6 of the biggest pet peeves of triathletes everywhere

Triathletes are generally an easy-going group of people. Yes, we’re serious about our training and racing, but even during the most difficult of workouts we can be heard making lighthearted jokes and fooling around with your training buddies. However, there are still a lot of things that annoy us. We can’t list all of them, but here are six of the biggest pet peeves that triathletes everywhere share.

Long transitions

We know that running is a part of triathlon, but it’s no fun when you get out of the water or finish your bike and have to run hundreds of metres to get to your part of the rack. For some races, a long transition is unavoidable, but that doesn’t make it any less tiresome.

A dead watch

Is there anything worse than getting ready for a training session and realizing that your watch is dead? You can and will still go do the workout, but it’s so frustrating to realize that you let yourself down by forgetting to charge your watch. Even the triathletes with the strictest watch rules (people who put their watch on its charger as soon as they’re home from a workout) will have days when they realize the watch is dead or about to die. The worst part about this pet peeve is you have no one to blame but yourself when it happens.

Non-triathletes asking if they could beat you in a race

For some reason, a lot of non-triathletes like to ask if they could beat their triathlete friends in a race. Some of these people don’t even ask, they just outright say they could win. It is wildly annoying to work so hard at three separate disciplines day after day and to have someone who doesn’t do the sport (and whose last venture into endurance events came in an elementary school cross-country race, by the way) ask you if they could beat you. To any non-triathletes reading this, please don’t ask that question anymore.

Cancelled swims

You’ve trained so hard for a triathlon, worked on your swim, perfected your stroke, and then… the swim is cancelled the morning of the race. Whenever the swim is cancelled it is of course in your best interest (whether the water is too cold or rough), and you shouldn’t be upset with the race organizers. However, it’s still disappointing, and although you’ll still be able to race, it won’t be the same without the swim you’ve trained so hard to complete.

Potholes

One pothole every now and then is annoying enough to deal with while on a bike ride, but sometimes you’ll come to a road that is more potholes than not. Or you might find a road that has dozens and dozens of potholes that have been filled in, creating an uneven, almost cobblestone-like street. This is never fun to ride on, and you’ll probably hate every second you’re on this kind of road.

Unexpected events

Don’t get us wrong, triathletes love to be social, but we prefer planned outings. That way, we can work around whatever events people have in mind and still fit our training into the schedule. Spontaneous plans are still fun, but they can really throw a wrench in our workout schedule. A spur-of-the-moment pub night with friends might go too late and be the reason we miss a morning swim, which is never good. We’ll still gladly go out and risk disrupting our training plan, but we like working things out beforehand whenever possible.