Sometime around mid January I got bitten by the triathlon bug. That sucker was big too. I ended up signing on to two Sprint Triathlon's for 2014 - The Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon and the Iron Girl Rocky Gap Triathlon. In a way that was what convinced me to do the Iron Girl Columbia Half Marathon - you see there is extra bling if you do all three. Now there has been some controversy due to the fact TriColumbia (who ran the races) went bellyup - but I sure do hope we get our Triple Crown bling!
I figured I HAD to know whether I could actually hack any sort of Tri so I found this Indoor one put on by Lifetime Fitness and this cute graphic convinced me to click the submit button:
Anyway by the time I signed up for this Indoor Tri I had 5 weeks to train. As with everything else I do I went all out. I was swimming/biking and running like crazy. I had not been in a pool doing lap swims since maybe 1986 and I hadn't ridden a bike since 1994. I got a road bike and a Mag trainer and set it up in house and headed off to my fitness center which is about 2 blocks from my house as it was freezing outside and there was no outdoor swimming (I miss sunny SoCal!).
For the bike I just did a lot of miles - for swimming I worked my way up from gasping at about 1 length to being able to do about 4 without collapsing. I refreshed my stroke and realized, frankly, I'm probably all sorts of wacked doing it but I figured this indoor tri would be a great way to see if I was truly all out crazy or just a little crazy.
I got up race morning and ate my usual toast with nut butter. By this time I was fully vegan so no dairy or meat for me. I had my coffee and drank a glass of water and I was off. My "heat" started at 10am so I had plenty of time. I had easy parking and went to collect my bib, swim cap, and t shirt and get marked up on my hands.
I had time to go and cheer on a work colleague who wave started before mine - so that was fun. Then I just kind of walked around nervous as all get out. I got ready to get in the pool with a couple of ladies I'd met in the locker room. Both had much more Tri experience than me - so they were great with helping calm the nerves.
The first part is the swimming - so we all put our caps and goggles and got in the water. It is a strange pool with not a ton of room - like 4 ft deep all the way. I managed to do 11 laps of the 25 yd pool in 10 minutes. Not great but hey I didn't drown - I'll take it.
Then we ran into the locker room and got changed for the bike. You bike for 30 minutes. I hopped on one in the cycling studio - first time I've ever been on a spin bike. There was a guy coaching, music playing, and Iron Man Kona (or World Triathlon Championships - I forget) on the big screens. Talk about inspiring! He led us through 30 minutes. I should say that, around minute 20, I figured out that to increase the resistance you rotate the red stop button (yeah cuz that makes a lot of sense..NOT!) and so I only went 7 miles - and could have done more. Lost some good points on this.
Next we were on to the running for 20 minutes. My favorite part!
I started off slow - but quickly figured out I should be pushing it. My legs were not tired at all because I had been pedaling fast but with no resistance (thank you resistance button) so I ended up with a negative split. I ran 2.2 miles in 20 minutes which is pretty good for me.
I think I came in about 20 up from the last in the ratings - but what counted is that I got a real taste of Tri and a feel for my strengths and weaknesses. I don't think I can say at this point I fell in love with Tri. In fact, given the issues with the race company for the Iron Girl's, I'm not even sure I'm going to do those races this year. I think my passion is with the running. However I'm not a quitter so I'm going to keep practicing and training because I know if I don't at least TRI I will be mad at myself.
I think the Indoor Tri is a fabulous way to let you get the feel of a Tri without the pressure of a full event. You really compete against yourself so there isn't a lot of stress (other than what you make). Lifetime is a great company and they do a great job with these events - in the long cold winter this is a nice option!
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