Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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!

25 comments:

Marlene said...

You did awesome!!! I probably would have PANICKED scurrying between the events like that, but it sounds like you were quick & smooth. Congrats!!! SOLID run!

Anonymous said...

Oh man, that looks like such an awesome event. Even better, you had a great time with it! I might have thrown in the towel having that guy next to me haha. Congrats on such awesome results :)

Felice Devine said...

That sounds so fun! Congrats on the great finish.

Kristen said...

You did awesome! That sounded like such a fun event. I think my heart was racing just reading about how fast you were running around. Great job!

Marci said...

Great race report! You did great - 2nd in AG!! Way to go!

Badgergirl said...

Nice job on the indoor tri! The super fast college guy, while he might have been a bit intimidating I bet he served as great motivation!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a neat way to do a race. 36 laps in 15 minutes?-wow!! Great job!

Velma said...

Great job and you placed in your first event. Nice work!

Jeri said...

great job on the 2nd place AG award. And you totally rocked the run portion (of course!) way to go!!!

Anonymous said...

You did amaaaazing!! 2nd in the Age Group?! LOVE IT!! Congrats girl!!!

Nicole said...

You did so great! Thats awesome you got 2nd- what a bummer about being in with the men too- thats hardly fair! You still did fabulous though! This sounds interesting and very rushed- i'm not sure i would like being that rushed especially when i'm tired. It does sound fun though- thankfully i have some time to think about it before the one by me! :) again, way to go!

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

You did great! It sounds like you really enjoyed yourself!

Congrats your time and place.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun time. You did really well. Come on, test the outside ones!

Anonymous said...

This sounds so cool! I want to do one!
You did great! Congrats!

Continuous Changes said...

Congratulations!!! I imagine tri's are tough! How inspiring you are!

Bethany + Ryan said...

Great job!! I like how it was who cld go the farthest in a set time! I've done 1 inside tri but there was no set time, but rather a set distance. I like ur better. Great job!!

kilax said...

That sounds so fun, but hectic, like you said! I can't imagine running from one place to the next, especially in a gym! You did great! :)

(2.9 in 15? Whoa. I was impressed with your 2 in 15!!!)

Anonymous said...

wow. that is fantastic! u did soooo great. and ur so fast.

congrats!

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Congrats! You did awesome. I like the idea of doing a tri, but I think I would struggle w/ the transitions. And biking would def be my least fave part, I think. I"m just not a biker. I think it is so uncomfortable!

Melanie said...

Congrats, that's awesome! I've been thinking of doing an indoor tri at my gym soon, and you've totally inspired me to do it after reading this!

Aron said...

AWESOME job girl!!! you totally rocked that :)

EndorphinBuzz said...

Congrats it sounds like a great race and you did really well!

It must have been weird to race the college guy knowing he is faster than you yet having him beside you the whole time!

Glenn Jones said...

Sounds like it was a great experience! I've never done a tri myself, and don't plan on one (unless I can get a stunt double to do my swimming), but the Boy Scout Troop I used to be affiliated with used to volunteer at the Pacific Coast Triathlon every year. It was really neat having a "front row seat" and watching it all. It always seemed that the strongest swimmers had a big advantage....

Have a good week and I hope you can put the kibosh on that cold before it becomes a big deal. Cold-Eze J!

Jamie said...

You did great on your first indoor tri! Congrats!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

Congrats on your tri, and 2nd for AG!!! SWEET! You did awesome!