Do any of you 'give up' stuff while training for a race?

I don't give it up, but I limit my beer intake to just a few/month.  I often wonder if triathlon is really worth the trade off.

all of my money.....

I wonder that too, when friends are enjoying a tasty beverage all around you.

Tri training isn't Lent... so no

except of course, like Newbz said, money.

Not really. I'm one of the most God awful boringist people you'll ever meet so there's not a whole hell of a lot I COULD give up

Sigh. Yup.

I do give up eating *as much* grease, processed food, sugar (no adding sugar to anything for starters) ...

Until someone begins paying me to do triathlons, I'm going to enjoy whatever makes me happy in sensible moderation. Including training.

I've never been a big fan of depriving myself of the things I like (with the exception of lenten season sacrifices), so...NO...

Moderation is the key for me.  A couple beers a month.  The occasional ice-cream indulgence.  I have a 12-ounce bag of dark chocolate peanut M&M's sitting on my desk right now (they've been here for several weeks...unfortunately, the first bag only lasted 3 or 4 days...) 

Wow - no sugar for that long!! That's hard core.
Last year was my fisrt year racing anything really. I went way crazy eating everything I could get my hands on. Smores are a great recovery food, right?
This year I am TRYING (not always successful) to "eat clean". No just for a race though, just because I felt gross from eating all of that junk.
Like the previous post I pretty much have eliminated alcohol for most of the summer. Mostly because of racing, the heat, not wanting to be dehydrated or have to deal with headaches from 1 glass of wine.

What motivates you to give something up? Just curious. I'm not good about giving stuff up, probably because I'm catholic. Lent always = quilt.

Ha ha, I see I'm not the only Catholic.....

I gave up TV, does that count?  Best trade ever!

On the food front, I'm actually eating much worse now that I was before.  All the training is allowing me to indulge in yummy food and beer without a weight gain penalty.  Nice!

I gave up fly fishing and golf and work.

I don't really drink while I"m training, but that's about it.  I eat whatever - that's the benefit of training!!

other things i have given up for triathlon (everything i own now fits in my car at one time):

bed
a lto of clothes i prob didn't need anyway
my tv
my extra mountain bike and a bunch of film cameras i still had,
most of my DVD collection, hockey pads and skates, and most of my sticks,
my short sleeved wetsuit, and a lot of cycling gear i really didnt "need"

Hmmmmm, maybe I can lose this last 20 pounds if I give up french fries between now and the Philly marathon!!

I gave up pretty much everything in terms of bad food and drink.  I avoid all processed food and treats and try and eat as healthy a diet as I can.  But this has been part of a long journey of weight loss and lifestyle changes for me that started quite some time ago.  And giving all that up allows me to perform at my best, maintain single digit body fat percentage 7.8% this morning (withings scale reading) and weigh only 137.5lbs at 5'7".  Its a definite choice though, and its not for everyone.  I suck at moderation so for me its either eat this way and train my *ss off, or be fat, lazy and eat bad food.  Theres not a lot of middle ground for me.

However after a big race (and I mean something like a marathon, 1/2 Iron etc) all bets are off for 24hours.  After my last marathon I ate a bacon cheeseburger with fries, 4 beers, ice cream, a 1lb bag of m+ms, and a large meat lovers pizza before tipping over and falling asleep.  I then started the trip home on the plane with a cinnabon and some evil looking cheesy egg sandwhich thing.  I can definitely say that all that stuff tastes so much better when you only eat or drink it a few times a year.



Edited by NickW 2010-08-04 1:09 PM

X2 .... not really gave it up, but I can only have 1 OCD hobby at a time, so my tying desk has become a spare parts, water bottles, race belts, etc,  desk until further notice

I havent really given up beer, its just that when I go to my fridge there is never any in there??

Ice cream, on the other hand, will never be sacrificed in the search for athletic acheivement! 

my free time...

Like others have said:  1000s of dollars...

Can't say I've given up "free time," because I enjoy doing this stuff.  I don't do much training that I don't look forward to (which means I say "no" to the treadmill and mostly to the trainer).

Otherwise, I gave up fatty foods (especially sausage), excess refined sugar, and most alcohol before I started doing any training when I decided to stop being a fat tub of goo.  Six years later and 75 lbs less, I mostly eat to train and don't train to eat (the donut and couple of caramel candies I had in the office this AM obviously were splurges).  It's sort of amazing what things used to seem like "pleasures" (or even "necessities") once you've got some distance from them and realize they were mostly just killing you.

I stay away from women. They weaken the legs.

World of Warcraft

Sometimes I miss it

-j