Second Tri of 2008 Guilderland Y Indoor Tri 03/30/08

Nice event this morning. Lots of familiar faces, and it's nice to compete on my home "turf". Best of all, my buddy Kelly the Quick took a first overall for women, and her husband Craig took a first overall for men.

I had an 8:40 AM start time, which is very civil. For these indoor tri's, the trick to getting the later start time is to register later, but not so late that you get shut out. Turns out Kelly and Donna were in the second heat, which went off at 7:20 AM. Since the Y is only 10 minutes from my house, it was pretty easy to get over there early to cheer them on.

Kelly staked out lane 3 - she picked that lane because that's the lane she trains in on Thursday nites, and she felt comfortable there. Donna, who had just flown back yesterday from SC from her visit with the granddaughters, was over in lane 7. Because my wave didn't start until so much later, I got to watch and cheer for them in each event.

Super Steve was in the last wave, the one after mine, so he was in my cheering section for my swim, although I didn't get to cheer for him. I understand he did very well, 26 or 27 lengths in the pool, 7.5 on the bike and a very respectable 1.9 miles on the treadmill.

The good news about an indoor tri is that all the events take place in a confined area, so it is easy to see the competitors. The bad news is that, other than the swimming, there's not much to see, since neither the stationary bikes nor the treadmills go anyplace, and neither do the athletes using them. From a competitor's a point of view, though, this is an ideal situation, because you can hear your friends cheering you on during every minute of each event, and that's great.

The Score Card

Swimming: Not bad. I did the crawl stroke for the entire time, kicked off the walls much better than during the last event, minimized my "hang time", that is, the amount of time I grabbed the walls and rested. I covered 25.5 lengths, a full 25 yards farther than during my Febraury tri, and I met my goal. Of course, if I hadn't stood up once at the end of the pool, looking at my watch and adjusting my goggles (and being truthful - catching a short rest) and if I had been just a little quicker off the walls a few times, I could have covered 26 laps. Still - pretty good (Thanks, Coach!) 67 points; A-

Bike: Pretty good. I knew we were using spin bikes, so I looked up the bike settings last night from my last indoor race and memorized them. Knowing these let me set up the bike as soon as I got out of the water, which gave me a quicker transition to the bike, and meant that I had a minute more of rest time between events. I knew enough to pedal at high RPM's and low resistance, and I knew that I could get over 120 RPM's, the highest number on the bike computer and that the computer would still register the distance.

Two minor screw ups - I forgot to start my stopwatch at the beginning of the race, and tried to set it about 2 minutes in, with the help of the lead volunteer in the room. Good idea, except I straightened up to do this, I forgot about pedaling - not a good idea since the flywheel kept turning, and so did the pedals, which are fixed - no coasting on a spin bike. Consequently, my feet came out of the straps, and I had to slow down to try to slide them back in. Being a slow learner, this happened again before I finally got the stopwatch going - one of the volunteers helped me slide my foot back into the cage this time.

Other than that - a pretty good ride. 7.29 miles, over .8 miles better than in February. 76 points; A-.

The Run: A disaster. I made the assumption that since the February indoor tri had us all running on the track for the third event, we would be running on the track this time, too. That's the way I trained, transitioning from bike to track when I was practicing the bike, and running on the track, or outdoors when I was practicing for the run. Wrong! Last night Kelly let me know that this event was going to be held on the treadmills. And, no touching the rails during the entire event.

I hate the treadmill - I think it's a tyrant! When I run, I slow down or speed up a lot during a workout. Walk whenever I want to, too - no problem to vary the pace. Not the case on the treadmill. I have to hit the up or down arrows repeatedly to go from a run to a walk, or vice versa. And I inevitably grab the side rails or the front of the machine for balance during abrupt speed changes like run to walk, or during sprints.

This news freaked me out - I worried a lot about it last night, and didn't sleep too well. I was afraid if I tried to go too fast, I would lose my balance and fall, or grab the rails and get disqualified. I decided to be very conservative, and alternated between 4 mph walking and 4.6 mph jogging - 13 minute mile pace. And that's what I did.

Every now and then I tried to go faster or longer by getting into a zone and using the dis-associative technique that was described in the NY Times running column last week - staring at a distant object, counting my footfalls and synching my breathing up with them - but each time I did, I started to lose my balance. So I went back to the slower pace, and the results show this clearly. 1.1 miles; 40 points; D.

Lessons Learned: Ask questions about the events and the equipment. If I had done this, I would have trained on the accursed treadmill and done better for sure. After all, I am routinely running 12 minute miles or so during my training - I can do better!

On the positive side - I am very pleased with swimming and biking. I trained hard to improve, and I did.

Two minor notes: No body markings for this event - I felt cheated! And, we had to wear swim caps in the pool. I had forgotten how wonderful it is to try to pull one of those things over my head - like trying to put on a giant condom, but without the payoff.

The IPod Factor: Not a factor. The powers that be decided that since runners are no longer allowed to use IPods in road races (courtesy of the lawyers and their fears about liability lawsuits, we would not be allowed to use them either. Or more accurately, the people in waves 3-7 would not be allowed to use them, because it took them 2 waves to figure this out. This logic struck me as more than a little flawed, since it was not a road race, and there certainly was no danger of being hit by a car while inside the YMCA. Not to mention inconsistent in its application.


But, this seemed to be the only flaw in a very well organized and well run event. My applause and congratulations to Kerry and all the volunteers who put this event together and made it a great success.