Sunday, April 26, 2009

The indoor tri...

Probably my favorite of all tris just because you don't have to lug all your gear with you. This tri takes place in a gym. You swim as fast as you can for 10 minutes, bike for 30 minutes and run for 20 minutes. Since there are limits on how many people can swim in the pool at one time, you are assigned a wave and you do the swim, bike and run as part of that wave. The downside is you don't know how you placed in your age group until a few days later when they post the results. The indoor tri is extremely low-key, mostly beginners but an excellent way to do a trial run.

My wave was at 8:00. I go to the gym about 7:30, checked in ,grabbed my t-shirt and got marked up. After setting my things out for the first transition I headed to the pool to watch the prior wave of swimmers. It turns out Kevin and his wife were in the 7:40 wave so I got the watch them swim. They were looking pretty strong!

My wave was next so I headed over and picked a lane. There are 5 lines and 10 people per heat so you split a lane for the race. Normally, I am one of the faster swimmers. Today that was not the case. As luck would have it, for good or bad, it turns out that I shared my lane with some sort of swimming phenom. Let's just call her Nemo. I think I was lapped 3 times. After the swim, throughout the bike and run leg, the race volunteers kept commenting on her speed. Needless to say, I felt like my performance was sub par during the swim. Once I got on the bike and analyzed it, (there is a lot of time for thinking on those stationary bikes), I realized that I beat my pace from last year so what was I worried about. My goal was to give it everything I had and see where I ended up. So... Swim: 500m (last year was 475m). Nemo: 700m (insanely fast)

Headed to the bike. Initially, I grabbed a bike with cleats only then moved to one with cages. I didn't want to mess with changing shoes before the run. The bikes are set up in the spin room and all have mileage counters and resistance set at the same level so you can't alter it. My plan was to just pedal as fast as I could for 30 minutes. My pace ended up being between 28 and 30 MPH. I was a little nervous about the run when I got off the bike as my legs were a little gelatinous. Bike... 14.5 miles (last year 11.9) Nemo: not sure, I was told we were all about the same

On to the run. Twenty minutes on the treadmill. As fast as you want to go. I knew I could easily hold a 6 mph pace but was trying to make up time on Nemo who had told me she was a bad runner so the competition was on! When I started 6 mph, it felt pretty good so I went ahead and notched up to 7 mph and held it for 15 of the 20 minutes. At around 15 minutes, I nothced up to 7.5 mph and held that until the end. I was definitely glad to see that 20 minute mark! Run... 2.35 miles (last year 2.15). Nemo: 1.88 miles

All in all, I improved across the board. I can't wait to see where I fell in the overall standings. Normally, it wouldn't even be worth looking but there were no seasoned racers in this field and I do excel among beginners :) Oh and this was my first race in the "masters - over 40" category. I am pretty sure Nemo was in her mid-30s but it was fun to try and keep up with her when I could.

Off to tennis - it is a beautiful day, can't wait to get some sunshine!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish there was an indoor tri, like that around me....I might have to look for one!

Lindsay said...

i'm with kristin - an indoor tri sounds like fun and a good 'test' for a complete newb like myself.

i'm glad you found the right attitude a lot faster than i did - comparing yourself to yourself and not others. you had great improvements from last year/last time! nemo was outrageous on the swim but you kicked her butt in the run :) can't wait to hear how you did officially!