LTF Indoor Triathlon Race Report (w/Virgins!)

>> Monday, March 09, 2009

Or, “Turing 5 Newbies On To Triathlons!”

Or, “Doing JUST Worst Than I Had Wanted.”

Yesterday was my first triathlon of 2009. It was the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon. I had done one of these at the start of the last 4 years. But the last 3 were in Chanhassen, MN, and this was my first one in Eagan, MN.

I was feeling sick the last few days of last week, and it got worse on Saturday night. So I set out anything I might need:



(I didn’t need the pain-killers, I took a big swig of the generic NyQuil to help me sleep the night before, and the nasal spray was a LIFESAVER as it kept all the snotty-snot at bay.)

Anyway, I showed up to the race with Borsch and 4 current/former students of mine. All 5 of them were going to be doing their first triathlon! I was excited about this the whole week leading up to this race!! We all met in the lobby of LTF, watched the start of wave 2 in the pool, and then got changed and ready to go. Here’s the 6 of us about 10 minutes before our start:



We had to take another photo without Borsch so I could send it to the college where I teach and all these women are students. You can tell I’m trying to be prim and proper because I know my boss and my boss’s boss will be seeing this photo:



Swim: 10:00 in a 25 meter pool:

We all hopped in and had a few minutes to warm-up. Borsch and I shared the far lane. I kept looking over to my students, giving them a big “thumbs-up.” We heard the whistle, and we were all swimming! Each lane had a “length-counter” to count... well... lengths (duh). I was hoping to get 23 lengths (575 meters) in those 10 minutes.

After 6 laps (12 lengths), it had been 5:18, so I didn’t know if I’d be able to hit my goal. But I wasn’t about to let up. I focused on my form and my “entrance,” and hoped for the best. But when I heard the final whistle, I had only covered 22.5 lengths. SO CLOSE to my goal.

Here are my 100 meter splits (4 lengths each):

1:39
1:47
1:51
1:48
1:45
1:10 (2.5 lengths)

T1: 10:00:

We’re given 10 minutes to get out of the pool, through the locker rooms, and onto a spinning cycle upstairs. I high-5ed a few of my students on the way to the locker room. Borsch and I got naked and then threw on our bike gear. We were up in the spinning studio with about 2-3 minutes to spare. All of my students came running in JUST as we were told to “GO.” (Those 10 minutes go by FAST!)

Bike (spin): 30:00 on a spinning bike with the resistance set and taped down:

All 6 of us ended up in a line. Nothing too exciting: we spun. Borsch and I chatted off and on. I asked one of the volunteers to snap a few photos of us (we were about 15 minutes into the ride - about half done). Here’s the 6 of us:



Here’s H “raisin’ the roof:”



Here’s H again looking drunk over-worked, and Borsch looking determined:



Here’s Borsch and I. Borsch is hunkerin’ down, and I’m getting a drink. Notice my sweet boob-sweat formation:



The bike was tough. Borsch eeked out a better ride: I had 15.0 miles, and he had 15.2 (these are NOT equivalent to street-riding; we are NOT that fast!). All my students did well, and a few of them commented that they thought the bike was going to be easier than that.

T2: 5:00:

Basically, we hopped off our bikes, walked through an empty studio, and hopped on treadmills that were right there. I wondered if my students were having any fun, but then R (the one “flexing” in the photos by the pool) thanked me for bringing them along, so I knew SOMEONE was having a good time!

Run: 20:00 on a treadmill:

Someone shouted “GO!” and we were running. Here’s the crew at work on the run:


Borsch


M and K


Me, R, and H.
I was completely sweated through at this point.

I asked the volunteer if he knew what the longest run had been. He said 2.7 or 2.8 miles. I smiled and thought I might be able to beat that. Last year, I did 3.19, and this year I was shooting for an even 3.25 miles. (Technically, that’s not even - it’s odd. I know. But “3 and a quarter” is a nice “even” number. Stop making this difficult. Jeez.)

I started off at 9 mph. After 5 minutes, I bumped it up to 9.5 mph. At about 13 minutes, I went up to 9.7, then 9.8, then 10.1, then 10.3, and I ended the last 2 minutes at 10.5 mph. Here were my mile splits:

6:40
6:18
6:00
1:01 (last bit)

I had covered 3.21 miles. Better than last year, but (just like my swim) just a LITTLE shy of my goal. Dang. But I was still happy. And I was SUPER PUMPED that 5 people around me had just finished their first triathlon!!

Overall (without trying to jinx myself), I’m HOPING to have finished in the top 3 (of about 65 total athletes). And there were still 2 waves after us, but I’m HOPING to have had the farthest run. We’ll see how it all looks when the results come in.

On the way home, I had a much needed stop at Chipotle for post-race refueling:



That’s it folks! Thanks for reading! CONGRATS to the 5 NEW triathletes among us!! I’ll be back with results as soon as they come in!

43 comments:

Musing Runner 6:55 AM, March 09, 2009  

That looks like fun! Great job bringing people into the sport. I really like how you show your improvements over time, it gives hope to the rest of us!

Shannon 7:19 AM, March 09, 2009  

Awesome race rundown. Great job for the Tri-newbies! They did awesome, now maybe you can get them outside for the summer circuit.

Ordinarylife 7:35 AM, March 09, 2009  

Big congrats to all of you!

Kelly 7:53 AM, March 09, 2009  

Congratulations everyone! I'm definitely going to have to try a spin class or two before my tri. But sounds like everyone did awesome. No one died did they? I hope you got farthest run Steve. Can't wait for the official results.

Anonymous,  8:09 AM, March 09, 2009  

Yay; way to get people into the sport. Who knew an indoor tri could look so fun. Thanks for the great race report.

Renee 8:22 AM, March 09, 2009  

I had been wondering if those indoor tri's were any good, but it looks like you guys had a lot of fun!

sunshine 8:24 AM, March 09, 2009  

Awesome race report and a huge Whooo Hooo to the newly annointed tri athletes!

Calyx Meredith 8:33 AM, March 09, 2009  

How exciting to be there for the birth of five new triathletes! Great pictures and can't wait to hear the official results. Yay Steve!

Kim 8:35 AM, March 09, 2009  

freaking awesome steve! looks like you all kicked butt; and a huge congrats to the newbies and welcome to the world of triathleting!

Carolina John 8:39 AM, March 09, 2009  

great race, dude. I WISH I could get that fast on the treadmill. gah those run times are sweet.

t-odd 8:41 AM, March 09, 2009  

You make it look and sound so much fun, but I probably won't ever do this race because it combines two of my most unfavorite things - biking in place (only now becoming tolerable) and running in place (can't imagine anything more torturous.) I like the reflectors on Borsch's shirt - safety first. Way to kill it all of you!

RunningLaur 8:43 AM, March 09, 2009  

Great race report. I hope you made a few converts in the group and you'll have sen more friends at future races.

Gotta Run..... 9:29 AM, March 09, 2009  

I am glad you said it... when I looked at your first post I thought you looked a bit "normal"...lol!!

Loved the full report and the fact that you are a part of bringing more crazies to such a great sport.

Tammy 10:01 AM, March 09, 2009  

Great race report!!
You beat your last year's distances AND brought 5 newbies into the mix. That's a success!

tfh 10:11 AM, March 09, 2009  

Great job! VERY cool that everybody had fun-- I'm so impressed by the treadmill smiles.

Patricio 10:14 AM, March 09, 2009  

Indoor tris sound like fun, never done one. Great work!
Mmmmmmm Chipotle's....
P

Gabriel Losa 10:28 AM, March 09, 2009  

Congratulations to you all!
Good work, Steve… with your times and introducing this amazing sport to other people!

Greetings!

PS: H. looks like a really funny person!

chia 10:30 AM, March 09, 2009  

Sweet! 10.5?!? I would fall off the back of that like a bad tv commercial. Nice showing!

trimybest 10:37 AM, March 09, 2009  

that sounds fun! good job recruting newbies!

Marlene 10:52 AM, March 09, 2009  

Very nice job! Good luck with the placing and congrats again!

Lindsay 11:00 AM, March 09, 2009  

congrats again to you and everyone else! can't wait to find out the official results! looks like a fun time

Fizzgig 11:09 AM, March 09, 2009  

an indoor triathalon sounds like something I should look into! I dont love the outdoors and exercise to mix.

Unknown 11:28 AM, March 09, 2009  

Congrats to you and all your peeps! Those indoor tri's at Lifetime are a lot of fun.

jen 11:32 AM, March 09, 2009  

Congratulations on the improvements and generally kicking ass. Did you win??

Great race report. Congrats to all the newbies!

X-Country2 11:40 AM, March 09, 2009  

Nice work! Love that you've encouraged more people to do tris.

Kelly 11:48 AM, March 09, 2009  

Yayy! Good triathlon! Good new triathletes! Good luck with your ranks.

PS I have some of that generic NyQuil at home and it tastes like DEATH.

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) 12:40 PM, March 09, 2009  

Just catching up on blogs.... sorry you were sick; nice job on the indoor tri; congrats to the Tri Newbies and HYSTERICAL cartoons!

Velma 1:05 PM, March 09, 2009  

Great job bringing the students to the 'dark side' :) Feel better.

Unknown 2:14 PM, March 09, 2009  

That actually looks like fun. I was a little torn about how it would seem with it being indoors and all. I think it would be great if, like you did, had friends doing it with you.

The Boring Runner 2:49 PM, March 09, 2009  

It is REALLY hard to look prim and proper when you are wearing swim tights. I can't decide if you nailed it or not. Glad the race went well!

I have a feeling that if I tried to do 10mph for any length of time, I'd fall and go flying backwards Simpson's styie.

Michelle 4:08 PM, March 09, 2009  

Terrific! Looks like a lot of fun and your lookin good!!!

ShirleyPerly 4:20 PM, March 09, 2009  

Great fun!!! My gym just started a new tri group and I need to suggest that we do something similar. We have all the equipment too ;-)

Thanks for the awesome report!

Unknown 4:46 PM, March 09, 2009  

Great job to everyone!!! And that burrito looks SO yummy!

Amy 5:18 PM, March 09, 2009  

Great way to start the year! Sounds like everyone had fun too. Can't wait to hear how you did overall.

Aron 6:48 PM, March 09, 2009  

awesome job!!!

i looove chipotle :)

allyson 6:52 PM, March 09, 2009  

Great job to everyone, awesome for bringing new people into the sport. Never done an indoor tri, looks fun but tough.

teacherwoman 8:22 PM, March 09, 2009  

What a great time you guys must have had! Too cool! Great pics too!

KK 8:53 PM, March 09, 2009  

Congrats on your race! Even though you came in just shy of your distance goals, I bet you did achieve your top 3 overall finish goal. And congrats to all your former students. Don't look now, but you're a role model (especially acting so diplomatic on the pool deck beforehand).

AddictedToEndorphins 9:07 PM, March 09, 2009  

YOU ARE ONE COOL TEACHER!!!! Your students/former students are sure to never forget you. I'm sure you did well! Can't wait for the results!

You rock. you should talk to my professors..

sRod 5:53 PM, March 10, 2009  

Funny how the picture that you're wearing tights shorts in the picture acceptable for your boss. That wouldn't fly in my office.

Chipotle post-event?? Best idea ever.

Run For Life 10:50 PM, March 11, 2009  

Looks like you all had a fantastic time and it sounds like you did really well despite the cold!

Anonymous,  11:11 AM, March 12, 2009  

Congrats! Looks like a good time!

Rainmaker 9:05 PM, March 14, 2009  

Congrats!...on the awesome looking burrito! ;)

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