You Might Be a Triathlete If

  • You failed high school chemistry but you could teach a course on lactic acid

  • While at the gym, you change clothes as fast as possible because it feels like a transition

  • You wear your heart rate monitor during sex.
  • You bring bottled water to a party so that you’re properly hydrated for the next morning’s long run
  • Everyone else at the party also brought their own bottled water because you don’t have a social life outside of triathlon.
  • Everyone showed up by 7pm and left by 10pm
  • When you wear your bathing suit under your work clothes to make a fast transition from work to swim on your lunch hour
  • Your girlfriends are insanely jealous of your tan legs. Until they realize that the tan stops at your bike shorts.
  • One of the criteria of a vacation is that the hotel has a spin bike, pool and there’s running trails nearby
  • Baggage for any out of town trip includes running gear and goggles
  • 90 degrees is too hot to mow the lawn but not to go on a century ride
  • You consider Clif Bars one of the four food groups
  • You wake up at 5 am but don’t get to work until 9.
  • You think there are only two seasons during the year, triathlon & marathon.
  • The inside of your car looks like a going out of business sale at Sports Authority.
  • You consider work, recovery time between training sessions.
  • You have a water bottle when you drive your car.
  • You spend your 2 week annual vacation at a training camp.
  • You know exactly how much protein each energy bar has.
  • Your legs are smoother than your girlfriend’s.
  • You use race shirts to clean your bike.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when you take more showers at the gym than at home.
  • 6:30 am is sleeping in.
  • You have everything needed in your car to swim, bike or run within 5 minutes notice.
  • The one “suit” you own has Xterra written on the chest.
  • You catch yourself about to blow a snot rocket while walking around the office.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when you take ice baths!
  • You can plow through a whopping plate of pancakes and sausage and go back for seconds with a clear conscience.
  • You don’t mind your spinach in liquid form.
  • Your cologne of choice is chlorine.
  • You consider ‘bonking’ a bad thing.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when your house and office is littered with half full water bottles
  • Your bike costs more than your car.
  • You shout “on your left” when passing people in the aisles at the grocery store.
  • You use the words “only” and “10k” in the same sentence.
  • IM no longer refers to ‘instant message’.
  • You use the words “easy” and “long run” in the same sentence.
  • You not only eat gels, but you know the best flavors for every brand.
  • Your bath towel is never dry.
  • Your wife no longer thinks it’s strange that you keep a heart rate monitor at your bedside.
  • You take (at least) two showers a day.
  • You think the ultimate form of wallpaper is all your racing bibs.
  • You have a vanity license plate with the word “Kona” in it.
  • After you meet someone and they tell you they race, you go home and check online to see what age group they’re in and what their times are.
  • You plan vacations around where your next race will be.
  • You feel like you took the day off because all you did was swim 3000 yards.
  • You show up to work on Mondays with faded race numbers written all over your arms and legs.
  • About half the shirts you own have at least a dozen logos on the back of them.
  • There is a group of people in your life about whom you are more likely to know how fast they can swim 100 meters than their occupations.
  • There’s a separate load of laundry every week that is just your workout clothes.
  • You don’t giggle anymore when someone uses the word ‘Fartlek’.
  • Your bike is in your living room (possibly mounted on your trainer).
  • A car follows too closely behind you and you accuse them of drafting.
  • Your friends cried during The Notebook; you cried during the television coverage of the Ironman World Championship.
  • Your husband/wife is looking forward to the day when you will slow down and just run marathons.
  • You see no problem with talking about treatments for chafing or saddle rash at the dinner table.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when nobody believes you when you say “I’ll never do an Ironman”.
  • You have peed outdoors more times in the last year than you did in your first year of college.
  • You call a 5 mile run an easy day.
  • You shave way too many body parts.
  • You spend more money on training clothes then work clothes.
  • You clean your bike more often than your car.
  • Your car smells like a locker room.
  • You have far more pairs of shoes in your closet than your non-tri wife does in hers.
  • You go for a 5K cooldown run after a 5K race just so that you can call it a training session.
  • You have to explain to your co-workers what “splits,” “bricks,” and ‘LSDs” are.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when people see your ’140.6′ sticker on your vehicle and ask what radio station that is.
  • You’ve forgotten how to drink out of cups.
  • When asked how old you are you answer your age group (40-44).
  • When people praise you for being able to run 15 miles you feel insulted.
  • You purchase your new car to match the color of your bike.
  • You know you’re a triathlete when your car purchase depends on whether your bike will fit in the back.
  • You consider sprint triathlons as group training sessions.
  • You reach for a snack, and its a Clif Bar.
  • You would rather surf race pictures than watch TV