Train-n-Tri: First Triathlon of 2015

I competed in my first 2015 triathlon this morning.

I swam.

I biked.

I ran.

All inside a gym....okay, the swim was outside, but it was at the gym.

I shouldn't really even call this place a gym. It is a gorgeous health center and if I lived in Laguna Niguel I would be a member of this place.

I may not be a member, but for today I was allowed inside to "compete" at the Indoor Triathlon Hour sponsored by Life Time Tri and Ironman.

I was curious what an indoor triathlon was like and I emailed the guy in charge and asked if he needed a volunteer.

He said no.

I was still curious, so I signed up and gave my $25 to compete.

Why did they hold this event?

According to the Life Time info, they wanted to "inspire Life Time members and the greater community to consider and commit to racing triathlon in 2015. The inaugural Indoor Triathlon Hour powered by Life Time Tri and Ironman, is designed to offer an inspirational charged, safe and simulated environment for athletes of all fitness levels to experience the nation's fastest growing sport of triathlon."

I should be committed.....I mean, I am already committed to triathlon, so all this was a win-win for me. Especially since, being in the event gave me a lot of opportunities to win....a slot at Kona 2015, an entry to a Life Time Tri, or an entry to the 2015 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Austria.

I'd love to win all of that.

But no matter what, this morning's indoor tri was a great workout.

My transition area was all set up.....inside a locker in the prettiest locker room I have EVER been in. I was kind of scared about my locker because you don't use your own lock. They give you a card and you put it on the inside of the door and you set your own number and then you shut the door and scramble up the numbers. My locker was numbered 285...so to make it easy for myself I made the locker number code 2851. I wasn't too worried about anyone trying to steal my stuff. Did I mention that there were about 30 Range Rovers and 70 Porsche parked in the "gym" parking lot. Which, by the way, had VALET parking.

Okay, so back to my transition area.

I had my stuff ready for my "quick" transitions and I headed out to the pool area.

The tri started with a 10 minute swim. I was in Wave 4.

Which meant that 30 people had gone before me as they had 10 people in each wave. I shared a lane with a younger guy (probably in his 20's). I told him my plan was to draft off of him. He looked at me and said he wasn't that great of a swimmer and then he looked at me again and I guess he figured he was going to drop me quick-like.

I'm in lane 2 from the left, sharing with the board-short swimmer guy. The water was CHILLY!!!!

I am glad to report that I hung onto the feet of the board-short swimmer guy for about 5 minutes and then he dropped me....but I just kept swimming my swim and toward the end (after he had blown himself up) I passed him and had a good lap on him at the end.

I jumped out the water and had 10 minutes to transition from swim to bike. Yes, 10 minutes does seem like a lot of time, but I had to go into the locker room and change out of a wet swimsuit into my tri-shorts and sports bra and shirt. They didn't want any wet clothes in the gym. Most of my time was taken up putting on my sports bra. It is very (VERY!!!!) difficult to put on a sports bra when your skin is wet. I had to force myself NOT to stop at the coffee bar on my way out of the locker room....you think I am joking?

Then I ran up two flights of stairs to the spin bike room on the 3rd floor. I did get the spin bike adjusted and my bike shoes on and clipped into the bike with about 45 seconds to spare....and I ate a SunRype bar during this time also.

I have never ridden a spin bike like these. They were WAY different than the ones at LA Fitness. As I was riding I had to ask one of the guys...yeah, the one leaning against the bike in the picture, how you adjust the tension and he pointed to the red "stop" button....I tried turning it, but it never seems to make much of a difference. And here is the funny (as in weird) thing...no matter how fast or slow I peddled, it always said I was going 9.9 miles an hour and had WATTS of 29.

NO LIE.

I could not get that computer reading to change whatsoever.

When the 30 minute time was up the "officials" said to soft pedal just to keep the computers on while they walked around and wrote down our numbers. They women next to me kept on barreling away. I asked the official, "Aren't we suppose to back off now?" He said yes. And I said, "Well, maybe she didn't hear you," and pointed to the woman. He walked over and told her to take it easy and she just said something about being in a race.

That's when I reminded myself that this was for fun and observation.....oh, and winning that Kona slot.

I put on my running shoes and made it down a flight of stairs to the treadmills.

I had 5 minutes for transition and I must have been speedy because I was standing on the treadmill waiting for about 2 minutes for the officials to start us.

So, I stood there on a non-moving treadmill for 2 minutes.

Running on a treadmill for two minutes is boring, but standing on one that is not doing anything for two minutes is BORING!!

Finally, the officials blew a whistle and we were allowed to start our treadmills.

I ran Sycamore Canyon yesterday, so my legs were screaming at me the first couple of minutes, but then I changed the incline to a 3 and it was a little easier to run. I was probably running slower, but running uphill always seems easier to me than running flat or downhill.

20 minutes on the dreadmill, I mean treadmill and I was done.

The Life Time "officials" said congratulations, took my picture and gave me a tshirt.

Thanks to my guy Robert, and my son Darin, who patiently waited for me (and took pictures)...and then let me take them to Crystal Cove for a nice 3 mile uphill/downhill hike.