Indoor Triathlon Race Report

Sunday morning I woke up at 6am and got my stuff together. I had my bathing suit on and then brought a small towel to dry off with during the first transition along with my shoes, water bottle and bike/run clothes. I knew going from the swim to bike would be the hardest since I would be soaking wet.

The Tri started at 7am with heats of 10-12 people going off every 20 minutes. I was set to start at 7:40 in lane 7 of the pool. I got to the YMCA just after the first heat started. Each person had a score card that followed them throughout the tri and was used to record laps and distances for each portion.

As soon as the second heat had cleared the pool we were allowed to get in. I was in the same lane with a boy who looked like he swam for a local college. On the other side of me was a teenage girl who I knew swam. I did a few laps to warm up and then we set to go.

As soon as the horn sounded to start, the girl and guy on either side of me took off! It was hard not to start out fast with everyone around you swimming fast but I forced myself to slow down after the first lap. My legs were burning by the 5th lap but I just kept going. I could see the clock as I swam so I knew how long it was taking me to swim down and back in the pool.

I settled into a good rhythm and just kept going. There was once or twice where the college kid in my lane almost hit me! He may have been a swimmer but he did not know how to stay on his side of the lane! With just under 2 minutes to go I was determined to get in two more laps and so I picked up the pace. I came in with time to spare (6 seconds) and jumped right out of the pool. The guy who was keeping track of my laps yelled the number out to me and I scampered off to the locker room to change.

In the locker room I changed out of my bathing suit and tried to dry off as quickly as possible. I had some trouble getting my clothes on but somehow made it out to the bikes with 2 minutes left in the 5 minute transition time. I had totally forgotten that I would need to change the bike seat height and also strap my shoes in. I barely got one sneaker in when it was time to start.

About 30 seconds in the one shoe that was strapped in came out and I lost some momentum getting it back in the strap and then started peddling again. The guy who had swam next to me was also next to me on the bike. He was rocking the bike and I was trying to stay with him.

The bike had to be my least favorite part. My shoe ended up coming out of the strap again with about 9 minutes left so I just put it on top of the peddle and kept going. The seats were uncomfortable and I just wanted this part to be over because my legs were so tired. The best part of the bikes was that the YMCA people had pulled out the spinning bikes and put them right near the enterance so that we had a good crowd cheering us on and some good music playing!

When the bike was finally over, I grabbed my water and headed up the stairs to the treadmills. They had reserved a full row of treadmills for us to run on and of course the super fast college kid was once again next to me.

This was the easiest transition because I didn't have to change at all and just waited for the run to begin. When the 15 minutes began I cranked up the treadmill to a 7:30 min/mile pace and just set in. I wanted to get comfortable and so I stayed at that pace for about 0.5 miles. Then I just kept increasing it every few tens of a mile. My goal was to get in 2 miles in the 15 minutes.

I hit the one mile mark a little before 8 minutes. At this point I was at about a 7:13 min/mile pace. I felt good, my legs weren't tired and I slowly increased to 7:06 min/mile and then 6:58 min/mile. They had TV's on and I just zoned out and focused on them. When I run on the treadmill I focus on reading the captions to get my mind off the pain of running and it worked well this time too.

The guy who was keeping track of my distance for this part was so nice. He kept encouraging me and telling me I was doing great! When I finished he said to me "That was great Joanna, very impressive!" I could not beleive he had said that to me and it really made my day!

My IT band didn't really bother me too much which was nice. With about 2 minutes left I seriously thought I was going to throw up. I just kept moving my legs and I hit the 2 mile mark with about 20 seconds to spare. The college kid next to me was running SUPER fast and ran 2.9 miles in the 15 minutes!

Once it was finished I jumped on a elliptical to cool down. I think that was the best choice because the next day I was not sore at all. I really enjoyed doing the indoor tri. I know that my college sponsers one in March and I will consider doing it. As for outdoor tris - I don't see any in my future...

Final Stats:
Swim - 36 laps - 900 Yards in 15 minutes
Bike - 7.3 miles in 15 minutes
Run - 2.05 miles in 15 minutes
2nd place in age group
23rd overall out of 97 (men and women)

The girl who came in ahead of me for my age group beat me in the bike by 0.4 of a mile but I beat her in the run by 0.04 and we tied in the swim. The points were based on a percentage with the highest person getting 100 pts. I didn't really think it was fair because the men and women were all together and so my points were based on how far the men went.

I did enjoy doing this tri but I did not like having to rush from one event to another. It was a good experience and maybe I will do one again but I know that my favorite and my strength is running! I went to this alone so I don't have any pictures although there was this one guy who kept walking around and taking pictures but I have no idea if they were going to post them for people to see.

Yesterday I did yoga with kaylie and it kicked my butt. Today I hope to get some strength training in and cardio at the gym. This week I am just taking it easy as I woke up with a sore throat this morning.

Thanks for reading!! Happy Tuesday!