This pi##es me off!

I think we've had threads like this before.

Your response should have been, "well, why don't you? I'd love to see you out there." Kill them with cold kindness.

Congrats again.

I've had the "that's not too bad" reply a few times, but no one has said they could do it. I don't really talk about my training at work (the only place I go outside of home or the gym), just for the simple fact it's so foreign to people. If you do talk about it, you have to be willing to take the good with the bad. People who say it's easy, or people who say you're stupid for working so hard at something that isn't essential (essential in their heads anyway) outnumber the people who think it's cool. When the average Joe hears about your race he is forced to think about how out of shape he is. Sounds like it anyway. Most of the guys I work with think that because I was an Army Ranger I can kill people with my thumbs. Guys twice my size get kinda edgy when I'm pissed off. My feeling is, the more mystique the better.

I was guilty for the "that's not too bad" reply when last years 6 women at work were preparing for a Sprint.  A couple of them tried really hard to get me into it.  I was very tempted but due to a new home, I had absolutely no money for a bike (they even tried to borrow one for me but couldn't get the right size). 

This year, as I had promised them, did my first race.  Although I had said the "not too bad" statement, I didn't underestimate the difficulties and trianed hard for it.  It actually helped me to push through as I kept telling myself it's "not too bad".  Made my first race with decend time.  While all the women who did last year were pregnant/good with one race a year, I'm getting ready for my next race, which will be this coming Sunday.   

I've had that comment as well, numerous times, I try to let them also know the time spent doing the event along with distances. When was the last time they spent (depending on the race) 1.5 to 6 hours doing a continuous, strenuous workout against a clock? That seems to help with their perspective, a little anyway.

Me either. NO clue.

(also, its not b/c I'm psycho in general, but psycho about racing. just wanted to clarify)

The distances don't sound too bad if all you're doing is going from A to B to C to D at whatever pace you feel like.  Most people forget about the "race" part when talking about the distances involved.

If you get a response like this and it bothers you, point out that the idea isn't to just cover the distances but to do it as fast as you can. An appropriate response to "I could do that" is "Yeah, but how fast? That's the question and there's only one way to get the answer."

dgunthert - 2005-08-31 9:27 AM

TriComet - 2005-08-31 7:20 AM I am quite lucky then. All my coworkers admire the races I do no matter what the distance. Now, when they ask about training and they realize how much time I spend doing it, they think I'm crazy. Thats fine with me. Also, my boss' nickname for me is 'psycho'.

Did you really mean to tell everyone on this forum that someone has nicknamed you Psycho?

Just DON'T call her Francis....