Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon - First tri of 2022 (1st AG)

First tri of the year at Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon. In early January, I posted about signing up for races on social media and Mickey sent me a private message about this race that he organized. It's an indoor tri with a 20/20/20 format. That is 20 minutes pool swim, 20 minutes stationary bike, and 20 minutes treadmill run. I talked to B (my coach) and he said it sounded like a fun race so I signed up.  

The week leading up to the race was pretty uneventful. Work was busy as usual but not stressful. It was supposed to be super cold on race day (thank god it's an indoor tri). I asked hubby to drop me off at the race, which took place at a gym in Beachwood. He was not interested in my race so he dropped me off and went to a coffee shop and grocery shopping LOL. 

I got to Lifetime Fitness about 1 hour before my wave started. The race was very well organized and the volunteer walked me to the designated area in the locker room and marked my body. After I put my stuff in the locker, I walked around to see where everything was. The pool was on the first floor while the bikes and treadmills were on the second floor. Each transition we were given 5 minutes to move from one station to the next. 

So, I set up my small "transition" in front of the stationary bike area so I don't have to waste time changing or going to the locker room. After setting up the transition, I walked downstairs to the pool area and got a chance to do a warm-up swim for a couple of minutes before my wave started. I knew right away that my pace would be slower than my normal swim time because I wore my tri top and shorts instead of a swimsuit but I had no expectations in this race. 

The swim was in a 25-meter pool and we went by the number of laps in 20 minutes. There were volunteers who were designated counters for each lane. So, there were a lot of turns. I was lucky to have E. who is a friend from the Cleveland Tri Club to count my laps (yay). I stopped at 19 minutes 40 seconds coz I did not think I would have enough time to complete a lap and later I found out that they counted half a lap as one lap :(

In a typical triathlon, every minute counts including the transition time. So, after getting out of the pool and being told that I only had 5 minutes to make my way to the bike station, I ran to the bike station and changed into the bike shoes. It turned out that I was the first one to get there with a lot of time to set up my stationary bike. I think others took time to dry themselves and change into the bike cloth. My stationary bike had water dripping down from the seat and it was very wet (felt kinda embarrassed that my bike area was the only wet area in the bike station). Then, the bike portion began. I biked as hard as I could but at the same time tried to keep the RPM high coz I knew I still had to save my legs for the run. 

The bike and run stations were pretty close to each other so there was no need to rush in T2. Because the run was only 20 minutes, I started off at a higher pace than my average run pace and managed to keep negative splits in the run (woo hoo). I had fun the whole time and the staff/volunteers were very friendly and encouraging. The race was well organized despite that it took place on Saturday morning, which was a busy gym time. Lifetime fitness has a cool facility with nice equipment. I wish it were closer to my house. 

Finish the race with a smile. . I told my coach that I still felt rusty as it was the first race of the season. I was kinda curious how I did but I had to wait until all waves were done before I knew the final results. After showered, I called P to pick me up and we went to lunch. We also taught our Thai cooking class that evening. So, it was a lonnnngggg day for me. 

The official results were sent out in the afternoon and I happened to win my age group (40-49) 😳

I think this will be my last race before a trail race that I signed up for in April (Forget the PR 25K). The big goal this year is the Ironman so I have signed up for a couple of Olympic tris in the summer and a tri camp in June. Will see if I find anything interesting/fun to do before the race in April. For now, I am going to focus on getting back in shape and get stronger on the bike.