Swim. Bike. Run. DONE.

Today Holly² and I did the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon, called the Try-a-Tri! It was my very first triathlon competition--it was Holly²'s third. The set up is that you swim for 10 minutes, have a ten minute transition period, bike for 30 minutes, have a 5 minute transition period, then run for 20 minutes. It's indoors, so the swimming is in a lap pool, the biking is on a spinning cycle and the running is on a treadmill.

I was very excited and a bit nervous because: 1) I didn't really know what to expect never having done this before (although Rebecca and I did something similar in February); and 2) I had run a fast half marathon the day before! But by some divine miracle, I was not sore this morning and I was able to go hard!

The swimming: This winded me more than I expected. Maybe I started too hard? Maybe it was the half yesterday. I did 2 laps breaststroke, then 1 lap elementary back stroke, then 2 laps breaststroke then I got a half lap in elementary backstroke before the time was finished. That means I completed 11 lengths of the pool, or 5.5 laps. 16 laps is a half mile. For your reference. So I went approximately 0.17 miles.

The biking: I had NO idea what to expect here because I had not really ever ridden a spinning cycle except for once before and I had no idea what resistance or whatever we had done then. However, I was most pleasantly surprised by my ability to ROCK the bike! My pace was right around 28-30 mph the whole time! I went 14.7 miles in the 30 minutes allotted time, so 29.4 mph on average. I was going *so* hard, I broke the bike!!!! Kind of. :) So, about 20 minutes in one of the guys working the event was messing with my mileage calculator thing, so I pulled out my earbud and asked what was up. Something had snapped and he was worried it would cut up my leg, but it wasn't hitting me so we just kept going. With seconds left it snapped completely, but we were done anyways. Hmm...must be my hulk-like man muscles... ;) Also, the guy running the bike portion was kind of gorgeous. Holly² told him I ran a half marathon yesterday, so I bragged that I ran it in 2:08:58. Naturally. He said: "Impressive. But as a coach, why the ::expletive:: are you here?!?!?" I laughed and told him that my trainer, Devon, said I could. He laughed.

The running: I went into the event prepared to walk this if I needed to, but I was feeling great so I decided to try to push it! I started at 6.0 mph and after 30 seconds-ish, I upped it to 6.5. Then at 15 minutes I decided I would incrementally up the speed til the end. At 15 min, 6.6; 16 min, 6.7; 17 min, 6.8; 18 min, 6.9. Then at 19 minutes I went to 7.5 mph and and 19:30 I went to 8.5 mph. 8.5 mph is fast! Whew-ee. I ended up going 2.19 miles.

The guy leading the running section told me I had a decent chance of winning for my wave. But my swimming was pretty slow, so my hopes are *kind of* up, but not too much...Time shall tell...

The TRIATHLETES post-race:



Anyways! WHAT A WEEKEND?!?! I PR-ed AMAZINGLY in the half marathon and I became a TRIATHLETE! I feel great! I love being healthy and fit! I love spending time with amazing women (I'm talking about you, Amy, Kiley and Holly²)!!!

Next workout: walking, jogging or running with the girls tomorrow--unsure which yet!