I don’t want to do a whole thing about this, but Niki asked me what supplements I take, and I don’t want to dodge the implied questions, either. On its face, the answer’s easy: I take a daily multi-vitamin, and I take an Omega-3 supplement—flaxseed oil or fish oil—to promote joint lubrication. I’m not sure that science supports the need for either, but I still take them because I see no reason to risk lower performance based on some slight but real vitamin deficiency. Plus, I’ve had enough little nagging knee injuries that I’m almost willing to try anything to keep my knees working right and therefore keep training. For what it’s worth, anecdotally, it does seem like my knees and whatnot have been working a little better since I started with the Omega-3s. Certainly, there’s no reason to stop take them.
With all of that said, the Hell of being a triathlete is that it tends to be an older person’s sport, and getting older sucks. Your typical triathlete is a former standout athlete of some kind—swimmer, biker, runner, whatever—who just wants to keep doing what he or she has always done.
I think my story is fairly typical. I swam competitively for eleven years, but when I graduated from college, I stopped competing, stopped training in any kind of organized way, and basically let myself drift. Fifteen years passed. By the time I met Sally, I was back in the gym regularly and trying to get back into running, but I was also still out a lot at nights, and I wasn’t racing or really training for anything, and I knew that something was missing from my life. Fortunately, Sally encouraged me to train a little more seriously and to enter some road races with her, and that made both of us better, happier people. Eventually we got a pair of bikes, and it was a natural evolution to give triathlon a try.
The rest is history.
The thing about triathlon is that I’ve always been an athlete, and so in dedicating myself to the sport, I’m basically just re-dedicating myself to being who I really am. With that said, I like triathlon because it’s different every day. I’ll never be the swimmer I once was for a variety of reasons. But triathlon is a new sport, and I can be the best triathlete that I’ve ever been, even now in my late 30s.
So that’s why triathlon is good. What sucks, though, is that most masters-type athletes only rediscover their passion for training and competition once they’re into their 30s. For my money, you have to get to a place where the bars aren’t fun anymore to be a truly dedicated adult athlete. You have to know that you’d rather spend three hours on your bike than three hours at the local pub. Otherwise, why are you even out there? Nobody’s on scholarship anymore. Nobody cares if you miss a workout.
I bring all of this up because it touches on supplements. As an adult athlete, I can remember what it felt like to go FAST. Sometimes, I can even still go fast. What I can’t do, though, is go fast consistently and then recover quickly. Not anymore. These days, the threat of injury is ever-present. If I over-work, I get hurt. Thus, if I want to train consistently, I have to train smart. Which is kind of how I’ve come to know something about the sport.
But there are other ways to do it. I can certainly understand the impulse to go looking for some more powerful supplements, ones that will help you go faster, recover quicker, be better. After all, most guys are just trying to be the same person they’ve always been. Something that helps with that, say HGH or synthetic testosterone… I can understand the temptation there. I don’t condone it. But I can understand it. Personally, I would never risk my health for the sake of sport because, bottom line, I have a family to feed, and for as much as triathlon is a great hobby and lifestyle, it’s still just a sport. Meanwhile, my kids actually need me. I hope most other amateur triathletes will make that same calculation. But who knows? I can only know what’s right for me.
So. We all want to take whatever supplements are necessary and helpful, but at the same time, there aren’t any magic bullets—no legal and safe magic bullets, at any rate. The only good, safe way to train is with proper diet, adequate sleep, and a healthy dose of education and planning. What that means as we age is that we have to take more time off, work at a slower pace, and go longer instead of harder. It is what it is. That’s why I try to think of triathlon as a journey rather than as a destination. So yeah, I try to make the most of each stage of the journey, but it’s also important to remember that we’re not actually trying to get to the end of the race. We don’t sort of finish with triathlon, and then we’re done. With that in mind, we can realize that we we’re not really in a hurry to get where we’re going.
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On a slightly related note, as I’ve mentioned here before, it’s almost time for the Tour de France. And now more than ever, there’s no reason not to watch. Football is locked out, basketball and hockey are finished, and baseball has yet to heat up. Practically the only sport on TV is pro-cycling, and the Tour is cycling at its best.
If this is your first Tour, let me recommend the coverage over at the Podium Café, SB*Nation’s cycling blog. I mention this because I noticed today that they’ve already got a couple of previews up. The best is probably their Yellow Jersey Preview. Enjoy!
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