Thursday, February 16, 2006

We TRIed our best

Last Sunday was the Tri-u-Mah indoor triathlon, held at the University of Minnesota. Hubby's first, my fifth. (My first was last year's event at the U).

The tri is held at the Recreational Sports complex at the U and we spend 30 minutes each swimming in a pool; riding on a stationary bike and then running on a treadmill. The winner is based on total distance covered.

My event went pretty well. I felt very comfortable in the pool. The U has a great swimming facility complete with several pools. The pool we were in is one depth -- 7 feet, with lenghts of 25 yards. It was divided in to 10 lanes and each participant had his or her own lane.

It is a whole different experience than a swim in a regular triathlon in a lake, where you really can't see the bottom; there are waves to contend with, weeds and -- oh yeah-- other swimmers all around you.

I ended up swimming further this year than last year, 0.61 miles, and I felt good about that.

The locker room was packed when went in to T1 (transition from swim to bike). We had 10 minutes, but I had some problems. Despite my packing and repacking of gear the night before, I did not have my running shorts with me. My friend Marcia, who was also competing in the event, had an extra pair so I borrowed hers. I still ended up losing 1 1/2 mintue on the bike because my transition went too long.

My bike portion and run portion went well -- although I covered less distance this year vs. last year. In total, I covered 9.25 miles -- nothing too stellar compared to other participants, but I had a great time.

Hubby really did great too. Truth be told, he hates to swim. I mean really HATES to swim. He is not comfortable in the water and it impacts his ability to make real headway. But he got through it and then really did well with the bike and run. I'm very proud of him.

His son and daughter were with us for the weekend and were at the event to cheer us on. His daughter has 'caught' the fever now and we are signing up to do a rely indoor tri in mid-March. Hubby will row this time; she will bike and I'll run.

I'm going to sign up for some swimming lessons. I am swimming better, but there has got to be other tips and tricks to make the process easier. The real thing that I need to do much more of before the LifeTime Fitness tri this July, where the swim will be .90, is do much more open water swims to really get comfortable in the lake.

I also signed up for the Wells Fargo 1/2 marathon scheduled for May. I've run the event twice in the past. Pretty - but hilly- course. Also quite fast -- I usually can keep up with the pack for the first few miles of an event, but with this one, I'm dusted in about the first 3/4 mile. Oh well.

Training started last Saturday and, in typical Minnesota style, the weather has turned ugly. Much colder than January and more snow expected to hit. This Saturday (the day of our Long Slow Distance run), the high temp for the day is expected to be 12, with wind chills well below zero. Nothing worse for me than running in that kind of cold.

Perhaps Saturday will be a cross-train day....

1 comment:

Dori said...

You wore Marcia's shorts? What are you, about 6 inches taller than her? It was lucky she had an extra pair, though.

Congratulations to you and Hubby for a great job. And for inspiring his daughter to get out and "Tri".