Iron Dads: Managing Family, Work, and Endurance Sport Identities

Synopsis

Among the most difficult athletic events a person can attempt, the iron-distance triathlon--a 140.6 mile competition--requires an intense prerace training program. This preparation can be as much as twenty hours per week for a full year leading up to a race. In Iron Dads, Diana Tracy Cohen focuses on the pressures this extensive preparation can place on families, exploring the ways in which men with full-time jobs, one or more children, and other responsibilities fit this level of training into their lives. An accomplished triathlete as well as a trained social scientist, Cohen offers much insight into the effects of endurance-sport training on family, parenting, and the sense of self. She conducted in-depth interviews with forty-seven iron-distance competitors and three prominent men in the race industry, and analyzed triathlon blog postings made by Iron Dads. What sacrifices, Cohen asks, are required--both at home and at work--to cross the iron-distance finish line? What happens when work, family, and sport collide? Is it possible for fathers to meet their own parenting expectations while pursuing such a time-consuming regimen? With the tensions of family economics, how do you justify spending $5,000 on a racing bike? At what point does sport become work? Cohen discovered that, by fostering family involvement in this all-consuming effort, Iron Dads are able to maintain a sense of themselves not only as strong, masculine competitors, but also as engaged fathers. Engagingly written and well researched, Iron Dads provides a penetrating, firsthand look at extreme endurance sports, including practical advice for aspiring racers and suggestions for making triathlons more family-friendly.

Copyright:

2016

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780813573748

Related ISBNs:

9780813570945

Publisher:

Rutgers University Press

Date of Addition:

08/22/16

Copyrighted By:

Diana Tracy Cohen

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Sports, Social Studies

Grade Levels:

College Freshman, College Sophomore, College Junior, College Senior, Graduate Student, Undergraduate Student

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.