This tri is a bit different from most of the ones I've seen: not only is it a bit shorter than the typical Sprint distance tri, it takes place completely indoors (which is likely a good thing given the weather we get here in the Midwest in late February/early March). The swim is done in a 25-yard pool, the cycling is on a stationary bike and the run is on a track.
The fact that this tri is indoors is what convinced me to sign up for it. Since the Matt Mason tri was cancelled, I've yet to actually do my first tri. This one seemed like a good choice. As I said, it's shorter than a typical Sprint (500 yards swimming, 10 miles biking and 3 miles running versus 750 meters swimming, 12 miles biking and 3.1 miles running).
Beyond that, the fact that it took place indoors appealed to me for a number of reasons. The swim takes place in a pool, which plays to my strengths. I swam competitively for almost a decade, so swimming in a pool is something I'm very used to. Practice with the various teams I was on accustomed me to swimming in crowded pool conditions, which I'm sure will come in handy on March 1st. I practiced one open water swim before the Matt Mason tri, and it is worlds different from swimming in a pool. There are no nice lines on the bottom of the lake to help you keep going in the proper direction, forcing you to look forward frequently to assess if you're still on course. There are actual real waves to deal with (beyond those created by swimmers in neighboring lanes). There are no lanes to seperate the swimmers, leading to people clumping together in large groups reminiscent of spawning salmon. The water temperature is highly variable. The entry and exit are natural, sandy/gravely beaches. In other words, open water swimming is typically much more difficult than pool swimming. The fact that this swim takes place in a pool was a huge point in this race's favor in my eyes.
The biking portion takes place on stationary bikes. Whereas there will obviously be no real hills to climb on a stationary bike, I'm expecting them to have every bike set up to run the same work-out program that will simulate the hills and flats that you'd find on an actual course. Everyone will climb the same "hills", which is as it should be. The exciting part for me regarding the biking portion of this tri is that I don't have to worry about flatting or some other mechanical failure on my bike. I've only changed the tube on my bike a few times and it's something I'm not very good at yet, and I'm not exactly a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so any other mechanical failure during a race would be disastrous for me. It's one less thing to worry about during my first race, which is for the best.
The run will take place on an indoor track, which means no hills at all, period. I currently run .6 miles at a time, with a .1 mike walk to catch my breath after. I'm confident that I'll be up to running all 3 miles at once come March 1st.
I know my training has slacked recently. I've been lazy and have been using the fact that the Royals are in the postseason for the first time in 29 years as an excuse to skip working out. I think part of my lethargy came from not having a tri to train for; now that I'm officially signed up for my next race, it's more real and I hope I'll begin training consistently again. The last game of the World Series is tonight, so after tonight I'll have no more excuses to skip training.
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