I focused on smooth and steady. I felt the least prepared for this leg, since I haven’t been in the pool a lot this year – mostly I’ve been run focused. I swam exactly like I’d visualized – and it was easy for 10 minutes… no stopping at walls to rest!

·Sped up. I still had a lot in my tank given that I knew I had 10 minutes in T1 to normalize. It was a good pace for a tri where I’d be speeding through T1 to get to the bike though.
·I wish I’d kept count of my lengths.

We were allowed 10 minutes for T1. My heart rate didn’t get very high in the swim in the first place, so I think I was probably back down to resting by the time I finished drying off and getting changed into my biking/running gear. Walked up to the spinning studio for the bike leg. I had time to sort-of adjust the spin bike I picked before our wave started the bike leg.

It’s hard not to be negative about this. It sucked. All of the bikes were set at the same resistance level – which was definitely higher than the gears I spin on the real bike. It was difficult to maintain a high cadence and due to the fit of the spin bike, I was cramping a lot after about the 10 mile mark. Like almost all of the other races I’ve done, I pretty much had my “Oh my God this sucks and I hate it” moment on the bike for this race. I know I was near tears from the pain in my quads and hip flexors (and the ego bruise, that was the most painful). The cheerful spinning instructor helping “motivate” us and playing bad music didn’t help the ego either. (Still hate Nickleback) Projecting the footage of last year’s Life Time Minneapolis race though, that was pretty cool. Given the ego kill, cramping, and being unable to hear my own music, I feel like 9 miles isn’t exactly defeat. 18mph is still a lot faster than I can pull on the real bike, after all. The bike leg eventually (mercifully) ended.

· Strength and Endurance were my limiters.
· Gotten up to the studio even quicker to ensure that the bike was adjusted where I needed it
· Mental toughness – HTFU. I think I psyched myself out of recovering after the cramps started.

This consisted of wandering through a couple of studios to the cardio deck, finding a treadmill and chilling until we started back up.

I “ran” in the 4-point something speed range until the last 40 seconds, when I kicked with 6.0 mph. The point here is not that I jogged, but that I freaking ran the whole run leg for the first time ever. It took about 7 minutes to get the uglies out of my legs from the bike – longer than usual just because of the cramping issues, I think. And the lack of bricks recently. No matter how far/slow I managed to go, I feel realty accomplished because it was my first time running the whole run leg.

· Sped up. I probably could have dogged out at least a 5mph pace after getting my legs running well.
· More bricks

I did some light stretching of my calves and quads, showered, packed up my stuff and drove home.


In the case of swimming and running, just not picking up the pace. I'm learning about how to manage what's left in the tank still. I played it too conservatively, especially on the run. I should have been going faster because once it was over, the whole thing was over. With the bike, it's TITS. I need more time in the saddle, especially with my next race having an 18 mile hilly bike leg, so I've worked on my weekly plans to help me feel more comfortable.


Well done indoor race. The volunteers were supportive, the amenities were plush. I didn’t partake of the after-race food. T-shirt is green, not white! In the right circumstances, the spinning instructor’s motivation would have been nice, but I was just annoyed by her.