idking90

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans in the group!
The Roost was probably at its peak when I first started racing pro back in 2015, so it feels right to come back and say that Ironman Arizona a week and a half ago was my last pro race. I’m not done with triathlon at all, but taking a step back from racing against people who do this for a living. I never gave up my day job because I like having health insurance and retirement savings, but I’m proud of what I was able to do in 10 years of trying my hand at every format of triathlon that exists over the years.
The early folks of TRS/Triroost were big supporters, and I’m glad to have had that when I was a lost 20something thinking I might “make it” in the sport.
I don’t think I’ll be going to any major races as an age grouper for at least a few years and definitely no 70.3 or fulls, but I’m self aware enough to know that I could trick myself into trying to do well in my 40s at Kona or something silly like that.
Wishing the best to anybody who reads this

For me: yes but less than it was.
I took about half of 2019 off of triathlon after some disappointing results and did some trail running.
I was pretty geared up for 2020 and kept some motivation early through covid, but that waned and I shifted again to playing trail runner, trying and failing at an FKT on a section of the Appalachian Trail.
2021 I just wanted to get back to racing and probably overdid it in the first part of the year, especially given the pool access and therefore swim fitness issues I had, though some downtime helped cure that for a good push for later in the year. I also went and tried that same FKT and failed again.
…all this to say I think I can and will swim, bike, and run year round, but I can only give a truly focused effort for maybe half the year anymore, aimed at a couple of races. I may take the other parts of the year to go trail run, big gravel/MTB riding, or just be able to do active adventuring things like backcountry skiing or packrafting that take me off the grid and away from hitting green squares in Training Peaks for days on end. I generally plan to keep my elite license for as long as I can reasonably maintain it. That might be this year or it might be in 10 years, but I don’t see myself going and racing more than maybe 1-2 high profile races a year going forward.

With “regularity” (I listen to these mostly as they come out):
NPR Up First
WSJ What’s News (has a morning and evening episode every weekday)
NPR Consider this
(^^ these three make up the bulk of my news consumption)
Appodlachia
Inside Appalachia (WVU’s NPR produces this but it’s not just WV stuff)
ProTriNews

For longer drives, very chill trainer rides/treadmill runs:
The Dollop
Last Podcast on the Left
Stuff You Should Know
Other random NPR podcasts that they throw into the Up First feed as guest episodes from time to time
World Triathlon podcast is pretty decent if the interviewee is somebody I’d like to hear from, like Ian O’Brien
Then if I’m feeling really nerdy I’ve been known to just seek out an episode on a specific topic like a few weeks ago when I had a 3h drive I found a very random podcast explaining the collapse of Yugoslavia because I was annoyed that I didn’t immediately have a good understanding of how that happened

Hey you got me after only like 2 weeks after you were looking.
I’ve managed the project of developing a couple of mobile apps in my real job, but never wrote a line of code myself. So if you need somebody to repeatedly ask for more time and money to deliver what you wanted, I’m your guy.

Looking at it, I realize I didn’t pick a single USA athlete to win, and only one International. I know the euros are strong but eesh

@wchevron I want Katie to win as an actual favorite, but she was too expensive as a long shot. Meanwhile, Javier was a bargain
I would be extremely surprised if Hayes ended up on the podium, but she’s got a great run if it all comes together and could get some good placing at least, and she was also very cheap

This is a nice throwback to the heyday of TRS/TriRoost fantasy when my chip fell off on the dive start at NYC Tri and I couldn’t earn anybody any points for a fast T2.

@M_Ware said:
Soooo, @idking90 is in Alabama racing with Starky and Eric Lagerstrom among others tomorrow. This feels like it deserves some discussion.

Only a month and a half later seeing this, thanks.

Yeah, it was very cool. It’s always welcome to see accomplished road triathletes come over to XTERRA, but especially on a course like Alabama that is at least one of the more skill-based courses left compared to the crazy climbing courses.
Eric swims very, very fast as I learned 30m into it when I lost his feet.

When your crypto portfolio 🚀 🚀