Wednesday, March 19, 2008

 

Fitness World West Indoor Triathlon Report

When I got the urge to swim last month and did a few workouts, I started to think that maybe someday I could do a triathlon. But, I don't really have the right bike gear and frankly I'm a little nervous about training on the roads. I thought it was probably in the distant future. Then Amy heard about an indoor tri on the race schedule and things changed in a hurry. I got excited and decided it would be fun and at .25m swim / 10 mile bike / 3 mile run I figured I could finish, it was just a matter of whether I'd be running, walking or crawling. :D

This race to benefit St. Jude's Hospital is running all week. You just sign up for a time and get assigned a trainer to count laps and keep time. I took a few pics but don't have them available yet.

Amy and I met up in the parking lot and talked about our craziness and excitement. After a few instructions we laid out our gear in the locker room. This tri was pretty lax about transitions so we could come in and change after the swim and just meet at the bikes. We took a headshot pic of us (bathroom shot for Marcy). I wear lots of lipstick for these types of events, keep your eyes on my face please (yeah, the racing suit is from another decade!). Turns out Amy uses red fingernail polish in much the same way. Great minds....

We hit the swim for 10 laps, I felt pretty good for about 4 or 5 and then Amy pulled away from me a bit. We still finished strong (my time was 8:00 ~ .25 mile) and Trainer Guy said he hadn't seen times that good yet. YIPPEE.

Amy had warned me about an interesting twist to the bike ~ they intended to have us start at level 6 and go UP 2 levels EVERY TWO MILES. omg.omg.omg.omg.omg. I told Trainer Guy I would likely be crying by the end. Has anyone ever tried this? Holy Torturous Trainers, Batman, that was BRUTAL. Despite Amy's lobbying, we ended at Level 14 for the last 2 miles. I mostly kept the RPMS in the 90's early on but that slipped away some in the late miles. Again, Amy pulled away from me a bit. Those last two miles were dang hard and I was proud to just finish. 10 miles ~ 37:46. I really wasn't sure I could run after that but Trainer Guy gave us a bit of a stretch break.

The run started out F.A.S.T. Amy asked me if it felt fast and I said I had no idea. I couldn't feel my legs!! :D It wasn't that bad, it just feels weird. We rocked out mile 1 in something like 10:10 and about both fainted. Amy thought our first .5 m was probably a pace in the 9's!! We were so elated that this carried us on. We were running and cheering at our splits and averting our eyes a lot from all those mirrors (oh man, I need to hit the diet again, and hard). I thought this would be much worse but suprisingly we just kept going.

I've never run this fast in my life so obviously I'm thrilled. (30:30 - 3 miles) Thrilled with the time, thrilled with the finish of my first Tri (both standing and running!), thrilled with the company, too. Amy was really a great partner (I'm sure she felt like she had on a tow rope at times). Very encouraging and positive and just what I needed to keep going.

We also did a little bit extra since we had a timer for an official event, to get a 5k time for the Shave Your 5k. I totally smashed my PR (OMG!OMG!) not so bright strategy, but who cares?

(Nancy and Amy, finished - with hard earned t-shirts. Pic borrowed from Amy)

Thoughts ~

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# posted by Non-Runner Nancy @ 2:01 AM 63 Comments

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

 

Tri Watch

I DID IT.

I FINISHED MY FIRST INDOOR TRIATHLON.



Swim .25 mile ~ 8:00


Bike 10 miles ~ 37:46


Run 3 miles ~ 30:30




AMY IS THE BEST TRI PARTNER EVER and we have stories to tell !!!

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# posted by Non-Runner Nancy @ 3:18 PM 40 Comments
 

TRI PREP



Saturday 10 mile bike ride - check

Sunday 40 minute walk - check

Monday rest and have some carbs (read that green beer) - check to the rest, and check, check to the beer(s).

Gear - triple checked

Nerves - so far, in check

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# posted by Non-Runner Nancy @ 10:50 AM 11 Comments

Friday, March 7, 2008

 

Just Try

.25m ~ 10m ~ 3m


Do you remember just a few short days ago when I was answering questions about whether or not a tri was in my future, and I said I thought I needed some more time? Well apparently I need about 10 days. :P



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Just a little lesson. When you make sort of absent claims or statements.... be prepared for the earth to rotate just enough that the stars align and the improbable becomes for really reals in a hurry.

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So Java and I are chattin and she says something like, "no, no, do it now, you are ready, you should try it," and I say, "well, I'm really not equipped with the whole bike thing like I should be if I'm going to do a tri. If I could find a nice short safe indoor one, I think I'd do it in a heart beat." yep, I said that. And, you guessed it. A nice short safe indoor tri appeared, compliments of Amy. omg.omg.omg.what.have.i.done?omg.omg.omg.omg.

I'm scared, nervous and excited, but then I figured, it's not like life or death here, right? This will be fun, especially with Amy. It's about a mile or two from my house, in the pool I was doing some laps at!! You can schedule it to your own convenience during the week. And it's $25 for St. Jude's Hospital, for heaven's sake. How can I not do this, right? (it's like Marcy with free shipping and a coupon code, how can you not?) Let's just see if I can do all the legs and have some fun. (.25m swim, 10m bike, 3m run) I seriously don't even know if I CAN run 3 miles after 10 on the bike...omg.omg.omg.


My hub first said, "COOL!" and then said, "well, maybe this one is more of a 'TRY' " :D You got that right.

I signed up and the gal said there were quite a few "competitors." **GULP*** omg.omg. I told her I was more of a "participant" :P


So, tri-stars, what should I be doing for the next 10 days?? HELP!!!! omg.omg.omg.

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# posted by Non-Runner Nancy @ 10:47 AM 51 Comments

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