Triathlon Is His Fountain of Youth : Tinley Always a Man on Run

Working as a paramedic gave Scott Tinley the fear of dying prematurely.

So he got into something more conducive to longevity.

He started riding a bike 400 miles a week. And running another 75 miles. And swimming 10 miles more.

After a week like that, most of us would need the services of a paramedic--or maybe a mortician.

Not Tinley. In time he became one of the world’s best in the triathlon, which isn’t quite as lucrative as investment banking. But he does have a book out, plus his own line of “performance wear,” meaning T-shirts and shorts.

He doesn’t view himself as the least bit off-center. In fact, he envies his friend Tom ‘Tug’ Warren, who’s less mainstream. Warren once jogged from LaJolla to Tijuana, had a few beers, then jogged back home.

Tinley is just too conventional for his own taste.

His most radical move is climbing on his bike and trying to get lost. Can’t do it, either. He has explored the back roads of San Diego County so often, he has come to know the route to Valley Center like the bottom of the pool at UCSD, where he swims regularly.

It will all be worth it, perhaps, if he lives to be 100.

He hopes to become more scientific in his training, but not like the Russian boxer in Rocky IV. He can’t see waking up and having a needle stuck in his arm so the lactate level in his blood can be measured, with a computer following up by programming his workout for the day.

He’s in it for the gain, not the pain.

“The public sees us as masochistic, pain-seeking nuts, but I’m not that way,” Tinley said.

“One of the big reasons I train so hard is so I can age more slowly. This is a way of holding off death. As a paramedic, I used to see people dead or dying who didn’t have to be that way if they had taken care of themselves. I wanted to avoid that fate.”

Tinley, a two-time winner of the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, will be the favorite in Sunday’s Pepsi/Plymouth San Diego Triathlon. The field of approximately 1,000 includes athletes ranging in age from 16 to 60-plus.

Tinley said he frequently rides with a 54-year-old friend whose performance on a bike is superior to that of men half his age.

“Mentally and physically, he’s 25 or 30 years old,” Tinley said, underscoring his belief that his conditioning can help keep him younger longer.

“I’ll admit it--I’m addicted to the effects I get from training,” he said. “If I miss a day because of travel, I don’t sleep well and I can be a real (bleep). But I’d rather have this addiction than one like nicotine or caffeine.”

Tinley, the sport’s No. 1 name, is sufficiently well-established to have his own line of sportswear, but he said his annual income doesn’t compare with the big names of baseball, basketball and football.

Money isn’t his main objective. “I look at it this way: There had to be a Jackie Robinson before there could be a Reggie Jackson,” he said.

Triathlon is joining money as a favorite pursuit of Yuppies, according to Tinley.

“Look at the demographics and you find there are a lot of 35-year-olds making $42,000 a year who follow triathlon and are becoming participants,” he said.

“These are goal-oriented, Type A personality, movers and shakers attracted to triathlon. Competing in--and finishing--a triathlon gives a sense of self-worth that few things can match.”

The boom in aerobics training interests Tinley, though he says he thinks most people don’t push their conditioning far enough.

“But anything that gets people off their butts is fine with me,” he said.

“I don’t care if fitness has become a capitalist sub-industry. That’s America. I want to be able to make a living myself. It scares me to think of becoming a burned-out athlete with no options.”

Tinley, 29, has been in serious training for 10 years. He is 6 feet tall, weighs 155 pounds, has a resting pulse rate of 48 and his body fat varies between 7% and 8%. He ranks among the best-conditioned athletes in the world, and probably could reduce the body fat even further, except that he likes having some fat as an aid to flotation in his swimming.

“I’m trying to push the limits of human endurance,” he said. “I train about 8 hours a day. Bruce Jenner (the 1976 Olympic decathlon gold medalist) at his peak trained about five hours a day.”

There are plenty of times when it’s boring or painful, or both. Nothing is more uncomfortable than biking to San Clemente and back with the heart near its anaerobic threshold, according to Tinley.

“In order to keep from wanting to quit, you have to have specific goals in mind,” he said. “My goals are to win half of my races and finish in the top three in the others.”

He competes in about 25 triathlons a year, travels more than 100,000 miles a year and expects to maintain that pace for another three years. Afterward, he might cut back to a more human level, like a dozen triathlons a year.

His training is based on what he calls the adaptation/breakdown syndrome. That is, he works out furiously, tearing down his muscles. Then he takes it relatively easy for a few days while the tissues grow back stronger than ever.

“A few years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to mentally stand the training schedule I have now,” he said. “And I couldn’t do it now, much less continue to improve, if I didn’t relax sometimes. I have to allow for a little creativity and spontaneity in my workouts.”

His idea of relaxation is getting up at dawn and running eight or nine miles at a seven-minute pace.

“The endorphin effect takes over,” he said, referring to the medically documented release of opiate-like substances in the bloodstream.

“When I’m running, I let my mind wander. Sometimes I solve business problems or think about other areas of my life. I can’t do that on a bike. If you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing on a bike, you can get killed. And my mind can’t wander when I’m swimming in a pool and staring at the black line on the bottom.”

Tinley has come to regard himself both as an entertainer and an inspiration to others to strive for new thresholds of fitness.

It’s become common for professional athletes to defend their income on the grounds that they are entertainers, like film and rock stars. Tinley goes a step further.

“I’m an entertainer because I provide something for people to look at,” he said.

“I also want to provide something for people to aspire to. The only limitations are in the mind, not the body. I’m not superhuman; the average person could compete in a short-distance triathlon (three or four hours of running, biking and swimming) with an hour of training a day.”

Naturally, Tinley isn’t looking forward to the gradual waning of his powers, but he accepts decline as inevitable.

“I’ve had a full, rewarding career and I’ve been near the top for five years,” he said.

“I feel that I’m a real blue-collar athlete. I don’t make a lot of money, but I work very hard for what I do make. And I’m not afraid of being beaten, unlike most athletes. My reward is in the preparation. If the day comes I don’t enjoy this, I’m out.”