Question:As I posted in excruciating detail, I did my first tri last weekend. My husband got inspired(?!) so we got him some running shoes and
went running last night. He can run about 3/4 mi at a 11:00 pace without collapsing. I want to be encouraging, but not overbearing,
especially as I'm no pro! I also don't want to give in to the *nasty* little impulse that makes me want to show off =-S . Advice?
Especially from the women?
He's very athletic in build--if he ever gets serious I think the 25-29 age group could be in for a show! I want to make sure I
don't discourage him before he gets started.
Answer:
I would LOVE my wife to be involved with triathlons. My son has done one Du (3rd place in age group) and several tris (no
hardware yet). My daughter is now in training (well more like talking about training, than actually training) but my wife is
more interested in relaxing. I have tried cajouling her into training and racing, I've tried gently prodding her. I've even
tried being really up after traing and racing to try and show how much fun it is. NOTHING WORKS.
My wife (TriSpouse) and I recently had our first fight when I bought a new bike. I value triathlon alot more than she does
obviously. Durign our fight I pointed out that she never supports me in my tri endeavours. She claimed she'd been fully supportive
nad had bent over backwards to accomodate my interests. Like the saying goes, there's 3 sides to every story, yours, mine, and the
truth.
What have I learned? Don't push people to do things they don't want to do. If they want to do it, they'll do it. About all one
can expect/hope for is that ones partner doesn't put up roadblocks. I respect my wifes desire to do her own thing and I
expect her to respect my desire to do mine. I'd dearly love for her to be bitten by this tri bug but I'd much rather that she be
happy ding what she wants to do. Remember that if you want someone to be interesteed in what you're interested in, be
interseted inwhat they're interested in. It's a two way street.
If my wife doesn't even want to get up and watch my races, I'm not gonna be really happy about that, but I respect her right to
not want to go. I do expect to be allowed to go though.
