A Little Tri Training...

Yesterday morning, I went with my friend Diane and a group of gals down to American Fork to do a preview of the Women of Steel Triathlon course.  This triathlon takes place next Saturday.  Since my favorite Chalk Creek Bike ride got cancelled due to flash flood conditions and high winds, I thought I would tag along with them.  All of them are doing this Tri next Saturday.  I was the odd man out and just wanted to get out and do something.  We met at the American Fork Rec Center where the Tri will start and finish.

The pool was closed and all of us took a gander at it through the fence.  But the main focus was to check out the bike and run course.  The bike route was comprised of two 6 mile loops, and the run was one lap of about 3 miles. 

We all got on our bikes first and started out on the course.  I quickly took to the lead, partially because I was familiar with the area and partially because I'm such a strong rider; my sport of choice.  The course was done in a clockwise loop.  The first part there was the wind at your bike as your climbing a bit of a hill; not too bad.  I will admit it was pretty with a little cemetery and fields with horses grazing. 

As you turned the corner to come back, BOOM the wind hit you full on!  It was blowing pretty hard and cut down the speed we were riding.  The wind was a definite issue.  I did my usual making myself small and focus on the pedaling.  I built up a distance from the gals that had been keeping up with me.  It was almost with a sigh that I took the turn back to the start for a second loop.  We waited for all and then started the second loop.

This will be Alex's (in blue here) first Tri!

Next was the run, which was basically the same route as the bike but with an earlier turn.  I had changed into my running shoes and stripped down to a sports tank under my bike jersey.  It was getting a bit warm out but still pretty windy.  All of us waited and started out at the same time.  Quickly most of the gals passed me on the run; not my sport of choice especially when going up hill.  I've never been good running up hill even with the wind at my back.  I will admit that I managed to keep the gals within sight until the last turn when they still had the energy to sprint to the finish.  Not me!  I discovered after about 2 miles in that my darn butt cramp from last week came back.  There must be something about running that's making it come out.  Because I had managed to bike almost 60 miles this last week and had no problem with it.