Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon Race Report: part 2 the Bike and Run...Finally!

Yes I know this is way late...but I won't list the many excuses, but will finish up my race report.  AND I have another post on my Minneapolis Half-Marathon, so double your reading/viewing pleasure! Or something... :-)  You can check out my Minneapolis Half-Marathon recap here (link will be up soon!).


LTF Indoor Triathlon part 2:  I spun and I milled!

Gatorade and water in hand I ran up the stairs to the cycle studio, and found a bike.  Music was blaring and the heat before mine was halfway thru their 30 min cycle.  Teresa, a friend from my Beginner's Master's Swim, was on her bike pumping away.  I gave her a thumbs up and cheered as I clambered onto my chosen bike (I had to pick the one with the biggest foot straps since I have ginormous duck feet, I didn't want my foot popping free, like it did the first time I tried a spin class).  The volunteers were awesome and got my seat adjusted to the right height, and I sett up my water and Gatorade and I was ready to go.  I started slowly biking, and we had 30 seconds til it was time.  Before I knew it they shouted GO! and I started spinning as fast as I can, which is pretty fast considering that there was no resistance!  That felt weird, but the object was to go the farthest as possible so they jack down the resistance to nothing.  I cam to regret that, but I will tell you that later.
Here's a pic of me on the bike:


Thumbs up!

 It was going pretty well, I felt good, and my new tri-shorts felt good too....(sidebar:  I should have used some chamois butter or bodyglide before putting them on.....there was some chafing later, not good.  Here's a product I saw at the tri store that made me laugh:  DZ-Nuts. And yes this is a real product, and its safe for work ;-)
Chafing aside I pushed hard at the bike, averaging about 29-30mph (no way I could do that in real life). I got another pic snapped at me with about 5 minutes left:




Working it!

 I pushed hard and was rewarded the last minute for my hard work, I ended up with 14.5 miles during my 30 minute spin. I mopped the sweat off my face and then headed to the exercise floor and got on a treadmill, and started it up.  I walked for about 3 minutes sipping Gatorade before the run started to get my legs going again.  I noticed my left knee was sore...not good.  Later on I think no resistance and maybe having the seat too low? resulted in the soreness.  As I blog, I still have that sore knee.  However, at the time I just pushed through, hoping my right calf would cooperate.  Teresa came by to cheer me on as she had just finished, and then I was off on the 'mill! 10 minute run, I can do this I said.  I set the speed for 6.0mph and went with it.  Again, I had one of the volunteers take my photo:




Still smiling!

 The run felt good up until about 7min, my calf was hurting.  I tried to ignore the pain but by 10 min, it hadn't let up.  I took it down to a quick 4mph walk and tried to walk it out a little for the next 2.5 min.  It was feeling better so I kicked it back up to 6.5mph and went for it (at the time I was just hoping to beat the old lady next to me, she had went 1 mile walking and I was at 1.2. Sad? Yep, but just wait till you hear that at my half-marathon I blew past an elderly power walker at the the finish, oh yeah!).  The last 2 minutes I cranked it up and did 7.0 and 8.0 mph:



So fast, my legs are a blur...

 And...it was over!  I ran a decent 1.81 miles in 20 minutes (decent for me anyways).  I was extremely happy, and glad I had done this.  My official score was 126 points, which was 13 out of 26 guys, not bad.  The indoor triathlon was a taste of what the real thing will be, at the Mpls Triathlon in July.  Maybe triathlons are my new "thing", especially since I have been suffering injuries from running, it would be a good way for my body to heal. Stay tune for more, but I will leave you with my post-race, I-Am-A-Triathlete photo



Still smiling....before I realized the chafing LOL!


Happy Swimming/Biking/Running!