Subject: RE: Is loneliness a limiter in your training? colinphillips - 2012-01-20 10:55 PM Not remotely an issue for me. It's the time that I get to spend on my own. I love the crowds at big races, and I enjoy it when there are others training at the same time. At the pool it motivates me if there's somebody in the next lane who's a little bit faster than me. And on the bike or on the run I enjoy trying to reel people in (even when I should be taking things easier). But I don't miss having others to actually train with. Having seen the almost unanimous "no" responses on this thread, I wonder whether this is a quirk of folks who are drawn to triathlon, rather than the way that most people would feel about sports and exercise. I think it's partly that but also party logistics. Who has time to spend more than 2 workouts a week outside of masters training with a group? When I was talking loneliness for myself, it's more like 10-12 hours per week of serious training, for months a time with nary a group run/bike. I find it's not lonely at all if I can even get 1 group session of some sort in every 1-2 weeks, and actually prefer to train entirely alone for efficiency sake when I'm doing 5-7 hours per week. I suspect a lot of folks who are saying "no" to loneliness fall into this category. At 10-12 hours+ per week though, it's enough of a time commitment that I really notice the loneliness after a few weeks of nothing but solo. It's enough that I will actually rearrange my schedule to specifically workout with others even at the cost of a prime workout quality session just so I can get some camaraderie. |