So with my upcoming triathlon (April 19th), I thought I’d do a practice triathlon. With not a ton of time before work, I opted for a half distance. Yes that’s right, half of the shortest triathlon out there.

Got up bright and early and headed out to the Y. First up was the swim. Of course, the metric system strikes again. The pool is in yards and my race is in meters. I decided that 9 laps would do the trick. Google Calculator tells me that is 205.74 meters, so a little longer than half way. Close enough. I was shooting to be able to do it in 5 minutes (to go with my goal of getting the triathlon swim done in 10 minutes) – ended up at 5:09. I tried somewhat to go faster, since I knew I was only going to be doing 9 laps, but I think that actually may have hurt me because I noticed that in my need for speed my form may have suffered a bit.

Transition 1 was 3:28 as I went back to the locker room and changed into shorts as well as put on a shirt and my socks and shoes. In the actual triathlon I will bike and run in my swim trunks but I didn’t want to get the exercise bike all wet. Time was 3:28.

Got on the bike and since they’ve removed all but two of the upright bikes (which were both in use) I had to use a recumbent. I wanted to go with an upright for authenticity but hey oh well. Bike seemed a little harder than usual – In the past, I’ve been able to get up to close to 20 mph – this time 17.6 mph – total time of 21.49 for the 6.4 miles. The course last year was 20K (12.4 miles) but they’ve changed it and slightly increased the distance

Transition 2 was a brisk 36 seconds as I got a towel, wiped off the bike and hopped on the treadmill.

I opted for no incline and set off. I started it at a 6.1 mph clip and gradually worked my way up to 7.5 mph. The run was pretty hard but I was able to push through it and not stop. About the last half of the run I could feel my left shoelace was loose but I didn’t want to screw up my timing by stopping and fixing it. Luckily it held out until the last 20 seconds, at which point I just ignored it till I hit the 1.55 mile (2.5K) mark. Time was 14:14

Overall, my time was 45:16 for this half triathlon. I kind of had 45 minutes in mind for a goal time. During the run I was doing some calculations in my head and it looked like I wouldn’t be able to hit 45 minutes (that I’d be closer to 46:30 or 47). Had I known I was going to be this close, I think I could have pushed it a bit harder at the end to shave those 16 seconds (well 17 to get 44:59).

So, does this mean that I will snag a 1:30:00 time for the actual triathlon. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm no. Well, maybe.

You may remember from last time (results here – scroll down, down, down – I’m 306th, 26 seconds after the 13 year old girl and a brisk 15 seconds ahead of the 77 year old man) that I got a time of 1:38:45. Here is a comparison of today’s trial run versus the real deal.

Things that will help me in the real triathlon compared to today’s
1. My swim time is pretty accurate I think. I think it’s reasonable to look for a swim about twice today’s time – so 10:18. Although I haven’t yet swum 400m that fast even in practice, and you would think that I might slow down over the longer distance, I think the adrenaline of the race coupled with lots of people to pass (or try to avoid BEING passed) will even things out
2. And the run I think was also about right. Doubling today’s time gives a 5K time of 28:28. Last year my time was 27:22. So I might be able to gain a minute or two (hopefully I won’t repeat my 5K time of the 3 pigs triathlon which was a very wussy 34:15.
3. Transition times. Doubling my 2 transition times from today gives me a total transition time of 8:08. As I like to joke, although I am not very fast at swimming (369th out of 396 finishers), biking (313th) or running (265th), I can do NOTHING very well (my combined transition time last year of 2:47 was 81st). So I think it’s reasonable to say I can shave 5 minutes off my pace there.

Things that will hurt me in the real triathlon compared to today’s
1. The bike. If you think I’m going to finish this bike segment in 43:38, well, I don’t think so Tim. Last year I did the 12.4 mile course in 54:44, which is a 13.6 mph clip. Biking on an exercise bike is just not even close to the same as doing it in the real world. And now the course is 0.4 miles longer. Looking again at my 3 Pigs report, there I did 26.8K in 1:10:13, which is a 14.3 mph pace. So let’s say that I can do the 20.5K in 15.0 mph. That would give me a time of about 51 minutes.

So. 10 minute swim, 51 minute bike, 28 minute run and 3 minutes transition is 92 minutes. So, I am setting my stretch goal as 1:30 and I will be happy if I beat my last year’s time of 1:38:45.

I’ll keep you posted