semperfiona | Achievement unlocked!

This morning, I completed my first ever indoor sprint triathlon! 500 yds swimming, 9 miles stationary bike, 3.1 miles treadmill running. My total time was approximately 1:09; the splits are supposed to be posted sometime today but they haven't showed up yet.

It was kind of an adventure in minor malfunctions, though. First I almost thought I was going to barf after only two laps in the pool, so I forced myself to slow down: I did half a lap of breaststroke and skipped a couple of flip turns in favor of grabbing the wall for a breath. That was enough to get me back in the game, though, and I kept swimming until someone finally splashed water in my face and shouted STOP! I had completely missed the 'you're done' signal...twice. So I swam an extra 75 yards.

Then I couldn't get my tank top on for the biking; had to get help from a volunteer to unroll the back of it that was hanging up on my wet swimsuit. Got on the bike, started pedaling, and shortly noticed that my mileage counter was not moving. "How do you read this thing?" I asked. Volunteer looked at it and determined that it had stopped counting. Based on my start time, he credited me with 1/2 mile (which as it had been about three minutes by then was probably a bit less than I really had accomplished, but whatever, I went with it).

Then the treadmill was left by the previous runner with 3.18 miles on it, and it took me three tries to get it to reset to zero. On top of that, my shoes came untied *twice* in the first mile. Finally I managed to brain, and I double-tied them. After that, it went better. I took the run slightly easy: I think there were three walking segments (4.5 mph), and I did most of my jogging segments at 5.5 instead of the 6.2 that I use when all I'm doing is running. Did about .75 mile of 6.2, I think, so the run finished up taking me about 35 minutes.

I think I've learned a few things for the next time, like...I should have made sure the bike was adjusted to my height before getting into the pool. I need to replace my goggles and sneakers. I should experiment with just skipping the top over my swimsuit (I was afraid it wouldn't have enough support...but in a non-race situation, I could just stop and change if it didn't work). Or maybe I should go ahead and invest in a tri suit; I probably will if I keep this up.