Virgin Active Indoor Triathlon 2007
September 11th, 2007 by Robin Frankland
Ever done an indoor triathlon? Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well let me be the first to admit that I completely underestimated the concept and was left feeling like I had just completed an Ironman as opposed to the short 4km treadmill run, 10km stationery bike and 250m swim that had been billed as the ‘Die Hard’ event.
Given that I am currently in the base training phase of my preparations for Ironman Western Australia I figured that I could allow myself some diversion from the tedium of training and would enter the Virgin Active Indoor Triathlon event at the Morningside gym. My theory was that since the distance were so short I could just add it into my training instead of an easy hour on the turbo trainer. Of course I should have know better since there really is no such thing as an easy ‘race’. Add to this the fact that I had Michelle Williams (Dad, you can’t get beaten by a girl!) starting next to me and I soon found myself on the limit for 30 odd minutes.
For obvious logistical reasons they also turned the race format on its head and you started with the run before moving to the bike and swimming last. Now many people (non athletes) have asked me why they don’t run triathlons this way because “surely it will be nice to swim after all that exercise?” Well all I can say is try it out and you will have the answer! Your body is so full of lactic acid that by the time you hit the water and get over the shock of the sudden temperature change, you are completely incapable of actually swimming. I lost complete control of my already shaky stroke and ended up looking like a cat that had fallen in the bath tub as I ground out the 250m to the finish line.
Knowing that Freddy Lamprecht, amongst others, was in the heat following mine also meant that I had to just go as hard as I could and hope that my time was good enough to get into the top 3 and a share of the prizes. Fortunately I did just that holding onto second place and a chance to stand on the podium, something I haven’t done since my cycling days. Yes it was a fun event and I wouldn’t even bother putting this race on my palmares but for a moment I felt like a real athlete again and I liked it, so much so that I decided to do it all again the following week in Randburg.
Actually thats not entirely true. While I was hoping that a slot would open for the following weekend’s event at my local club, I did not get a phone call so had basically written it off. I stuck to my usual Saturday training program which had me do my long run (25km) followed by drills and stroking in the pool. After training I was sitting at Kauai sipping on a smoothie when the urge to compete overcame me and I went and asked if there were any cancellations. As luck would have it there were and 15min later I found myself putting my wet costume back on and lining up in front of a treadmill for another go.
This time I was luckier in that there were fewer triathletes present and I found myself competing against one of the local swimmers who was pretty handy at the running and cycling disciplines. At the end of the day 2sec separated us and I bet he is kicking himself for not having swum harder. I on the other hand was happy to collect another bundle of nice prizes, mostly from Virgin Mobile, and to go home happy with a good days training under the belt.
If the Virgin Active website is to be believed then the events will be televised on the various Supersport channels but I tried recording one of the time slots and ended up with WWE but that is not unusual for Supersport. I will continue to check the televised times to hopefully catch a glimpse of what went on at the other gyms round the county but all round it was a lot of fun and I will be back next year to give it another go.
