5/7/2006

Today's the day. I'm going to complete a 'gym tri', by riding the exercise bike, running on the treadmill, and swimming in the pool, all at race distance. I woke up feeling pretty good, but was nervous about how my knees and calves reacted to my run Wednesday. I grabbed my gear and headed over to the gym.

I decided to do my 'events' out of order so I wouldn't be dealing with drying off after the swim, then again after a shower at the end. I started with the bike, followed by the run, then the swim.

I set the bike on a medium difficulty level, since the race route is supposed to be very flat. I spun a cadence between 102 and 110 consistently, and finished the 12.7 miles in 35:17.

I refilled my water bottle and hopped on a treadmill. I started at 5.2mph, figuring I didn't need a warmup. I concentrated on landing on my feet softly, in order to minimize the impact on my knees. I was starting to tire near the one-mile mark, so I backed off to a fast walk for a couple of minutes. Kicked it back up to 5.5 to the two-mile mark, then backed off again. At 2.3 miles, I started running again at 5.6 mph. I ran into a problem - even though I had set the treadmill to do a specific distance, it started to shut down after 30:00, going into cooldown mode. I kept bumping the speed back up to 5.6 whenever it stepped down for the 5:00 cooldown period.

When the cooldown ended, I was at 2.63 miles, so I immediately re-started the treadmill for .5 mile distance, and ran it at 5.6. My overall time for the 3.1+ miles was about 37:10. Not a fast pace, but I was really more concerned about preserving my knees and making the distance.

On to the swim! I changed into my trunks and grabbed my goggles and headed out to the pool. Whoa, what's this?! Sun?! Cool! (we have been having May Grey weather for the past three months almost without a break. All lanes were being used, but a good citizen offered to share his lane. Yes, thanks. I slid into the water, adjusted my goggles, started my chronometer, and set off.

I was going to try to do 8 lengths (200K), rest, then do the other 200K, as I did before. Two things I read in the Triathlon 101 book I wanted to try: 1. Lower your stroke count (more gliding, less effort) and 2. Keep the head and shoulders down (more streamlined). I concentrated on both of these, and was swimming a nice easy pace.

I was on my 7th length out, and felt really comfortable, so I decided I would continue without resting. I kept a comfortable rhythm all the way through the 16 lengths, and touched the wall in 7:47. Again, not particularly fast, but I was more excited that I was able to go the distance without stopping.

To recap:
Bike - 12.7 miles - 35:17
Run - 3.1 miles - 37:10
Swim - 400m - 7:47

Keeping in mind these times don't include any transitions, I would likely finish middle of the pack based on last year's results on the race website http://www.triforlife.com. I really want to work on getting my run time down around 30:00 if I can do it without injuring myself.