How a Grouper Balances Surgery and the Road to Kona – Triathlete

In her mid-40s, Erika Huffman is fitter than ever. Triathlon training over the past five years has elevated her physically and mentally in her career as a pediatric and adult transplant surgeon.

“I thought triathlon would just be a physical effort, and I didn’t realize the mental demands,” Hoffman says. “It has given me the ability to focus in the operating room for long days in surgery, and I teach my students that you have to be physically and mentally fit to do the job.”

Grinding organ transplant surgery

Transplant surgery is an incredibly time-consuming and demanding surgical specialty. Hoffman sleeps an average of four hours a night, and is often in the hospital all day seeing patients, participating in meetings, and teaching research students. Then he takes a short break and goes into surgery from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

“We have no idea when we’ll get transplants, so it’s very unpredictable,” Hoffman says.

Although inherently challenging, her career is incredibly rewarding. Hoffman has to care for patients with serious diagnoses: both adults and children with congenital kidney disease who would not be able to survive without a transplant.

Add in triathlon

Surgery has been a big part of her life for nearly two decades, but triathlon presents a somewhat new challenge. Hoffman did her first triathlon in 2021 and has completed three half-ironman races and one full ironman since then. Last year at the Ironman Chattanooga Championships, she placed second in her age group but was unable to stay to claim her spot in Kona because she had to return home to her three teenage daughters.

“I grew up watching Kona,” Hoffman says. “I eventually realized that I wanted to train for these races with my ambition of going to Kona.”

Hoffman can find time for 12-16 hours of training per week, and can sometimes get up to 20 hours if work allows. With the help of her coach, she was able to focus on what to prioritize and how to fit it into the work demands and her unpredictable schedule. For example, since her background and strength is in running, she will skip running if she wants to miss something, but will never bike or swim.

“Having a coach was very important,” Hoffman says. “You can tell your coach what you’re capable of doing, and then take that work and give it to someone else who can show you how to focus your time.”

Unlike most athletes who cram their biggest workouts on the weekends, Hoffman often does her long runs and runs during a weekday morning so she can be with her kids on the weekends. She usually fits in 4-5 runs, three swims, and 3-4 bike rides each week.

Hoffman trains early in the morning from 3 to 7 a.m. before work. On days when she will be working in the hospital and operating at night, she finds time to do another workout during the break between the two. If she doesn’t operate at night, she exercises late at night after her kids go to bed. And in the process of long, exhausting days, I learned how to find the victories along the way.

Find small victories

“In a lot of workouts, there’s a part that you feel like you can’t get past,” Hoffman says. “So you’re training to overcome every day. You’re building the wins on top of themselves. So the race isn’t your only victory. You have no idea how the race is going, but you can say to yourself, ‘Man, I’ve overcome a hard workout every day.'”

Through her long career as a surgeon, Hoffman has become very familiar with the issue of delayed gratification. She has carried this mentality into her approach to triathlon.

“What I learn from surgery to triathlon is basically that you can do hard things,” Hoffman says. “Being a surgeon is hard. It took me two decades of work to get to where I am now. You have to be OK with the fact that every day you have to find success, and I think that can be replaced by being a triathlete.”

Hoffman’s next race is Ironman Florida In November, she hopes to qualify for the IRONMAN World Championships – and this time, if she wins, she will still be in contention for her place.

“I really want to go to Kona, but if I don’t want to, at least what I’ve done is have small victories over time,” she says.