Racing Tomorrow!

I signed up to race the YWCA Indoor Triathlon tomorrow. I'm doing the "long" course: 600 yard swim, 6 mile bike, and 5K run. I haven't raced since the Halloween 10K nearly 4 months ago, and I'm curious where my run split will be.

In the swim, I figure I'll be around 9:15 or so (just a bit slower than 1:30 pace). I would have been able to go just under 9:00 4 years ago at the indoor tri "showdown" with Lisa (I say "would have" because I was mistakenly pulled out a lap early). But I'm not quite in the same swim shape. I'm not in HORRIBLE swim shape, so I'm hoping I'll just be a bit slower: 9:00 to 9:30 would be my official guess.

The bikes are brand new, so I have no idea what to except there! In the past, it's all been based on RPMs. It didn't matter what "gear" you were in on the old spin bikes - you just spun your legs as fast as you could and you'd be going 42 "miles" per hour. I haven't been on these new bikes, but we've been told that it's more equivalent to road riding. And that the gears actually matter. I'm happy to hear that, but because of that, I don't know what to expect for my split. (If it is JUST like road riding, I'd love to go around 22 mph for those 6 miles, which would be just over 16 minutes.)

And then I'll just see what happens on the run. I really don't have any specific goals. I did sub-6 pace (18:20 5K) a few years ago when I raced Lisa, and I'd love to be able to hit that pace again. (I didn't realize I was that fast until I looked back at my race report just now.) I was hoping to see if I could stay at 6:00 pace, but I'm not going to be hard on myself if I can't. And who knows what "actual" biking (and not just spinning my legs at 140 RPMs) will do to my run split. I don't think I can expect it to be another 18:20.

Part of the "goal" for this race is just to see where my speed is at right now.

I just looked at results from January's indoor tri (the first race with the new bikes and bike distance), and first place was the only racer under 51:00, and he finished in 43:47. So he won by a lot. And if that number is possible for me to hit, maybe that will help me run faster! (He had an impossible-for-me 7:22 swim! Then a 14:40 bike, and finished with a 20:06 run. I can make up some time on that run, but I don't know if it'd be enough. I guess that's a goal!)

Race report Monday!