Tri Test Drive

As you know, I was going to test the run and ride course for my upcoming (Oct 11th) triathlon (Aug 12th post). Last Sunday, I did just that.


The Run
The run is a 3.1 mile trail run. I am not sure what trail they are going to use, but judging by the different trail mileage, I guessed it was going to be a combination ow the Yellow and Blue trail. I hadn't done the Yellow trail before, so this was my first time on it. The yellow trail is much like the Blue and Red trails (see July 22nd post). It is wide, shaded. mostly flat, and full of horse poop.


The run itself was pretty easy. I didn't set any records with my pace.


The Transition
I wasn't really practicing my transition. I plan on wearing a set of Tri shorts at the event. Tri shorts are compression shorts that you can wear running, riding (they have a smaller chamois than bike shorts, so they don't bug you during the run), and swimming.


During this test I was wearing running shorts for the run, and was planning on the changing into my bike shorts in the aquatic center's locker room for the ride. Unfortunately, the aquatic center doesn't open till 1 o'clock on Sunday. That meant I had to ether ride in my running shorts, or go full Monty in the parking lot. Sound the stripper music, because I was not going to ride in running shorts. After a quick look for people, I stripped down and changed into my bike shorts (Side Note: The breeze was quite refreshing), and I was off for the bike ride.

The Ride

The ride was tougher than I anticipated. I turned left on HWY 166 out of Boundary Waters Park. Traffic was moderate, but all the drivers gave me plenty of room. I followed HWY 166 to Oak Hill Rd, and took a right. This is where it started getting tough. Oak Hill Rd is hilly, and it has speed bumps. Alot of speed bumps. Speed bumps suck for cyclist. They stop momentum, and on a bike, momentum is everything.I made it over all the speed bumps OK, turned right on Chapel Hill Road. This portion of the ride was uneventful.

From Chapel Hill Rd I turned right on Anneewakee Rd. This was the road that hurt me. Although the hill on this road wasn't too long, it was steep. I took this hill like the profane little engine that could. Saying to myself, son of a b!t

From Anneewakee I turned right on HWY 92/166. This is a busy section of highway, but it has a bike lane. Unfortunately, someone drove a bulldozer over it and left track marks all over it. Riding over the track marks made my teeth hurt.

Luckily this section wasn’t too long. I turned right onto HWY 166, and took the mostly downhill road back to Boundary Waters. I was sure glad it was downhill, because my legs were smoked. I finished the 13 mile course in less than 45 minutes.

As of right now, I’m pretty sure I can finish the triathlon in 2 hours, but I’m going to tri (pun intended) to do it in a hour and a half.