Winter Indoor Triathlon - Race Report

I went in to the Oshkosh YMCA Winter Indoor Triathlon not knowing exactly what to think.  I have always raced triathlon with a set distance for each event and the fastest time wins. Simple as that.  This race was set to be completed over the span of 1 hour.  The format was quite simple actually.  You start with a 10 minute swim followed by a 10 minute "transition" period.  The second event was a 20 minute bike followed by a 5 minute "transition."  The final event was a 15 minute run.  Each event had a volunteer counting laps or monitoring the bike computers.  I was very surprised that there was no standard for the resistance you have on the bikes.  The spin bikes at the Downtown Oshkosh YMCA are very nice.  They are Le Monde Revmaster Spin Bikes, which are very smooth and comfortable spin bikes.  They each come with an individual bike computer which monitors your cadence (rpm's), theoretical speed, theoretical distance, estimated calories, and time.  The computers fail to take in consideration power/effort when determining speed/distance.  Therefore, the more revolutions the fly wheel makes, the further/faster you go.  The fact that there was no set standard for resistance on the bikes, you can have zero resistance and spin the pedals effortlessly with no resistance and rack up the miles.  As you'll read below this was a fact that I overlooked and didn't really care for.  The run portion was completed on an indoor track the size of a basketball court.  It was tiny.  In order to complete 1 mile, you needed to run 18 laps!  That's a tight circle.  None-the-less, I went into this race with the idea of possibly winning the race overall or at least really excelling.  I had high expectations going in and I really wanted this to "set the table" for my 2013 race season.  I also really wasn't considering this the "official" start to my race season, but it was still a race.

Training Plan

I considered this to be a "C" race on the traditional hierarchy of races.  "A" races are the races that you set up a training program for, they involve very intricate thought and planning, they take precedence over everything.  You should only have 1-2 "A" races a year.  "B" races are races that you can intermix into your training to prepare you for your "A" races, they can still involve a taper and other minor tweaks to your training plan, but they shouldn't really impact your overall goals of your "A" race.  Finally "C" races are just sprinkled into your training plan as a stimulating form of training.  They replace the daily mundane lonely workouts and give you a race feel, while not impacting your training plan whatsoever.  This was definitely a "C" race.  I ran a 12 mile long run on Thursday with a short bout of 4 miles done at race pace (6:49/mile).  Friday I did a brick workout, consisting of an hour bike followed immediately by a 3 mile run.  And then this race was on Saturday.  So, really there was no "taper," or other training plan tweaks or time off in preparations for this race.  I used it as a replacement for a normal training day.  In fact, I'll be right back in the pool tomorrow swimming 2,500 meters and in the weight room for a strength session.

Day/Night Before the Race

The night before we had my parents over for a game night.  I had a few glasses of wine starting at dinner and into our game of dominoes.  I stopped after 4 or 5 and transitioned to water to maintain some level of hydration.  For dinner I had a baked salmon filet with a sauteed sweet potato in coconut oil and topped with coconut flakes (YUM! - a new favorite).  I also got my deer back from the meat market yesterday so I had to try our old fashioned jerky and venison sticks - but probably didn't need to try as many as I did.  I know I at too much, volume wise, but at least my splurging was done on fruits, vegetables and fresh local lean meat. I didn't eat any refined sugars or processed foods.

Getting to the Start Line  

The day off the race I woke up around 7:00am and had a few glasses of coffee.  At 9:00am I made a bowl of steel cut oats in milk, with a banana, peanut butter, honey, flax seeds, chia seeds, and cinnamon, topped with a bit of coconut flakes.  I left around 11:15am and ate a baked sweet potato with some peanut butter spread inside along with a water bottle of Skratch Labs.  I was scheduled to start at 12:30pm and was in the pool warming up at 12:15pm.  I only swam about 200-250 yards with a few short sprint bursts leading up the start.

10:00 Swim

I had a rough idea of 500-700 yards for a 10 minute swim.  I went out hoping to pace myself equally with as even 100 yard spits as I could manage.  When I was done, the volunteer that was counting my laps said, "your a really good swimmer - nice job!"  That was motivating.  I swam 13 laps or 650 yards.

20:00 Bike

I began the bike with the idea of just "zoning out" for 20 minutes and hammering at what ever resistance they set.  But, as I found out minutes before starting, there was no minimum resistance and the computers did not take effort/power into consideration.  It simply came down to whoever could spin the pedals as effortlessly and as fast as they could.  I set a east to moderate resistance and just shut my eyes and got into an aero position as I would on my tri bike and shut my eyes and focus on riding as smoothly and comfortably as I could for 20 minutes.  After about 5 minutes I looked up to see what everyone else was doing.  I immediately noticed a guy across the way who was spinning at a cadence of at least 130 rpm's.  There is no way he had any resistance on the bike.  I then took note and took off some of my resistance.  The thing with spin bikes is there is no "free wheeling" or stopping your pedals like on normal outdoor bikes.  I have never rode a spin bike with no resistance and had no intentions of starting today.  As I stated earlier, I wanted to utilize today's race as a workout, not a contest of who can withstand the fewest resistance the longest, the fastest - not my cup of tea.  I accumulated a total of 9.0 miles in the 20 minutes.

15:00 Run

The run was completed on an "indoor track."  I put it in quotations due to the fact that the track area was the size of a small basketball gym.  It was 18 laps to complete 1 mile.  The corners were tight and you were literally running in circles.  I started with a group of 5-6.  I was first behind a guy who I should have passed in the first lap or 2, but I got stuck behind him and struggled to find room to pass on such a narrow space.  I eventually passed him after 4-6 laps and then I was in clear space and it was smooth sailing from there on out.  It was tough to maintain a high end speed on such a short track, but I did what I could with what I had and completed 45 laps or approx 2.5 miles.

Post Race

After the race I relaxed for a while in the steam room, which actually felt really good with my congested chest.  I showered up right at the Y and then went to the common area for the indoor triathlon, had some fruit and hung out until the results/awards presentation.  I offically took 2nd in my age group and didn't even place overall.  Frankly, I wasn't even really that close to placing overall.  My total distance covered was something like 11.755 miles.

Other Notes

This will be my rant/rave/complain section.  So there, you've been formally warned.  This "race" was not at all indicative of any ones' endurance athletic ability.  Being able to spin pedals really really fast with no resistance requires no physical ability.  Even the guy who won the event overall said, "there's no way I should even technically win this event."  So it's really not even me realizing this fact.  This is also evident by the physical condition of those who placed high.  I kept some level of resistance on my bike to get some form of physical exercise out of the event.  My swim distance was 2nd best overall (missed first by 25 yards (one length)) and had the overall best run by over a quarter mile.  But my bike was near the lower half - just doesn't seem right.  There needs to by a more standard way of totally the distances to make this event more comparable to an actually outdoor triathlon.  Here are my suggestions...

1.  Have a set resistance which is equal on all bikes and no one can adjust.

2.  Use a spin bike that has power meters installed to take inconsideration the effort exerted onto the pedals, which would more accurately depict speed and distance.

3.  Leave it as is, but use a point system where the person who has the furthest distance covered gets 1 point for 1st, and 2 points for 2nd and so on and the person with the fewest points wins. 

There, I will be stepping off my soap box now and hopefully that will accurately explain why on the surface I did so poorly.

Lessons for Future Events

Well, I guess the one thing I learned is to either not do these indoor triathlons with such high expectations, or skip them and just do high intensity training sessions on my own.

What's Next

Like I said, I'm jumping right back into the pool tomorrow morning for a 2,500 yard swim followed by a strength training session.  This indoor triathlon was a good change of pace workout, but a poor decision for a race.  Live and learn I guess.  At least, I hadn't put all my eggs into one basket with this race and I at least got a decent workout out of it.