Triple Sport Triple Threat - Life Time Triathlon Hour 2016

First tri of the year : Check!

Hello! I hope everyone had a very happy holidays! Today was my first triathlon event of 2016 and all-in-all, it was good. I've never done an indoor event before and it was pretty cool. It was nice not having to be a slave to the elements. The Life Time Fitness Indoor Triathlon Hour is made up of a 10 min swim, a 30 min bike, and a 20 min run with time built in for transitions. Waves of 10 athletes were sent off every 20 minutes. I have always had an extremely positive experience with Life Time operated events and today was no exception. They are a well-oiled machine. Our "wave leader" was positive, helpful, and attentive and for that I am grateful.  Today was not my top performance by any stretch but not a disappointment either. If anything it helped me establish my base line for the upcoming season. For instance, I just can't ignore doing brick workouts anymore. As much as a loathe the bike to run workout I just have to do it.

Swimming by far is my weakest of the three disciplines. I've been able to swim

Pre-swim selfie. Minimal nerves and slightly chilly

since I was very little and I really enjoy it. But swimming for fitness and competition is a completely different experience for me and its something I've struggled to improve over the last year. I have noticeably improved (thank God) but not enough that I'm competitive in the water yet. I opted to swim in a swimsuit as opposed to a tri-suit considering there were 10 minutes for transition and sitting on a stationary bike for 30 minutes in a wet tri-suit was entirely unappealing to me. As for today, my swim felt pretty good, not great. I was third in my wave after the swim which I'll admit was better than I had expected considering I haven't spent much time in the water lately. I did kind of luck out by not having to share a lane with anyone else cause my lane partner never showed, score!

The bike was a bit more a challenge for me today. As the cycling portion was only 30 min I found it hard to get in to a rhythm quickly. Generally, I take a long time to get into a groove on the bike, I mean a REALLY long time. By the time we were almost done I had finally hit my stride, so that was a little disappointing. This is one of the reasons why I'm so psyched to try a long-course like Steelhead in August. I think, at least for the bike leg, I'll be much more in my element. Also had a minor issue with my fit. I was sitting way too far down initially and it was not making my knees and legs happy. So I hopped off about 10 min in to adjust my seat. Once I did this I was so much more comfortable and could really get into it. As a silver lining to the bike portion I geeked out to myself a little bit when I walked by the cycling studio right next to where we'd be riding and the instructor was playing one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, Marianas Trench. I had a giant smile on my face for the first 3 minutes of riding because of this. So thanks unknown cycling instructor for making the initial few minutes very fun for me :). You're the real MVP. 

To be quite frank... I have a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with treadmills. We're not friends, even though they let me do runs in the winter when I'm being too much of a pansy to run outside. The run portion of this event was 20 min at your own pace. So instead of going for distance, like I probably should have been, I impulsively chose to do some interval work. This was a good idea for me simply because for my first 4 minutes of running I couldn't really feel my legs. This is something that will get better over time with the aforementioned brick workouts I mentioned before. My max pace was 7.5 MPH and my jog pace was 5.5. It definitely helped me break up the monotony of just running on a treadmill for 20 min. I would also like to give credit to Sarah Koenig and the Serial podcast for keeping my occupied on the last half of the bike and all of the run. 


Everything felt pretty good and I had a lot of fun. This morning was a great reminder of how much I really really like this sport and I'm so excited for where the rest of this season is going to take me. I think its safe to say I've committed to tri for 2016 and I am so excited about that commitment. Now time to relax with my favorite tea in my favorite mug. Happy New Year, everyone! God Bless.