Tri It, You Might Like It

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I was going to mark the holiday with a trail run until I remembered that it's also special for me to go to the gym at 8 in the morning, and especially to not to feel pressured to get back home in time for work.

To make it interesting, I created a mini "gym triathlon," the first in a series to gauge my fitness level. For the first few months, about every three weeks I'll row, cycle and run for 20 minutes each and record how far I get in all three. Today, I made sure to maintain a 28 to 31 pulls-per-minute pace on the rowing machine, then I took a three-minute transition to wipe down the machine and grab some water before averaging 95-105 rpm on the stationary bike. One downside to this system is I can't predict equipment availability and, sure enough, when it was time to hit the treadmill, they were all taken. However, the gym just built a brand new outdoor track and hardly anyone was on it, maybe because it had just rained. So I ran there but was very disappointed with my time. I even struggled to get two miles in during those 20 minutes.

Actually, all of my times were lower than expected, but it just confirms what happens when you mail it in for months and months. I'm recording my distances on this blog, because accountability is a big part of goal setting. I'll increase the intensity and duration of these tri's going forward. For now I have a baseline to beat.















DATEROWCYCLERUN
05-26-083130 METERS4.53 MILES2.0 MILES

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