Quote Originally Posted by tygab View Post
seriously though this is partly to commiserate and partly to find out what people consider "normal" training time to be. I have read several books/articles etc and the low end is 4hrs/wk, but something else I just read says 7 hrs per week for a sprint tri. Huh? That seems like a lot for average and for a sprint tri in particular. Are these people doing bricks everyday? Figuring that it's not a "do all 7 on the weekends" kind of thing, I don't see how this makes sense for the average week.
Very briefly - don't want to hijack the thread.

I think that if you're looking to complete a sprint triathlon, 3-5 hours a week is fine. That's what I'm doing in the winter months (December, January, February), according to my training log on BeginnerTriathlete.com.

If you're looking to improve your times, I think 7 hours a week would be indicated.

I don't train for triathlons but I run and cycle, and swim a little. In the summer, when the bike kicks in, I'm probably training about 9-12 hours a week, including long weekend rides.

I'm a PhD student and "work" (i.e. sit at my desk or do PhD-related tasks) about 40 to 50 hours a week. I live with 100 other graduate students so my meals are the main part of my social life. I also visit my future-family-in-law with my sweet partner once in a while. Sports/training constitutes the most of my leisure and uses most of my "disposable time," the rest of which goes to TE.

I have done it in the past, but I can't imagine myself working 70-hour weeks anymore, year-round...