Lifetime Fitnesss Indoor Triathlon - 2013

Last weekend we completed the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon and it was a good time!
I did the same event 2 years ago and enjoyed it so I was glad when Dave's girlfriend Jesse tried to get a group together to do it this year.

This year Dave and Jesse, Jesse's friend Katie and I participated. Although I have a competitive streak in me it is a good thing I can focus on just competing with myself because I knew Jesse was a good athlete from her Little Miami Triahtlon, but it was also a last minute surprise to find out that Katie was an Ironman finisher as well. Needless to say the girls in our wave did awesome.

While I usually focus on my own results but I want to give a quick shout out to Jesse for coming in 4th overall and 1st place for Women! Also great work to Dave for finishing his first swim triathlon. Maybe he'll get the bug like I did for swim triathlons. Katie did great too and was the most consistent performer across all 3 events of our group.

OK on to my results. Note: Pictures are from the 2011 Indoor Tri when Meghan took them.

[ 10 min Swim ]

I'm in the far right lane -
and blurry because I am swimming so fast!

The last time I did this triathlon I swam the breast stroke nice and easy the whole way which is a bit relaxing and keeps my heart rate down, though I only did 13 lengths in 10 minuets that time.

This year I decided to start out swimming freestyle and see if I could get a few extra lengths in before switching to breast stroke. It turned out to be a bad strategy as I got my heart rate up and it never really went back down so I ended up catching my breath here and there and only finished 11 lengths in 10 minutes this time.

My swim rank was tied for #58-61 out of #62 which is terrible. Good thing someone only did 9 lengths otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any points for the swim.

Next time I will go back to a nice and easy pace the entire time - or of course I should just take SWIM LESSONS already!

[1st Transition ]
The 10 min transition time seemed shorter to me this year. I also realized in the locker room that I forgot to bring my bike shorts. Good thing I swam in tri shorts so I just wore them the rest of the way. I got ot the bike with about 1 minute to spare but the guy running the spin bikes didn't know how to set it up for my clips so I ended up using my sneakers in toe straps.

[ 30 min Cycling ]

I'm blurry because I am biking so fast..

I knew what to expect from the spin bike from the last time but I was disappointed with a few things. First of all the scale for how they calculate "mileage" was changed again so I didn't know what was a good distance this time unlike last time. This time most people were in the 50-55mph range.Secondly the spin bike guy told me that if I went over 55-56 mph that my computer could reset my distance and mess up my score.

I can't say this effected my score much but a few times I went over and slowed down. The guuy also told me not all bikes had this issue so I think I could have tested this on my bike more and pushed it a bit. Overall I averaged 53 mph which was just OK. I also proved I could keep my heart rate between 195-202 for 30 minutes staightso I wasn't anaerobic yet at 195 bpm. I saw V02 max testing going on at Lifetime Fitness so maybe I should sign up for that and see where my zones are.

My biking rank was  #20 out of #62 which is about even with last time I did this event. I also earned 44 out of my 61 points in this event. I need to improve my swim and run.

[ 5 min transition ]
This transition was pretty straight forward and you just walk over to the treadmills. There was plenty of time to get ready for the next event.

[ 20 min run ]

I'm blurry because I am running so fast...

The run was pretty straight forward - 20 minutes on a treadmill. I felt much better this time than the last time I did this event and I was able to run / job the whole time. Last time I walked more. I wonder if that means I pushed it more on the bike last time versus this time.

I was able to finish 1.57 miles which gave me  a (sad) #51 out of #62 competitors on the run. Believe it or not this was an improvement over my 1.51 miles last time and an improvement in rank.



Summary
Overall - I came in a not-too-great but expected #48 out of #62 competitors. It was a slight improvement in rank percentile over last time so I guess that is good. Also I didn't get much of a chance to exercise beforehand. The best thing out of this event is it lit a fire in me to start exercising again and I hope to do more events this year than last year.

Also I again wish that the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon was more than once per winter as there isn't much else to do AND I always have the bug to do a little better after I figure out how to do the indoor tri again. I know I could have gotten into the Top 10 on the bike had I just known I needed to squeeze out 0.5 fake miles more out of my 26 fake miles total.

Halloween 2012

Oops I just realized I never published this blog (it's 2013 already!)
Let's see if I can remember them all.

Matt

My Pumpkin - Anna loves owls!

Dave D - Coyote power animal

Dave S

Jesse

Mason Fit to Fight Triathlon 2012

After 2 years I finally returned to my very first triathlon ever - the pool swim at Mason. It was a case of Apples and Oranges compared to my first triathlon there in 2010 (I'll explain).

400m Swim (actual swimming this time) - 15:28     Median Time:9:19
Transition 1 - 4:37     Median Time:1:49
13 mi Bike (was actually 14 mi) - 54:31     Median Time:46:14
Transition 2 - 2:32 Median Time:1:09
5K Run (was actually 3K) - 25:21          Median Time:17:35

Overall - 1:42:32 Median Time:1:16:26

Swimming 400m [+3 min versus 2 years ago]
If you have read my blog before you know that my first ever triathlon swim was dubbed the "swimbacle"because it didn't go too well and I ended up swim-walking (dubbed swalking) most of the way.

This was appled and oranges because I swam slow and steady just about the entire time (though you can rest and catch your breath at the end of a lap) but my time was much slower than before. I wouldn't have guessed that swalking would have been faster than my poor swim but I guess it is. I think this also contributed to my longer transition time as I was more tired. I am NOT much of a swimmer still Need to take swim lessons (I keep saying this).

Bike 13mi [=0 min versus 2 years ago]
We had severe weather just before the race and trees were down on the trail so they shortened the run but make the bike longer. I thought they said they'd lengthen the bike by 2 miles for 1 mile less running but it didn't seem that long. It was my first triathlon with my aero bars which I think helped but the course was also compleetly different than 2 years ago. It was 2 laps through a neighbor hood but seemed to be a bit hilly so I think I would have rather have the old course.

I remember as soon as I pulled back in from my last lap Meghan and Anna showed up so I got to see them off the bike and at the finish.

3K Run [-17 min versus 2 years ago]
Apparently there were trees down on the trail and they had to cut it short. I was pissed. There were a lot of people talking about the change and were excited because they don't like the run much. I would rather have had a traditional Sprint Triathlon distance so I could compare times year to year.

Total Time [-13 min versus 2 years ago]
So while I was "faster" it really was apples and oranges so I guess it was fun. It was great to see Jeff there as I haven't been able to do as many triathlons this year so this was the only one we did together.