Ever wondered what it feels like to do a triathlon? Hope to one day do an Ironman and wondering where to start?
Looking for a great training opportunity at the beginning of the race season? Swim 10 minutes, bike 30 minutes, run 20 minutes. All proceeds benefit the Vanderbilt YMCA Youth Campaign.
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: The top finishers in each race will qualify to enter the Indoor Tri Championships at Asphalt Green on March 14th. Each participant will get a special Indoor Tri race shirt available only to participants in the championships, and the winners will receive a gift certificate to the store for free gear in the amount of $100, $200, or $300.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS: The club with the most total points will receive a discount club night at JackRabbit on March 14, so all club members can save some money while gearing up for the season. Race fast, and race often, and buy your team-mates some great deals!
How does an Indoor Triathlon Work?
Each participant signs up for an approximate start time during registration. We start 6 people every 15 minutes throughout the event. Please arrive at least 45 minutes before your start time to allow plenty of time to change and get organized.
The race is broken into three segments, totaling 60 minutes of racing: 10 minutes in the pool, 30 minutes on a spin bike, and 20 minutes on a treadmill. Transition times are fixed between events and do not count toward participants’ scores. Racers should bring their own towels for use during and after the race.
Racers are graded on a curve—the furthest distance in each category gets 100, the shortest gets 1, and the “score” for the race is the total number of points. All three events count equally towards the final score. (Racers will also see the raw data used to compute each score).
In the pool: We will have no more than two racers in any lane in the pool at any one time. Each group of racers will start at the same time, and the “head ref” for the pool will use a whistle to mark the start and stop time. No diving starts (two people in a lane, remember). When the stop whistle goes off, all racers must stop in place. Racers who have made it more than halfway down a lane will be given credit for ½ of a lap. Racers who move after they have come to a stop and before they have been given permission by the head ref will lose credit for one lap. Racers must wear a swim cap, and cannot wear wetsuits. Hands and feet must be uncovered (No paddles, gloves, fins, boots, etc). No snorkels. No “thong” bathing suits.
Transition 1: Racers will be given between 10-15 minutes to go to the locker room, change into clothing for cycling & running, get to the cycling room, and adjust the seat, handlebar height, and resistance of the spin bike. We do not want people getting injured by slipping & falling in their rush to get to the bikes, so we give plenty of transition time. Furthermore, in some facilities the only way to get to the bikes from the pool is via a rather slow elevator, or several flights of stairs, so we need to allow for that in each facility.
On the bike: Racers can set the resistance on the spin bikes to whatever they want, and can adjust the handlebar height & seat height to whatever they want. Since this is a spin bike, the implication is that the person with the highest sustained RPM will record the highest score. Racers can adjust their bike mid-ride if they desire. Racers can not bring their own pedals—we will provide pedals with toeclips. Each bike will be outfitted with a bike computer that will measure “distance” by counting the number of times the flywheel goes around. All computers will have the same circumference programmed in to measure distance, and we’ll try to make it accurate to the circumference of the spin bike wheel so the “distance” reported has some basis in reality. However it is NOT meant to correspond exactly to the actual distance cycled. Bike computers will not show cadence. The head ref for the bike area will ensure that the trip counter on each bike computer is reset to zero before each group starts, and that nobody false-starts. Racers will be allowed to bring two water bottles with them for the bike, each of which must fit in the water bottle holders provided on the bike.
Transition 2: There will not be a formal transition area for T2, however racers may choose to bring a change of shoes, a second water bottle, and any nutritional products they would like to consume which they can keep in a duffel bag. Racers will be allowed a relatively short time to transition from the bike room to the run room, but the exact time will depend on the facility.
On the run: Runs will be done on the treadmills that are provided by the facility. We will make an effort to ensure that all treadmills are of the same brand and are calibrated accurately, but cannot guarantee that all treadmills are exactly calibrated. Each participant will have 20 minutes on the treadmill to run as far as they can.
Scoring
Volunteers will record the distances for each racer in each event. Distances are: number of laps swum accurate to 0.5 laps (could be a 20 or 25 yard pool depending on the facility we use); “miles” cycled as reported by the trip computer accurate to 1/100 of a mile; distance run on the treadmill accurate to 1/100 mile. The run will be the adjusted distance computed using the formula above and rounded to the nearest 0.001. Each of these scores will be reported to the racer after they are done with the segment, and will be validated by the head ref of that area. Any protests will be noted at the time they are recorded, but the judgment of the head ref of each area is final and no adjustments will be performed to the racers score after the fact.
After all participants have completed the race, a score will be computed for each event. If “s” is the shortest distance recorded in that event and “f” is the longest distance recorded in that event, and “a” is that racer’s actual distance, then each person will be given a score of 100.0-((f-a)/(f-s))*99.0, rounded to the nearest 0.1, for that event. That is, the furthest distance will receive 100.0, the shortest distance will receive 1.0, and anything inbetween will be linearly interpolated beteeen the two. The racer’s total score will be computed by adding their scores for all three events.
REGISTRATION:
- November 15th at the Vanderbilt YMCA: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1801309
- December 6th at the Manhattan JCC: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1801316
- January 10th at the McBurney YMCA: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1801312
- January 31st at Asphalt Green: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1802872