There's an older (45+) lady in my SO's swim group that competes in tris, I dunno about for a living but she just hurt her knee and is still swimming an hour and a half a day to prep for one. According to the SO, she's in insane shape and just kicks ass at swimming, and since I've shown him the Ironfat blog he says he can't imagine this woman complaining about blisters, much less if her leg even broke.