This morning I officially kicked off my 2013 race season, by competing in my very first “dry-athlon.” I signed up for the Ultimate division, which meant a 20 minute row, 30 minute stationary bike, 25 minute run, and 15 minute elliptical.
The row went awesome, and I completed 2.72 miles. I had a new playlist from a friend of mine pumpin’, and it totally worked for me. Then I cranked out 9.89 miles on the bike, and despite burning hamstrings, hammered out a decent little sprint (125 RPM!) at the end. On to the run, which I was worried about, since I haven’t run a step since 1 December, trying to let some overuse injuries heal. It was hard, harder than I thought, but I still finished 2.92 miles. Even better, my hip didn’t hurt, and my new shoes worked perfectly! Then I trudged over to the elliptical, a piece of equipment I haven’t used in probably three years. I got in a groove and gradually worked my SPM up to about 140. I got about a minute from the finish and went into an all-out sprint, working up towards 200 SPM when the thing just let go! Something inside the machine just broke, and it stopped counting my strides about 15 seconds from the end! So I got 1.36 miles on that, but should have been closer to 1.5.
I won’t know where I placed for a few days yet, but suffice to say I’m very pleased with my overall performance. Especially that I kept a sub 9-minute pace for my whole run, even having not run for 2 months! I don’t have another race scheduled until 9 March, but I may be looking for something else to do before then.
And special thanks to Mike for the absolutely BAUCE workout mix!