph.  I am a little older at 48, and I did my first sprint tri a couple years ago and this year I did 6!  I agree with your assessment of the tri community.  My son who was a competitive cross-country and track runner in high school did a tri with me and kept commenting on how nice everyone was and how much fun it was.

I too understand about finding time.  I travel a lot and it is easy to miss workouts due to that and other issues I call "life" getting in the way. 

Just sign up for a sprint and don't worry about how much you train.  Do one or two and see if you get the "bug".  If you do, you will get the motivation to make some time to train.

We laugh around our home because my Saturday's are like this:  Get up, eat, train, rest, eat, train, rest, eat, go to bed.  Repeat on Sunday, except for church and only one workout instead of two!  But that was training for a half-ironman.  For sprints you don't have to do that

One other thing I will add:  we all have "seasons" in our life.  Times when we have to structure our lives differently to mesh with jobs, kids, homes, marriages,etc.  You currently have 2 under 5.  They may seem like they demand a lot of your time, but you have a few years that you could do some tris and make it a family affair.  Once they hit middle and high school, it will become harder to find time to seriously train for much of anything.  You will want to be involved in what they are involved in.  My children are now both in college and looking back, those middle and HS years were the busiest of my life. 

And lastly, by fitting in some swimming, running, maybe some weight training, you will become a better cyclist if that is what you end up sticking with.  The cross training aspects of triathlon will make you healthier and stronger!

And  I'd say the general cycling community isn't too bad either, once you have done a few rides and get to know people.

Welcome to BT!  We all have to juggle family and work obligations but still find time to make it work.  If you want it, and enjoy it, you will find time for it.

Like others have said - it's a matter of choices.  I hate to get up early, and the few times I tried to get in an early workout it was a disaster.  But especially living in Florida the weather for you will be conducive to year round training.  You don't need to join a gym, just find somewhere safe to swim and run.  Run on the streets of your neighborhood. I do most of my runs in a combination of loops from my back door in Pennsylvania, with some longer weekend runs on local trails. I used to belong to the town pool when I lived in Hershey, since it had a great pool that was available year round.  But now I had to join a local gym with a lap pool (I tried using one of the colleges locally, but it was a little bit of a drive into a somewhat seedy area that in the dark of winter made me worry about my car still being there at the end of a swim).

If you substitute even one run and swim for a bike ride each week, you will be able to finish a short tri.  Then when you get the bug, you will be more motivated to up the workouts.  Yes your life is busy.  But I was most active in triathlon when both mrs gearboy and myself were in our residencies with two kids under the age of 5.  It was actually in some ways easier, since as the kids got older and involved in their own activities, it got harder to find to time that I did not need to schlep them around to soccer/gymnastics/dance/piano/girl scouts/horseback/guitar/etc.

First of all, you are right it is difficult to find the time to train and perhaps what is most difficult at times is to find the motivation to train.  One of the easiest ways to find the time/motivation is to sign up for an event and get going.  I sat on the sidelines for years as a single sport athlete, with "the swim keeping me away".  I think you will find that the Tri community is perhaps the nicest group of athletes you will find.  Just get signed up for a Sprint and do your best.  You will have lots of questions because it is a bit more involved from an equipment/detail perspective.  You go to a race and pretty much everyone helps each other out.  What is great is the races are a blast.  I would imagine the experience is maybe different for the elite, but when you are on the course it is more of a sharing of an experience than a competition.   You are out there doing your best along side others doing the same.

At times I feel guilty about the amount of time I choose to find and how that affects my family time.  The past couple of weeks I have really had a lot of trouble with motivation, which is not so good when I just have two weeks before a HIM.  The shorter stuff does not require so much time and almost anyone can find an hour in a day to workout.  Your health is a very justifiable investment.  

If you ride already you only have to get in runs and swims. Some folks do sprints of 4-5 hours a week. How much time do you spend riding? Just reorganize your time.

3 30' runs a week? Anyone can do that. Lunch time? Watch less TV, get up earlier.

Swims are more time consuming as they usally mean going to the pool, swim, shower, change, drive someplace so a 30' swim can take 1.5 hours easily.

If you want it bad enough you will find a way.

You are a BTer already since you joined the group.

Pick a sprint in the spring, sign up and use that as motivation to train.

I too was primarily a cyclist and was looking for another challenge.  I have replaced some of my bike time with swim and run training.  This community is a huge motivator!  For the last 6 weeks, since I have been training for tri's, I have been able to incorporate my training with some family time.

I have a 4 1/2 year old, and I take him and my wife to the park to throw the ball and play with the dog while I run...my wife has even gotten involved.  We are fortunate in that the university pool has a childrens class at the same time as open swim, so we throw him in there for some expensive baby sitting.

Just swim a little, run a little, and do a sprint!

We have a couple of super-sprints in Northern VA that are 300 yard swim, 18 mile bike and 2 mile run.

A ton of bike guys participate!

I guess everyone has different reasons for doing tris.  I like to run.  I like to bike.  I like to swim.  So doing triathlons makes sense for me.

Someone posted here recently that they hate swimming.  I can't imagine anyone wanting to do triathlons if they don't enjoy S/B/R.

Doing tris to fit into a cumminty is the wrong reason.  The reason we are a cumminity is becasue we S/B/R.....we don't S/B/R to be part of a cummunity.  If training is drudgery, you won't enjoy triathlons. 

People often ask "What is the BEST exercise for health and fitness?"  Some will argue it's swimming.....some say aerobics...some say running.  The answer to this proverbial quesiton is, "The best exercise is the one you will do - consistantly, over a long period of time".

Sorry for the ramble.  Welcome to BT!

~Mike

Kathy G said it best, you're already a BT'er by signing up to be here and posting.

Welcome aboard.  There's room here for folks who prefer one of any of the three disciplines here, though from what I can tell a lot of people hate swimming more than anything.  There's also a fair amount of "I hate running" folks here.  Just hang out and you'll see the sentiments. 

Triathlon is still an amazing sport and loads of fun. 

Jonah - \\

I never biked, ran (for enduracne) or swam until last february.  I too am a lawyer.  I too have 2 kinds under five.  If you're a lifelong cyclist and have always swam, ran a bunch of 5Ks, it seems you are well ahead of where I was when I stumbled on tri.

To be blunt: if you don;t want to do a tri, then don't, no one will care.  Don't do anything to prove you can do it and check it off your list of stuff to do prior to a dirt nap.  Do it for your reasons.  If you like biking bike, why pull from your enjoyment of biking to say you completed a triathlon? 

On the other hand, if you you are just posting this to get a "hey you can do it man"... then HEY YOU CAN DO IT MAN!  You already have all the elements.  After a ride, run for a few minutes (that's called a brick, you'll understand why after doing it).  Go swim a bunch and have you kids kick you in the head while doing laps (thats a tri swim start).  Best of luck!

 Absolutely you would get something out of it.  Actually I would do just that.  Train just enough to keep from getting inuried and see if it suits your fancy.  You might even try just gong to one and geting a feel of what goes on first.  But like Trixie said........be careful!  You might just get bit