Tri, Tri Again

Triathletes want it all: dolphin-esque swimming, road-churning running and high-wattage biking, all at once. Turns out, though, that concurrent peak performance in all three tasks is elusive at best, reports The New York Times.  "The training necessary to do your best in one sport," the report reads, "is likely to counteract what is needed to be good at another."

This isn't necessarily bad news to the breed apart of multisport athletes, who tend to be hyper-disciplined and fond of a challenge. Though it's nearly impossible to excel at all sports at once, cross-training retains its advantages of avoiding boredom and excess stress on particular bones and muscle groups.  And if triathletic perfection is hard to come by, says one athlete quoted in the story, "that's O.K. by me."

-- Matthew Fishbane