Indoor Triathlon
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Anton posted 19 weeks ago.
Did one 4 years ago when I was a gym regular...What a hoot! Lots of fun. It's so short you can just hammer each discipline...and believe me...indoor pain feels just like outdoor pain!
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"
- Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://anton.trifuel.net
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hoyle posted 19 weeks ago.
I did some early this year and had a good time. Like Anton said, "indoor pain feels just like outdoor pain!" That's for sure... you have to go all out basically because it's so short.
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FlashRedGLS1.8T posted 19 weeks ago.
I did one of these in October. It was very very short. Full on the whole time.
Sort of fun.
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strivingrunner posted 19 weeks ago.
My first triathlon was an indoor one and I have done several since. I think you will enjoy the experience. The transition seems long, do you have to spend all that time in transition? At the indoor tri's there are lots of newbies and you will have the opportunity to encourage and inform them. Its great to cheer someone on to their first finish. Have fun!
Donna (www.EnduranceandEncouragment.com)
"If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin." -Ivan Turgenev
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Sully800 posted 19 weeks ago.
Yeah, a 10 minute swim/bike transition seems very long, unless there is a change of buildings or something. That's alright though, its a good time to stretch out and get some water in, a luxury you wouldn't normally have during such a short race.
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got2run posted 19 weeks ago.
have done a few. I won the first one i did. It was really lowkey and not well promoted, now 3 years later, i think it will be different. Our format is 10 min swim, 5 min Transition, 20 min Bike (tension preset on spin bikes with cycloputer) 5 min transition and 15 min treadmill run. waves of 8 people each. Alot of fun. I am bad swim but great runner, so i was able to make up any distance lost plus more on the run. The bike was like a short all out spin class w/o music.
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Sully800 posted 19 weeks ago.
How do they determine the winner? Total distance doesn't make sense since the swim distance is minor compared to the bike distance.
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got2run posted 19 weeks ago.
In mine they add up the totals (swim .25M/bike 8.75/run 2.4 = 10.40M)
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FlashRedGLS1.8T posted 19 weeks ago.
They total up who went the farthest in the time.
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kkocan posted 19 weeks ago.
I think what Sully was asking is how do they even things out as the swim distance can be easily made up by the run/bike.
So if the swim is 10 minutes and a decent swimmer say swims 750 yards at 1:20/100 pace but a lesser swimmer swims the same distance at a 1:30 pace they would get about 633 yards, and a novice swimmer swims at a 1:50 pace they would end up with almost 550 yards.
So the good swimmer only would have an advantage of about 200 yards, or just about a tenth of a mile.
I would think this would easily then be made up by a decent bike or run. Sounds like a fun event but it doesn't seem real fair to the swimmers out there!
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VA Beach Shamrock Marathon
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kylie posted 19 weeks ago.
kkocan wrote:
I would think this would easily then be made up by a decent bike or run. Sounds like a fun event but it doesn't seem real fair to the swimmers out there!
I think that could be said about many of the swim distances in more standard format races as well ;)
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kkocan posted 19 weeks ago.
kylie wrote:
kkocan wrote:I would think this would easily then be made up by a decent bike or run. Sounds like a fun event but it doesn't seem real fair to the swimmers out there!I think that could be said about many of the swim distances in more standard format races as well ;)
Kind of yes, kind of no.
If you have say a swimmer that can swim a 1:20/100 yd pace swim say a half mile race they would come in at around 11 minutes. Then, if you take a lesser swimmer that was swimming say 30 sec per 100 slower they would come around 15 minutes, or about 4 minutes slower.
Say both run 8 minute miles. The good swimmer has a half mile advantage in the race if it's outdoor because after the 4 minutes he is 1/2 mile down the road. If it were a 3 mile race the good swimmer does the run in 24 minutes so the 'bad' swimmer would need to run about 20 minutes total to catch the good swimmer, or about a 6:40 min/mile pace.
But in the indoor event if it is a 10 minute swim my post before shows the good swimmer only gains about 200 yards on the bad swimmer. Now, if the swimmer still runs 8 minute miles and it's a 15 minute run he will run approximately 1.875 miles. Now say the 'bad' swimmer runs 7:30 minute/miles. In 15 minutes he will run 2 full miles, or about 220 yards more. Therefore it seems easier to make up the distance in this format.
Please note that I in no way am calling anyone that swims a 1:50 pace bad ;). Just a frame of reference. Also, I don't think I've done that much math in a LOOOONG time so this might all be wrong!
It does sound like a fun format though.
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2008 Main Races:
VA Beach Shamrock Marathon
Desoto TTT
WV Mountaineer HIM
IM Wisconsin
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Sully800 posted 19 weeks ago.
Thanks for doing the math kkocan! That is exactly what I was referring to with my earlier unintelligible comment :-)
It does seem more unfair to a strong swimmer, but in the end an indoor triathlon probably isn't anyones goal race. More like a very structured and intense workout covering all three disciplines. To "win" the indoor event the dominant strategy is to hammer the bike and go easy on the swim, but you can probably get more benefit from trying to simulate an even race effort in each category.
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kkocan posted 18 weeks ago.
I am currently at the tail end of a 4 event 'quad' game that has a swim, bike, run and x-country ski, all spread out over the year. Each event seems to be set so that around 30 minutes is a good top time. (12 mile bike, 5 mile run, 5 mile ski), although the top skiers seem to come in just over 20 minutes each year.
Anyway, for the swim you swim 100yds and then your time for the event is calculated where each second it took you to swim counts as 30 seconds time. So if you swam 1 minute flat for the 100yds your time would be 30 minutes. It at least gives the swimmers a decent chance.
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2008 Main Races:
VA Beach Shamrock Marathon
Desoto TTT
WV Mountaineer HIM
IM Wisconsin
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Sully800 posted 18 weeks ago.
That sounds like a nice way to even things out. I'm did a similar event this last year though no skiing thankfully because I don't know how to do that.
The "Quad" I participated in was a 5 mile trail run, 15 mile bike road race, sprint biathlon (actually duathlon but they never got that right) and a 10k road run. Results were determined by total time, but I think they gave better awards for the individual races than the quad series. Overall it was heavy on the run side, but a nice series of races for little money since I registered for all four. In 2006 they included a pool swim but attendance was very low so they scrapped that in 2007. I'm not sure of the 2008 schedule, but I don't think they brought the swim back which is a shame in my opinion.
I just read about an indoor triathlon that would fit in well to my early season.
"Course Information
10-minute swim in lap pool
10-minute transition (swim to bike)
30-minute bike on stationary bike
5-minute transition (bike to run)
20-minute treadmill run"
Obviously it is very little like an actual triathlon, but I think it would be a great event as far as physical testing is concerned. You really get to push yourself to your limit in controlled conditions and gather important HR data. It will also be interesting since you can't tell how your competitors are doing, except on the swim. And transitions don't effect the race at all (which is bad because they're usually my best section!)
Anyone ever done one of these?