The twitter message pretty much says it all. I finished and did pretty well, but I’ve been getting asked a lot about the results, so here’s the race recap. It’s sort of epic so here are some quick highlights to look forward to:
- My fastest bike time ever
- 2 embarrassing stories
- A variety of semi-amusing photographs
Ready?
The Race
The swim was in the canal in downtown Indianapolis. Since it was a canal, we started off individually so there weren’t masses of people swimming simultaneously. This meant my personal media team (aka my sister & cousin) could walk along and take tons of videos of me flailing around, but the curves of the canal meant I was changing direction quite a bit, which is something I’ve never done before.
I was hoping to do this swim in the 10-11 minute range, but I feel a little short of that for a few reasons:
- I didn’t start my watch when I started swimming, so I couldn’t benchmark how fast I was going.
- The canal was wide open and this almost hurt me more than it helped. I’m used to swimming in lanes or in masses of people and both those help keep me going the general direction I need to. Apparently, I have terrible control issues while swimming because according to observers [and some photographic evidence] I was zigzagging a lot and running into a bunch of people. Apparently, I ran into one woman who got so mad she stood up in the canal and yelled at me [I only found out because my media crew let me know, I was too busy swimming to hear her].
Cutting off the Competition
Out of the Swim
Swim Time – 13:08.6
I climbed out of the canal and off to the transition area. This was a lot better laid out than the last one and I had gotten there early so my bike was on the end of the rack. I threw my shoes on, grabbed my helmet and ran my bike out like a speed demon onto the biking area.
T1 – 1:31.1
Embarrassing Story #1
As soon as I got out of the transition area, I tried to jump on my bike and go. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to put my bike in the lower gear so as I tried to start pedaling, instead of taking off, I awkwardly tried to get enough leverage to move my pedals forward. I eventually got it but it resulted in me awkwardly half-falling off the bike, collecting myself, standing and restarting the whole process before I was finally able to take off.
Remembering How to Ride my Bike
I started biking and was going at a pretty good clip. The race wasn’t on the nicest of the roads [a lot of bumps & even a few train tracks] and there were a lot of turns, but it was pretty fun and with my new $150 bike, I was going faster with a lot less effort. I’m actually almost glad I experienced a race on a mountain bike because the whole race I was just grateful that I didn’t have to ride it again. I passed a few mountain bikers and instead of laughing to myself about their situation, I had a lot more empathy for them, cause I know how hard it was.
Embarrassing story #2
About halfway through the course, I had something happen to me that hasn’t happened since I was 12. I got my shoelace stuck in my pedal. Apparently while pedaling, my shoelace came untied [I don’t have bike shoes] and started to wrap around the pedal as it rotated. It wrapped around 2 or 3 times before it started tugging on my shoe and made me notice. I couldn’t keep pedaling because my shoelace was attached to my shoe, which in turn was attached to my foot. I tried my best to coast to a stop and did another awkward half-fall off of the bike on to the side of the road. Once I had the bike on the ground, I was able to unwrap the shoelace, re-tie it and tuck it in my shoe so it wouldn’t happen again. The scenario probably took a minute at least off my time and more than a few notches off my ego, but I got back up and soldiered on.Having to stop and fix my shoe while people passed me actually gave me good motivation for the rest of the biking portion. I noticed all the people that had passed me while I had my shoelace-gate and made it my goal to catch back up to them. I eventually did and even passed quite a few.
I was hoping to take 5 minutes off my time with the new bike, and if I said that if I could take off 10 minutes I would be ecstatic. Well I’m more than ecstatic. I finished this section in 38:57. 15 minutes faster than my previous time!! [52:58]. Thank you new bike! To be fair, this Tri Indy was about 1 mile shorter than the Valpo Tri so it wasn’t entirely a time comparison. I checked out the mph to get a better comparison and while I was chugging along at 14mph for Valpo, I averaged 19.1mph on Sunday.
I was moving.
When you factor in the wasted time I had awkwardly getting on my bike with the time spent on the side of the road untangling my shoelaces, I’m pretty happy. The bike performed really well and while I wasn’t the top bike time by any means, to improve as much as I did is really exciting.
Bike Time – 38:57.1
Pretty straightforward transition. Dropped my bike off, dropped the helmet and headed off for the run. Total damage? 43.2 seconds. Good enough for the 15th best T2 time in the whole race [503 total participants]. No big deal =).
T2 – 00:43.2
Thankfully I had a little more experience with bricks [biking & then swimming] this time around than before so even though the running portion sucked for the first mile, I knew that was the case beforehand. I stuck that first mile out until I was able to get some legs back and actually start running rather than just hobbling along. Unlike my goal of simply surviving the run of the last race, I wanted to finish this one in less than 28 minutes. I started motivating myself by picking off people to pass one-by-one and I ended up doing just that.
Run Time – 27:19.6.
Final Race Time – 1:21:41
I’m very happy about this race. I literally improved every single time except for my swim. I’m okay with that considering the conditions and the fact that I wasdumb and didn’t time myself. I was amazed at how much faster I went on my new bike. I was about 5-10 minutes faster than my expectations [shoelace-gate and all] that my media crew actually missed me because I did the course so fast that they weren’t ready for me. While some of the distances were different, the time I made up was almost exclusively in the bike portion, while my faster run & slower swim time cancelled each other out. I’m very happy with the overall time and am really encouraged by how things went. I felt like I had a much better idea of what I was actually doing and am starting to get really pumped for Chicago. Can’t wait!
Thank you guys for all the support via twitter & facebook. I’d talk more about how awesome I think you all are, but you already know that.
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Do Something Impossible
[You can see the full results here]
My name is Joel Runyon and I write about pushing your limits and telling a great story by 
Despite the embarrassing stories and photos (which make them all the more memorable), you did fantastic!! Congratulations and keep up the momentum!
Hey, you’ll be in Chicago soon! Beautiful weather for a Tri.
Thanks Nina!
Can’t wait for Chicago. It’s going to be gorgeous.
Congratulations Joel!! Haha…love the shoelace story. I’ve lost track of the number of times that has happened to me before I got biking shoes without laces. How those laces can wiggle out of double knots is beyond me.
Haha, thanks Matt! No better way to feel like an amateur than to awkwardly half-fall off your bike and watch super-athletes fly by you
JOEL!
I’m way too long in commenting (don’t worry, you’re in my feed reader now
)
Anyway, sounds like you did awesome at the Tri. When I’m older, I’ll probably start hitting up triathlons, but, for now, I’m content to mountain bike (here in NE we have hills, unlike in the midwest, heh).
If you want something truly “impossible” to add on your training regimen, try doing tabata burpees.
If you haven’t heard about them, I’ll explain. Tabata intervals are a form of HIIT (high intensity interval training) that are especially demanding and intense. When I say they’re intense, they’re intense. Real intense. You do intervals of 20 seconds of full intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest, then back to 20 seconds, and so on… If that sounds terrifying – it kinda is. I’ve never done Tabata sprints, but you can sure try and see how long you last.
Burpees are pretty simple as well. Check out this youtube video for a good visual: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfNA_lmkHM
Except, when you’re doing tabata intervals, you’re going to go a lot faster.
So, put the two together, and you get the impossible challenge: do tabata intervals, except with burpees. It’s VERY hard and intense. Try shooting for 6 minutes total first (12 intervals).
Originally, I was a pansy and didn’t do them to FULL intensity (averaging 4-5 burpees per interval). By going only about 80% of my max, I eventually got in good enough condition to do them for 30 minutes.
A couple weeks ago, I got tired of only going 80%, so I decided to go full bore, all the time. That meant 6 burpees per interval, and it’s MUCH more difficult. I nearly died after going for 11 minutes today.
Obviously, this is short term, anaerobic endurance that we’re training here. But that serves me because hockey is a game of intervals…
Just figured this is a good challenge for you! This IS the blog of impossible things after all, and you have to push your limits in order to grow!
Let me know what you think!
oooo. I’ve done burpees before. Those SUCK. Used to have to do them for summer basketball camps. Not fun.
I probably won’t be able to fit it into my schedule immediately, but I’ll definitely keep it in mind for the future!
Yup, you are so correct in stating this. I am one of those people who could fall into the fanatic category. Working out has become the focus of my day. I am now in training for a triathlon and am cycling up to 200 miles per day. Along with the workouts I am also on a very restricted high protein diet.
200 miles a day?
Way to roll with the punches when those little issues came up! I’m really happy that you did so well on this. It’s amazing how much that new bike helped out.
I was pretty impressed with how the bike helped out as well. Thanks for the support through everything Nate. I really appreciate it!
Yay! Great job! Exciting to read your take on it. Sorry about the embarassing moments, but it makes us human too.
You’re inspiring ~ I just found your blog and enjoy your musings. All the best for the next one!
Thanks Marina!
I’m glad you like the blog. I try to be upfront and honest. I’m don’t always know what I’m doing out there so no need to go & pretend to be something I’m not =). Thanks for the support & I’ll definitely keep you posted on the next one.
Thats absolutely kickass. congratulations on the great time! I second Matt, the shoelace things got me a couple of times too. My $$$ solution would be to get clipped pedal and shoes (they’ll also help with your time because you can turn the upstroke into power) but they’re a little big for my wallet now.
Stellar!
I’m looking into the clip pedals now. They’ll add on to my transition times I’m sure, but I think I could probably make it in the time I’d gain on the bike. Not sure about the $$$ though. I’ll have to check into it.
Congrats Joel, on another great result. Do you know about Total Immersion Swimming? Tim Ferris did a piece on it a while back claiming it’s a great way to 80/20 your ROI on energy output in the pool. He’s not lying. I started practicing this technique and in a few weeks probably doubled my lap speed over 50-100 meter sprints. The inventor, Terry Laughlin, has a lot to say about open water distance swimming too which might be useful to you. Here’s the source:
http://www.totalimmersion.net/
And the Tim Ferris post:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/08/13/total-immersion-how-i-learned-to-swim-effortlessly-in-10-days-and-you-can-too/
He also talked about it at TED:
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html
Best,
Lach
That sounds really interesting Lach. You’re just full of resources! I check out the two articles. I’ll have to check that video when I have a few spare minutes. Thanks!
Do you use those 5 fingered toe shoe things durring your races?
Oh and great job, I`m pretty impressed.
Thanks Chris =)
Re:VFFs – Nope. They’re just a bit too hard to get on quickly so I haven’t used them in a race yet. I probably need a different version to be able to use them and not lose tons of time in the transition area.
Hey Joel!
My sister just did a tri in Kansas this spring so when I saw you did one i wanted to see how you did! Nice Job! She has some good stories from her tri too, not necessarialy of her but of people she witnessed, aka she would be the one passing you with you on the side of the road untangling your shoelaces, but then again you would pass her back so, all in all sounds like an intense experience. I should try it one day….
Jen
Hey Jen!
The tri was a blast. I had a great time and I’m looking forward to pushing myself more at the end of the month. The shoelaces incident was embarrassing, but I gotta have fun somehow, right?
Let me know if you decide to do a tri one of these days. You definitely can!