YWCA Indoor Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Yesterday, I did a sprint triathlon at the YWCA of Minneapolis. I'd done the "mini sprint" distance twice and the "long" distance once, but this time I tried the middle distance: the "sprint" which was 500 yards in the pool, 10 "miles" on a spin bike, and 2 miles on the track.

Sign at the race. :)


Gym buddy Leah ready to swim (2 waves before me).


Leah's wave starting


Leah a few laps into her 500 yards.


Amy (1 wave before me) who was one of my first "blogger buddies" when
I started this hot mess 12 years ago. ALWAYS fun to see Amy!!


Go Amy!! (And everyone else!)

I hopped in and did a few laps in the 2 lanes not being used for the race. The last person left the pool from the wave before me, I moved over into my lane (that I shared with someone named Jill), and we got ready to race!

• SWIM: 500 YARDS:

I posted 2 weeks ago that I predicted I'd swim just under 1:30s and hit 7:25. I took off pretty fast (as expected) and hit 100 in 1:21. My next 2 hundreds were where I figured they'd be: 1:28 and 1:31. I tend to slow up like that, but now I wanted to keep them from slowing any more. I was hoping to be back under 1:30, but my 4th hundred was 1:31 again. And then I ended with a 1:29 to hop out at 7:21 (on my watch), just under my 7:25 prediction. Nice.

• T1:

My wife and boys appeared in T1! I got big smiles and high-fived my little guys.

Minimal T1: goggles and cap down; socks and shoes on.

I sat down, left a big puddle, and ran off towards the bikes with my socks and shoes on.

• BIKE: 10 MILES:

These are fake miles - the spin bikes just count revolutions, so most people put it on 0 resistance and spin their legs like CRAZY. In my "prediction" post, I was probably least sure about my 14:45 bike split. But every 2 miles, I'd see that I was just under that pace. (15:00 would be 2 "miles" every 3 minutes, and I figured I'd be just a bit faster that that. I hit 2 miles in 2:50, and 4 miles in around 5:40. I was holding a pace that would get me in well under 14:45.)

No one took the bike right next to me, so I had my space.
(To drip sweat all over the place.)


Cheering as Amy goes by on the track. (And that's Leah standing behind me after she finished.)

• T2:

This was longer than in year's past, because I had to back-track to go around some cones to get onto the track. (I had to run to the right of those cones in the photo above.) Those cones weren't there in previous years. I've had 1 and 2 second transitions here before because I've just hopped off my bike and been running the next instant. But this was more like 5 seconds once I got around the cones and up to the start/finish line.

• RUN: 2 MILES:

As expected, I went out a bit hard. My first lap was 0:41, which is 5:28 pace. I had no intention of holding that pace. I took my half mile splits, and hit the first 4 laps in 2:51. I was still slowing up, and I knew it. My next half mile was 3:01 for a first mile of 5:52. I hoped to be faster than that, and I knew I was still bleeding time. Damn.

Passing power-walking Amy (with her new hip) and a 12 year old girl. I'm a big man.


A pained smile around the mid-way point of the run.

The first half of my 2nd mile was 2:58, and I knew I'd be off my intended pace. My legs just felt SOOOO heavy. I did all I could, and was totally NOT bummed about it.

High-fives from my fellas!!


There was a BIG ASS BOUNCY CASTLE in the middle of the track,
so (obviously) that's where the boys spent most of their time.

I came to the line with a 2:55 final split (5:54 second mile).

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (just from my watch - official results not posted yet)

Steve Stenzel, M, 36, SPRINT

- SWIM 500 YDS: 7:21
- T1: 1:00
- BIKE 10 MILES: 13:59
- T2: 0:05
- RUN 2 MILES: 11:47

34:15 total

UPDATE: here are the official results.

4 POST-RACE NOTES:

• Based off my predictions, I was a bit faster on the bike, and a bit slower on the run. I made up a few seconds in the swim and in T1, made up 46 seconds on the bike (!!), lost a few in T2, and then gave up 12 depressing seconds on the run. But my time was a bit slower than my prediction... then I realized I missed a minute in my prediction post:

So my 34:15 is still faster than my 34:55 prediction.

• This 500 yd swim split was faster than my only open 500 at a swim meet. Back in 2014 (when I STARTED to like swimming more), I did an all-out 500 at a swim meet and swam 7:26. Yesterday, I did a 7:21 and saved plenty for biking and running afterwards. I need to do an all-out 500 in a few weeks so I can stop comparing my 500 time to a race 4 years ago. I won't be able to break 7, but I'd love to see how close I could get.

• In a silly way, I'm happy I didn't run as fast as I had hoped. I had SOOO little speed work over the last few months, so WHY did I think I could bang out a fast 2 mile? I had no right to think that. This race wasn't horrible by any means, but I kept wishing I was faster on the track, but I had no training to justify feeling that way. I need to put in more speed work if I want that shorter distance speed. Lesson learned.

• They tinkered with the format of this race, and it still needs some work. They split the bikes into 2 groups (which was nice) thinking that they could get waves off quicker. But then the pool became the backlog. When I got there, they were running about 8 minute behind. When my wave started, we were about a full wave behind (so 15 minutes). It really wasn't a big deal, but they need to space things out a bit more. And then the posted results taped to the wall after I finished were SUPER off, so I'm waiting to see if those get corrected before they officially get posted online. (They had a swim time that made sense, but then an impossible 0:03 T1, a bike and T2 time that were both about right, and then a run that was 1:10 long [12:57] for a finish time that was 0:05 longer than I had on my watch.)

A post-race hug from Henry. Here he was sweetly telling me "Dad, I think you're REALLY fast!"


My shoes were SOAKED through. (These are usually light gray, not dark gray.)


My boys being brothers.


On the slide of the bouncy castle.


A post-race leg massage from the folks at Endurance House.


Kate in the long distance race as I was getting ready to leave.


People on the bike, on the track, and some folks upstairs on the track where I train sometimes.

Thanks for the fun race, YWCA of Minneapolis!! Back with official results when I see them. Time for a little rest on these legs.

UPDATE: here are the official results.