Triathlon and endurance sports are steeped in 'Iron Man' imagery - being made of metaphorical iron is necessary if you want to hold up against what the distances do to you.
If you're enthusiastic about comic books, fantasy and/or martial arts the idea of a 'Warrior' is a kind of paragon. The warrior lives by a code of honour, and struggles against adversity. These are the ideals athletes strive for; where we equate honour with discipline, and the adversity comes through pain and fatigue.
Furthermore, the Warrior is the mascot of the University of Waterloo (my alma mater), and 'The Iron Warrior' is the name of the Engineering Student newspaper.
But 'Iron Warrior' was taken on Blogger. Which is just as well, since I've often been drawn more to characters who use wits, guile or even trickery rather than brute force as a means to their ends. Even at a glance, the average triathlon training program seems to be not only extremely demanding in terms of volume of time spent; but logistically difficulty with 2 disciplines (or strength training) being addressed on most days.
So what if you want to be 'iron'-like, and live a multi-sport lifestyle while keeping enough flexibility for a 'life'? You know, family, career, friends, or heaven forbid... Other interests and commitments; is it possible? Might there be shortcuts or loopholes to the multi-sport code of discipline? Ways to even, dare I say... cheat (in training, not in competition)?
I don't know, but this blog is about trying to figure that out.Labels: triathlon