At 7 a.m. on Monday morning, most college students can be found unconscious in their warm beds trying to hang on to the weekend.
For those in Virginia Tech's Triathlon Club, however, Monday mornings mean 7 a.m. runs.
The dedicated members of this club meet for swims on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at McComas Hall. The club also meets next to the Pylons at the War Memorial to run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
"Most of the time, we try to do at least two sports a day," said Triathlon Club President Jordan Chang. "We'll go swimming and running or swimming and biking."
A pair of Tech triathletes, Fred Cook and Brian Schoenberger, participated in the Ironman Florida competition held this Saturday. Cook finished the three-leg event in 10:40:52 -- sixth in his age group -- while Schoenberger recorded an overall time of 13:26:40.
Triathlons involve swimming, cycling and running, in that order. Participants at the Ironman Florida first swim for 2.4 miles, then bike 112 miles, then finally run for a marathon 26.2 miles.
The Sunshine State was not the only area where club members were present this Saturday. In Wilmington, N.C., Chang and vice president Justin Morrison competed in Beach2Battleship.
In addition to the physical training that athletes must do to keep their endurance up for the sport, their caloric intake and the food that they eat also play a role.
"Sometimes when you're training a lot you eat over several thousand -- 3,000 or 4,000 -- calories per day," Chang said.
According to Fitday.com, a popular fitness tracking Web site used by Tech strength and conditioning coaches, you can burn more than 500 calories per hour swimming and cycling, and more than 750 calories per hour running. These are all estimations based on standard height, weight and speed.
The Triathlon Club has seen a drastic increase in membership since it was founded in 1997.
"Our team's been growing like crazy," said Chang, a senior Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise major. "When I first came as a freshman, we had 15, maybe 20, members and now we're close to 60."
According to the club's Web site, there were three founding members 11 years ago, which has evolved into 67 current male and female members.
"The most common combination we do is called the International Distance which is the Olympic distance," Chang said. "It is a 1,500-meter swim, a 40-kilometer bike (a little under 25 miles), and then a 10-kilometer run (6.2 miles). That is the most common, but we also do races that are half of that distance or less."
In addition to triathlons of varying distances, the team also competes in biathlons, marathons, swim meets and many other races.
The club usually competes in two to four team races each semester. Team races are defined as official races where the team travels, stays and competes together; the club pays for these races, and the money is gathered from fundraising events done throughout the year.
Training for triathlons may sound daunting to an outsider, but for the participants, it is nothing out of the ordinary.
"Most people run about 20 miles per week, ride for a few hours a week, and swim two to four times a week," Chang said.
So far this semester, the Triathlon Club has competed in three independent triathlons and collegiate regionals. Most of the focus is put on collegiate regionals in the fall. The women's team finished second and the men's team finished in third place.
The club competes against local Virginia schools, such as James Madison University and the Naval Academy in Maryland, for most of the season. In the spring, however, schools from all over the country are represented at collegiate nationals.
"Pretty much the rest of our season and our year is dedicated to collegiate nationals in the spring," Chang said.
Nationals this year will be held on April 18 in Lubbock, Texas. The team will send the top seven women and the top seven men to compete.
"That's determined by past races," Morrison, a junior aerospace engineering major said. "Whoever has done the best recently is who we send to nationals."
Last year, the team claimed 11th place at the USAT Collegiate Nationals in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The women's team came home in fifth position, while senior Crystal Pruitt was the fastest of all the undergraduates that competed.
For this season, Morrison is hoping for slight improvements in both the men and women's squads.
"We'd like to get top five at nationals," he said. "It'd be nice if the girls got top three and it'd be nice if the guys got in the top four or five."
Although this club takes anyone who is interested, "there's some competition there," Chang said.
The club attracts students who swam and ran competitively in high school and those who have been competing in triathlons for years.
"We take everyone from beginners all the way up to super advanced," Chang said. "We've had a professional triathlete on the team before. It's pretty much open to anybody who's interested."