I’m SUPER Excited (For 3 Good Reasons)

Number 1: My first triathlon of 2009 is SUNDAY!! It’s an indoor event put on by Lifetime Fitness. I’ve done 3 of their events in the past (all in Chanhassen, MN), but this will be my first at their Eagan facilities. In this event, you swim laps for 10 minutes, take 10 minutes in T1, spin on a spinning bike (with the resistance preset and taped down) for 30 minutes, take 5 minutes in T2, and run on a treadmill for 20 minutes. Then, you get ranked in each event based on everyone else’s distances. Your distances are given points, and all 3 of your events are tallied to determine your overall place versus everyone else.

Here are the results from last year’s indoor tri:

I earned 68 points in the swim (30th overall), 78 points in the bike (20th overall), and 93 points in the run (5th overall) for a total of 239 points, which meant I was tied for 10th place (out of 97). This year, I’ll be TRYING to have the fastest run split! I’m pretty sure I can at least be in the top 3 in the run (and hopefully in the top 8% overall). I guess we’ll see...

Number 2: I’m doing that triathlon with 5 other friends, and ALL FIVE are triathlon virgins!! I’m REALLY excited about this!!

First, there’s blogger buddy (and real-life buddy) Borsch. He’s done a few duathlons, but this will be his first triathlon. Here’s Borsch and I after we ran a 5K last November (in case you’ve forgotten what Borsch looks like):

The other 4 people that are doing the tri with us are current and/or former students of mine from one of the colleges where I teach. From left to right, here’s H, K, R, and M:

Thanks for the photos, Facebook!

Number 3: Check back tomorrow for all the details for my “Tales of a Virgin Athlete” contest. (I’ve been talking about this for a while now...) First prize is $240 worth of goodies, with $120 of goodies for the runner up, and $60 of goodies for the second runner up! AND there’s a special smaller prize for the “local” winner! I’m SO PUMPED for this!!

It’s gonna be a good week folks!!