Slornow's and Wannabefaster's Summer Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 47)

That sounds like fun! Definitely motivation throughout the season.

Rachel-here is the link to an explanation of how the ratings are calculated. You have to race 3 USAT sanctioned races in order to be ranked at the end of the year. The top 5% in each age group for the year earn "All American" honors and top 10% Honorable Mention All American. The system is far from perfect but provides a rating for each person in a race. If you race more than 3 races in the year then the best 3 scores are used for your year end ranking.

http://www.usatriathlon.org/rankings/rankings-criteria.aspx

The heat is about to break here.  After a week in the 90s-100s, it is going to be in the 70s to 80s which is great news for local people racing in two different HIMs this weekend.  No racing for me and training is light too.  

I have a question for the group.  How did you set up your bike for hydration and carrying anything else you need.  I have a dual chamber front mount and a cage on the downtube, but that's it.  As IM draws closer, I need to figure out where to carry things other than fluid (e.g salt tabs, etc).

For those that use tubulars, do you actually carry a full size spare tire for long distance racing?  where?????

Good conversation on women in triathlons. I think that women have less free/flexible time in general. Typically, the woman still has more responsibilities in maintaining the house, child care and cooking even when they are employed. I think its just that long ingrained assumption that those are a woman's responsibilities. Hopefully, that is continuing to change.

On the issue of youth sports I think there are several things to think about. This is a generalization but I don't think as many young girls/teens are as passionate about their sports as their male counterparts because: 1.there are fewer women pro athletes for them to emulate or idolize;  2. With there being fewer women's professional sports most girls don't see themselves as a professional athlete someday while most younger boys dream of being a professional in their favorite sport (even though it is highly unlikely); 3. There is very little media attention on the few women's pro sports that do exist.  There are other factors but I think that is part of it.

I bet most of us could name only a few women pro athletes while I could probably name dozens of professional male athletes from football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, track, triathlon etc.... The only female professional sports that seem to get much exposure are golf and tennis. My son played competitive soccer for years and now runs in college. If soccer or a track event are on TV he is watching it. My daughter who also runs and plays soccer could care less about watching. Thats just an example as I'm sure there are young girls that are golfers or tennis players that watch the pro events religously. 

In the US for most college sports it is easier for a girl to get an athletic scholarship than a male (generalization). This is due in large part to Title IX which attempted to provide more equality in womens sports/scholarships at the college level.  Here is how scholarships/athletic spending is treated:

   Scholarships: The total amount of athletic aid must be substantially proportionate to the ratio of female and male athletes. For example, consider a college with 90 female athletes and 115 male athletes and a scholarship budget of $100,000. An equitable distribution of funds would award $44,000 in scholarship aid to female athletes and $56,000 to males

At larger colleges a big part of the budget for scholarships goes to football. At those schools the women's sports are typically better funded than the male sports (other than football). For instance at most NCAA Division 1 Universities the men's cross country/track and field team will have 11-12 scholarships and the women's teams 18. At Alabama there are approx 45 men in the cross country/track and field program so very few are on full scholarships as the scholarships are broken down and spread among the team. There will be a similar number of women on their team but more scholarship money per athlete. The result of Title IX has been to reduce the number of male sports at the college level and that is in large part due to the high number of football players on a team with most getting scholarships. At Alabama there are 7 male scholarship sports competing at the Division I level and 10 female sports. 

But, while males going to college and playing football, basketball or baseball may aspire to play professionally there are fewer opportunities in the female sports for a girl to continue on in a sport professionally after college. Other than golf and tennis there just really are not many pro leagues for female athletes to go to. There are exceptions but for the most part female athletes have few athletic options in their sport after college. Wow, sounds like the kind of folks that would love the excitement and competition of triathlon!

Wow, that is alot. I'm headed to the beach for the weekend so limited internet. Will check in when I can.   

It's funny... my first few events actually had more women than men.  I was surprised about it at the time -- then I thought it must be normal (silly man, triathlon is for women!)   

• Sept 2012 sprint tri:   162 women / 141 men
• Oct 2012 10K:  230 women / 148 men
• April 2013 sprint tri:  111 women / 77 men
• May 2013 half marathon:  1769 women / 1280 men

Then when I switched to Olympic distance, it shifted to a majority of men.

• June 2013 Olympic tri:  107 women  / 134 men
• July 2013 Olympic tri:  105 women / 175 men

However -- none of these ratios is as lopsided as you guys are describing -- this is mostly 40/60 vs. 60/40.  Maybe it's a regional thing (South vs. North, Canada vs. US)

Scott.

Oh... and since I missed the previous posting...

"Hoos" is a spousal nickname.  When we got married, my wife and I started calling each other "Husband" and "Wife".

"Husband" became "Hoosband" (long U)

"Hoosband" was then shortened to "Hoos"

Silly, I know!