I wanted to wait until the results came and then lump these two together, but I figured it couldn't hurt to record my initial reaction to the race. While the last indoor tri consisted of three wave start blocks in the morning/early afternoon, this one began mid-afternoon and ended in the early evening yesterday. Since they're indoor races, the time of day probably has less of an impact than it would on an outdoor race. Still, it was an interesting change of pace since afternoon/evening races are pretty rare. There were three start options available: 3-4, 4-5, 5-6. 5-6 worked best for me, so that's what I chose.
When I arrived, I discovered that only one other person had signed up for the same time slot and she had arrived half an hour beforehand, so was put in an earlier heat. The race organizers were very apologetic about the fact that I would be the only person in my heat. While it was a little worrisome (competition always makes us better), I certainly didn't fault them for it and was okay with it. Fortunately for me, though, I jumped in the pool to begin my swim when the race director came down and told the lap counter to wait, because they'd gotten one more participant (woo hoo!). So it ended up being both of us in the last heat.
The swim went well. I improved by 1 length (18 total) so I can't complain. I'd obviously like to improve by more to make my swim score more competitive, but considering the last one was only two weeks ago and I haven't put enough time into swimming as might have been ideal, I was happy with the result. My lane buddy had a much lower score (11 lengths) though I came to find out later that the guy wasn't able to swim at all during the first tri, which occurred at the beginning of December. Kudos to him for improving that much.
The bike segment was stellar. I biked 18.08 miles in 30 minutes and could not have expected a better result. That's a 1.73 mile improvement over last time! I attribute part of it to the fact that I wore my cycling shoes this time and was able to clip into the pedals of the spin bike. The other part was that the other guy was ridiculous (19.64 miles - he set the bike record for the day) and since our bikes were adjacent to each other, it was much easier to constantly try to match his speed.
Finally, the run. It was the one area that I didn't improve. I'm not sure what my final distance was, though I think it might have been 2.28. Unfortunately, I have a sinking feeling that they recorded the incorrect distance. I'll have to wait for the results to know for sure, though. I didn't have my iPod for this one, and, while I admit that shouldn't have too much impact, I think it really did. Listening to music serves two purposes when I'm working out. First, it takes my mind off of a difficult workout and second, an uptempo song can set a faster pace than I might set for myself. I'll make a mental note to myself not to forget it next time.
Oh! And this one took place at Asphalt Green, which is located on the Upper East Side. I'd never been there before yesterday and am still not certain what it is exactly (if it's a city-run rec center or a privately owned facility). Anyway, official race results should come out later today. More to follow.
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