Race Report {Lifetime Indoor Triathlon 2019}

I kicked off my 2019 season with the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon in mid January (01/20/19). This was my 3rd time doing the event, 2nd is a row competing at the St. Louis Park location, and it is always a fun way to spend part of a morning! I love it because it a good opportunity for newbies to try out the idea of a triathlon as well – you can swim, bike, and run without having to buy much of the gear (or worry about timed transitions) to see if you like the idea of doing all three sports in a row!

The indoor event is broken down by a 10 minute swim where the number of lengths are counted, a ten minute transition to the bike, a 30 spin on the bike where the distance (miles) covered is recorded, a five minute transition to the run, and a 20 minute run on the treadmill where the distance (miles) is recorded. A 60 minute all out effort!

I treated this as a hard workout so nothing special was done to prepare for the this event. I’m not in a scheduled training plan either so it was just a *fun* way to push it hard and see where my fitness is.

Swim {24.5 Lengths}

I was ready for the steamy pool deck and warm pool water this year after last year’s experience and found out that the St. Louis Park pool is 22.5 yards long versus the 25 yards of a standard pool and what I’m used to swimming in. This was good to know so I didn’t think I was super fast and cut my strokes per length by 2 🙂 Plus, it helped me decide not to use my watch to prevent the shorter pool length from recording incorrectly. Last year I pushed it too hard and paid for it for the rest of the event so I made sure to go out at a more comfortable pace. I’ve been swimming at Master’s for over 2 months now and have improved (although not as much as I’d hope for yet) and just learned a new tip for my flip turn that I did okay with throughout the 10 minute session. I’m always super worried about crossing into my partner’s side that I got caught up in the lane dividers a few times which slowed me down! Overall a decent swim!

Bike {10.9 miles}

Race organizers warn you that the 10 minute transition goes by quickly and I found myself arriving at my bike un-fitted with less than a minute to go! I moved the seat up quickly and I was off without getting a chance to make sure it fit correctly! Tip: I should have checked out the bike area beforehand and done a practice setup so I would have known where to move everything when I got up there. I still haven’t done a FTP test and wanted to use this as an opportunity to gauge how I could do. It isn’t perfect as I would normally warm up for at least 20 minutes and then go all out for 20 minutes but it would push me hard for 30 minutes and give me an estimate. I jumped right in after we pressed start and tried to find a balance of resistance, cadence and speed – with the goal being to cover as much distance as I could. Because I haven’t done a FTP test, I have no idea what kind of wattage I can fold for 30 minutes so I played around with my resistance, cadence, and speed for a few minutes and gradually increased the wattage making sure my mph did not decrease. I settled in between 200-215 watts for most of the ride and slowly watched my average increase and ended at an average of 191 watts with a heart around 170-175 beats per minute. Now I have a gauge!

Run {2.3 miles}

A five minute transition does not get the heart rate down very much and, before I knew it, I pressed ‘start’ on the treadmill. Speed is the one thing I have not focused any time throughout the off season so I knew I’d have to be a little conservative on the run. I started slowly and gradually increased my speed. I like to press the buttons on the treadmill so increased my speed by 0.1 every minute. I got up to 7.5 and couldn’t hold on so I took a quick 30 minute break and started to build back up again. I used my manta, “I will conquer this mountain”, and power words for the first time and felt they did help a bit. I think continued practice during hard training sessions will help reinforce and build my confidence and usefulness in both my manta and power words.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

First and foremost, this event is fun and Lifetime and its volunteers do a great job! Second, the bike portion gave me the confidence that I’m ready for my FTP test and have a baseline of 191 watts to build from. Third, it was my first practice is using my mantra and power words and working on my mental game outside of solidcore. I’m excited for what is to come this season!