Inspired by my brother, and driven to lose weight and get into shape, I committed to racing in the Tri Indy sprint triathlon last November, and took on training, starting with a lot of elliptical and light gym work to get to the point I could start running. I got a new bike (Specialized Diverge) in January, and started swimming in March - the IU Natatorium is a world-class facility that I live less than a mile from and offers open lap swimming five days a week. It also offers swim lessons, which was very helpful given that I haven’t really swam since Boy Scouts.
The sprint race is a 500 meter swim in the Indianapolis Canal (despite the scooters and traffic cones and who knows what else…), a 20 km ride on roads around the White River, then a 5 km run around White River State Park. Since I live in this area a lot of my training has been on these same roads and paths.
I completed the race in 1:35, which was right around my expected time. The swim was weak and I quickly abandoned freestyle due to breath issues (I’ve struggled a lot with that), but I made up for it with a great bike; too much probably, as I had to take a couple walk breaks during the run.
Utlimately the goal was just to finish. Next year I’m going to shoot for the Olympic distance: 1500m swim, 40km ride, 10km run. Going to need to spend a lot of time in the pool over the next year!
