Valentine's Day IS related to Triathlon

I am not a big Valentine's Day person. I don't like pink and hearts and am not particularly romantic. God forbid I cook Matt a special meal for fear he'll die from my cooking. Anyway, I feel the need to expound upon a relevant topic due to the recent deluge of articles related to dating or marrying a triathlete. I've recently come across an entire BOOK devoted to how to date a triathlete. I've also been forwarded multiple copies of an article from the Wall Street Journal about how triathlon training affects marriage. This article profiles an age group male triathlete (who also happens to be an investment banker....go figure) who trains all the time at the expense of his family. blah blah blah.......

What I find interesting about all of this hype is that once again, these advice givers are missing the point. Just as some coaches purport to have THE secret key plan to drop 45 minutes from your Ironman PR or raise your FTP by 100 watts, the authors of these articles are attempting to identify the keys to success in dating/marrying/not divorcing a triathlete. The reality is much more simplistic...imagine that. Relationships require commitment over the long haul, just as improvements in triathlon for athletes of all levels require a commitment to the long haul - to slogging out the zone 2 miles on the treadmill or riding the indoor trainer for hours in the winter. Good triathletes are good because they are committed , just as good relationships are good because both parties are committed to each other through the honeymoon "highs" to the "i just gave you the H1N1 flu" lows. Why do people complicate this by writing 100 step plans? This is almost as irritating to me as those "every kiss begins with Kay" Valentine's Day commercials. The worst one is when the woman feigns a deep-seeded fear of lightning during a little rain shower and jumps into the arms of some guy who assuages her fear with a Kay pendant. LIKE.FINGERNAILS.ON.CHALKBOARD.

HOWEVER, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I must send a special shout out to my husband Matt Pataky. He demonstrates his commitment in many ways, from wearing Yoda t-shirts for me at races, cleaning my gel-encrusted bike at all hours of the night and day, swimming in the lane next to me in the pool and forcing me to suck it up and hurt, and most importantly, sacrificing much of his ski season to spend time with me at home so that I don't have to deal with the altitude and temptation of skiing. Pataky is a killer skier, as you will see in the pictures below, so sacrificing ski time for me is huge. Someday I'll have to pay him back by learning how to cook or something....