Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon

I can't believe I didn't tell you about this Indoor Triathlon after I completed it in January. Yes, it's been a while but it was the second one I had ever done and I didn't want to forget about it. I was looking at posts I had in draft mode and realized I dropped the ball on publishing this one. Sometimes, I wish Blogger would send me notifications about "On This Day" like FB does so I be reminded of what I wrote about each day over the last 8 years. Yes, it had been about 8 years now, which is crazy. What is crazier is that I started blogging on a personal blog ever longer ago. I don't post on there that much, maybe a few times a year.

Anyways, I diverge......I finished exactly where I expected to and how I finished last time -- right in the middle. I am not terribly fast, but I am not terribly slow. I'm just an average person, in so many ways. LOL! I had 3 friends who did it with me. One of them was the friends I did my 1st Indoor Triathlon with and for the other 2 this was their first.

So, what I can remember about my race is that we were at the Lakeville location and I would totally not choose this location again because the pool was not conducive to a race. Seriously, it was 3 feet deep, which means it was super wavy as every one is swimming their laps and was a slow pool. Ugh. I am already a slow swimmer, I didn't need this. Plus they stuck 2 in a lane at a time and I was stuck on the wall side, which is not as easy to side stroke so I tried to do freestyle as much as I could.

I definitely made up time and points on the bike. I had been going to spin classes regularly, so I was very well prepared for this. My only complaint is they started the clock and then came around and started our distances, so unless you were one of the first couple of people they started you didn't get credit for all of your distance, so that sucked because I lost a couple of minutes of distance and I was cruising!

The run was so much better than last time. I felt better prepared with understanding how my body would feel during the transition and ran at the pace I wanted. Only bummer was that I accidently hit the reset button (who puts an automatic reset button right next to the speed buttons? Stupid.) and my time/distance was wiped. Luckily I had looked at it right before it happened because I was making myself up my speed every certain distance, but then it took 30 seconds to get everything cleared and started and then another 10-15 seconds to get back up to speed on a treadmill. Ugh. When you are doing 60 minute race and you lose 3 minutes of distance, which is 5% it does make a difference.

My First Triathalon Re-Cap

A triathalon has been on my bucket list for the last couple years after I have learned about about an indoor one that based on points that you earn for the distance you complete over a set time.

I admit that my hesitancy for so long was because I of my lack of confidence in my swimming abilities and afraid that I would tire quickly and run out of breath and not get the breathing correctly. My kids are swimmers on swim team, but I never lapped swim and completing 6 levels of Red Cross when I was 2 and a half decades younger was about all the training I have had.

After talking to a few people that have done triathalons I realized it was perfectly ok to do the stroke I felt the most comfortable with (side stroke because then I can keep breathing). So, I side stroked it and was surprised at how well I did. I only went to a community pool once before this triathalon to see if I could actually swim long enough.

I'm a runner, so that was the only piece I was relatively confident about but I was fine with the bike and really like the idea of an indoor triathalon because I don't have to worry about anything happening to my road bike.

I felt good about all off my distances seeing that I have not specifically trained for this type of race. I felt strong because of all the strength classes and power yoga classes, as well as running I have been doing so I wasn't too terrified.

Anyways, at the end of the race what I learned is that the transitions were tough and I need to train for that with my next triathalon. I am sure my numbers will be better because now I have a better handle on how the machines work and how distance is calculated in on the bike and will do better next time,

I am happy my friend said she would do her first one with me. Our first triathalon that was a first for both of us. I do plan to do another one of these next year. These are held by Lifetime Fitness Clubs and they are held in many of the LTF locations across the nation.