I totally have OCD issues.
My wife had a talk with me this weekend that she thinks I should be medicated. For most of my life I've gone to one obsession to another - often keeping the prior obsessions going. I don't know whether I am type A or not. I'm not all that anal.

One of the big things I love about tri's are all the stuff.

In general, I agree with that stereotype.

bigdogtwo are you my long lost bother???? :) OCD is my middle name in anything that I do. ALL people that know me say that. Look at the frikin time I spend on Trifuel hehe. I am having a tough time taking 2 days off just for a rest I need from the swim, bike and run stuff! It is worse than doing the workouts :eek: Like bigdogtwo my wife is a teacher and says that if I were a kid I would need ritalin. She treats me like a child that has OCD. As far as Type A well, kinda and gear issues? We all have that dude. We all want shiny new bikes and new shoes......... Meticulous, exact and analytical, obsessed by performing better? psha! Not me (Graphs )

I get into a routine and I organized but I am not even close to OCD.
More like ADD or ADHD.

PDQ
TGIF :D

I still should probably be heavily medicated

I think doing tri's and marathons help me be more organized and manage my time better. But at heart I tend to wing it. I never obsess either. I can usually get a pretty good night sleep before a race because of that.
As much as you think you have your life in control it isn't completely. Sometimes it is easier to go with the flow.

I'm one of the less disciplined triathletes out there then. I don't keep a log, don't even plan out my training. I just figure: Work out when you can, go far, go fast. Slow down if it hurts.
I don't intend to win because I know there are faster sunbitches who want it more than I do. I don't intend to lose either. I just like going forward. As long as I feel like I'm going forward, I'm happy.

Short answer....yup. ALLLL I think about is training.....run, swim, cycle, diet, rest, stretching, on and on. And NO BODY can disrupt my schedule either.

Yeah people think I'm nuts but I am consummed with this sport. I will ignore important day to day events just to keep my workout and race schedule the way I plan it.

And, I have been professionally diagnosed with OCD.

My treatment....more training....works for me.

I'm single though so it's a little easier than being married.

I'm not sure how obsessive I am. I have a job where I work from 5pm-11pm, and all I really do is sit around and stare at the internet for a few hours while occasionally helping people. What this means is that I have all day to train and exercise how I see fit. My friends are all in school or work during the day and I have no girlfriend, so I'm free to be as obsessive as I want.

Unfortunately, this means that I feel like I should do well in races because I have so much free time in which to train, and I have a tendency to expect too much out of myself. Then again, if it drives me to succeed, then I guess it's good in the end.

I'm not so much into the crazy gear thing yet, and tend to conserve money when I can, so I'm not that bad yet, but I can see myself developing OCD in this sport after a few years. :cool:

Why do you feel a need to defend your passion? If someone gets all critical at me, I look at them and ask, "How's being a couch potato and being achy and tired all the time working for you?"

Game over.

Lovely....you are the man....!!! :D

obsessive compulsive disorder.
Basically being very picky/anal about things.

Sheila is right...none of us should have to defend our passions...thay are ours.
It is appropriate though to ask, of yourself, "Is it my life, or a part of my life." "Does it add to my life or detract from it?" "Does this leave me fullfilled or does it cause emotional suffering in myself and others?"
We have all met folks who have a passion that they persue to the detriment of others and to the exclusion of living. More often than not they are fairly boring people.
I read in a book by Robert Heinlein,many years ago: "Specialization is for insects."
I love this aspect of my life right now...it will change as all things do...while I have many loves and interests I have only one passion...Life.

It reminds me of some ad campaign for running shoes(I think?)
Anyway,
It was something like you use the word 'only' before a 10k
Maybe?? Help me out here..
You get point.
When I try to schedule something and I have an event that day, I tend to use the 'only' word.
"I ONLY have a 5k this morning, then I can....."
"I ONLY have a 10 miler this morning, then I can....."
"I ONLY have a sprint triathlon this morning, then I can....."

Whatever it is sometimes people look at you like you have 2 heads.
Of course sometimes you look at them and they have 2 chins,
and get winded going to the mailbox.
When I say "I'll run to the store and get the paper" I actually run.

I too have a passion for life and I understand that I will have a longer time to be passionate about if I eat right and exercise.

:D

They are the gatorade ads. I love them

"if you use the words 'only' and '10k' in that order"
"if you wake up at 4 am but don't make it to work til 9"
"to some, the marathon is the ultimate endurance event. To us, it's the cool down"

At least, I think those are all gatorade. I know the only and 10k one is gatorade... and I think the up at 4 one is. I'm not sure on the last one.

As long as it makes you truly happy then it's not over the top. If you aren't happy then you need to change.

It's a totally assinine assesment that people who feel guilty about being lazy fatasses try to put on us. They can go to the devil.

There are a lot of activities out there that you can just sort of 'wing it' on or you can really decide to do right. So people who participate in that activity - as a group - tend to look like the rest of the population. To a degree, when you tell someone you do a marathon, and they know their sister just did one in five hours, they don't really recognize the difference between you doing it in 3:00 and their sister who didn't train at all. There's no appreciation for the difference and 'marathoners' don't look much different from the rest of the population.

However, with triathlon, it does not lend itself to 'winging' it. The only people who can survive and keep participating in the sport are those who decide to do it right - they may not win any races, but they are determined to take the sport seriously. Hence the population doing tris looks substantially different from the general population.

Focus on training, diet, gear, etc. are critical, especially if you don't have any particular talent but are determined to hang with this sport.

You can find people who are serious about their human endeavors and they are the ones that tend to come out on top. The poker player who reads all the books and memorizes probability of hands is similar to a typical triathlete. But because the poker playing universe has a lot of slackers who don't know what they are doing, being a 'poker player' doesn't carry with it the designation of being 'OCD' or whatever the quacks want to label it.

Ya Savvy?