Bryan Health Indoor Triathlon

Today was my first triathlon of 2018!

It was an indoor tri with the format as follows:

10 minute pool swim
30 minute spin bike
20 minute treadmill run

I love an indoor tri because it really levels you and and allows you to focus on your own performance, not who's lapping you!  Everyone finishes at the same time, so you get to just do you.  It's the best way to TRY a TRI in my opinion.

My wave started at 7:20am, so I left early enough from home to get there about 30 minutes early.  I didn't eat anything before, but just had a cuppa coffee.  When I got there I picked up my packet and headed to the locker room.  This race only cost $25 and I got a tech tee, a pair of socks and a swim cap in my SWAG Bag!  Not bad!  There was coffee, granola, yogurt and fruit set up for the athletes.

I quickly realized one of my friends was in the heat right after me and we had a great time checking out the swanky facilities.  I made a new friend in my heat and we shared a swim lane.  The swim started and while she and I were evenly matched, I kicked ahead a little to get us both a little lane space.  I did 450 yards in the 10 minutes and felt like I could have pushed harder.

The transition between swim and bike was 10 minutes, so I had swum in a traditional swimsuit - planning on putting on tri shorts and a tee shirt for the bike and run.  One thing that's not so easy is struggling in to a sports bra while wet and continuing to sweat!  I used the hair dryers on the wall of the locker room to dry myself off and that sucker just slid right on, lol.

On to the bike.  Those Kaiser spin bikes have a gigantic seat and I was never comfortable.  The music was fun (80's Hair Bands, lol) and there was a couple of sisters ages 60 and 64 that were just a joy.  They were cracking everyone up in the room and the time flew.  I had my heart rate monitor on and was in zone 4 most of the time.  I did 15k on the bike (9.3 miles) in 30 minutes and still had enough left for the run.  I think I could have pushed harder - I was chatting with my new friend...:)

I saw my buddy as she started the bike and after some mutual adoration, I was off to the treadmill.  They gave us 5 minutes to get to the treadmills.

There was no incline requirement on the treadmill, so I cranked it up a little higher than I though I could handle.  I usually put my treadmill at home at 1.5% incline, so running at 0% is almost like running downhill!  The music was fun, but after a few minutes people were quiet and going into the suffer zone. 

I committed to running in that "a litter faster than I can handle" zone for 10 minutes.  After that, I increased the speed a little.  At the 15 minute mark, I was pretty uncomfortable with my hear rate maxed out at 183 bpm.  I know that it won't kill ya, so I decided to crank it up just a little more for that last 5 minutes.  I ended up with 1.8 miles in that 20 minutes.  My run times have sucked with a capital SUCK lately, so I'm okay with 11 minute miles, oddly enough.

After I got off the bike, I saw my buddy Becky and she snapped a cute selfie of us:


All told, I had a great time!  I'm stoked with my bike split and my swim is coming along. I know as I work and get more fit in 2018, that run time will rebound.  No worries.  This year is going to be GREAT!

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