The high yesterday was 7 degrees, but I wore a tank top anyways.

So that I could show off this:

My arms look ginormous this close up. Also, I fear I may have cankles.


Okay, I'm lying. Actually I am more embarassed that it appears that I haven't bathed as this marker is not coming off without some serious scrubbing.

So yesterday was the wacky tri. For a recap, it was wacky because instead of set distances you just went for set times (7 minutes of swimming, 18 minutes of biking, 15 minutes of swimming). The winners were determined by who went the farthest total distance.

Chrissy and I arrived at the Y about a half an hour before our wave, which started at 8:45. They told us they would do the orientation and then we could get in the water and warm up. They were late doing the orientation so we literally got in the water and two minutes later they gave us a minute warning to the start. I was not happy. Like with everything, my first laps are always a little clunky.

Starting cold, I had a hard time getting into a good breathing rythym and actually had to breathe every other stroke for the first lap. I tried to flip turn at the end of the first length, but I was totally disoriented in the different pool and was too far off the wall and almost missed it completely, so I gave up on the flip turning.

After I got going, things were pretty good. I actually did my first 200 yds in 4:30, which is about 30 seconds faster than what I typically swim. When training, the highest yardage I got in 7 minutes was 275. Since they didn't weight the distances in each portion, there was no good motivation to go all out in the swim. But I hit 275 with 25 seconds left and I thought "I totally can get 300!" so I sprinted as hard as I could to the other end and I hit the wall as the buzzer was still sounding, but they didn't give it to me. Stupid ten year old marking my lengths. He'll pay, I tell you!

There was a set T1 time of 7 minutes, so I had time to change out of my bathing suit and get into normal clothes. I almost didn't, but then I realized that running in my bathing suit probably wouldn't work. Chrissy, who didn't change, said to me afterwards "I am chafing all over!" Um, ouch.

So then we went up to the stationary bikes. The weirdest part about this was figuring out how high you could put the level and still keep a good cadence and maintain it for 18 minutes. There was no external forcing, so you could just cruise at a low level, but you won't get as far unless you spin harder. This was pretty uneventful. I did 4.55 miles. Everyone had a volunteer standing by their bikes who kept track of the miles. Chrissy was next to me and her volunteer came up to her and whispered "You've gone the farthest." Considering there was a man with two triathlon tattoos in our wave, I was pretty impressed.

So lastly we went to the run. Now theoretically I was supposed to take it easy here so I didn't hurt my hamstring. I didn't even intend to not take it easy. But they started and I just stayed with this one woman. She was running a pace I could handle, although I had no clue what pace it was. I stayed with her for the first ten minutes and then I started fading. Maybe because I haven't run more than a mile since like October. So she got ahead of me and I decided to use my hamstring as an excuse to not keep up. In the meantime, Chrissy and this woman's son were lapping everyone. Chrissy lapped me 9 times in 15 minutes. So Chrissy and this kid are yoyoing the entire way, but in typical teenage boy fashion, he couldn't maintain and she dropped him. I did 1.6 miles total, so better than I thought I would, but I can tell that I haven't been running.

They had waves going until 11:30. Now, if it had just been me, I would have left. But Chrissy actually had a chance of placing, so we had to entertain ourselves for three hours at the Y. Before the start we were both thinking "Oh we'll do this then we can go workout some more, since this is only 40 minutes." Um, that didn't happen. The short distances sort of begged you to go all out in each portion so by the end we were both pretty dead. So we hung out in the sauna and then watched the other waves to check out Chrissy's competition.

In the end, Chrissy came in first amongst all the females, swimming 475 yds, biking 5.5 miles, and running 2.3 miles. She won a new pair of running shoes. The shoes she wore for the tri were all bloody from a blister, so I think that was a fitting prize for her.

Anyways, so yeah. I finished my first triathlon, even if it was a little tiny baby one. And Chrissy is a bad influence. Tattoo guy was telling her about the next tri around in Sioux City and she is excited about that and has sucked me in. Then I saw the webpage and I decided that I would do this triathlon soley for the t-shirt:

I mean, how could you not! The rules on the website even state that there is no kryptonite allowed on the premises :-) This one has an indoor swim with an outdoor bike and run. Thank goodness as I am pretty sure there is nowhere in Iowa where you could swim outside in early May. This is a more proper sprint tri - 500 m swim, 15 mile bike, and 5k. Gotta get working on that bike! Oh yeah, and being able to run 3 miles again. Sigh. How far I have fallen! By that weekend last year I was doing 20 milers. And now I am worried about getting 3 done! I would like to reiterate the stupidness of my hamstring...