This week I joined the Chicago Tri Club and went to my first meeting.
One of my cycling instructors at my gym let us know that he’d be speaking about metabolic efficiency – a way to burn fat (instead of carbs) – at the next Chicago Tri Club event. I was interested and wanted to attend.
I took care of membership, the RSVP, and sitter (hubby was out of town).
I focused on taking in as much as I could about metabolic efficiency. More on that here.
I also grilled a girl.
A very gracious gal named Karen – who has done Ironman Wisconsin – had the great fortune of sitting next to me… Ha!
She kept responding, so I kept asking!
I learned:
- You don’t have a “space” in transition, you don’t rack your own bike. You go into transition and they get the bag matching your bib number, you go into a changing room, unpack and repack your bag, turn in your bag, and then they get you your bike. Wow, immediately that sounds stressful and chaotic to me. I’m going to have to take that in and mentally prepare.
- After the swim you run up the “heli,” the round and round ramp up 6 stories into transition. Then you need to bike down that and bike back up that at the end of your 112 mile bike ride. You do, then, get to run out and down a regular non-heli ramp to start the run leg of the race. (The run is when I could probably handle the heli best!!)
- You get your “special needs” bag, that you’ll pack, half way through the bike leg.
- You want to start off with the 2 water bottles that’ll fit on your bike. The suggestion is that these be water bottles you’re willing to toss. Then you can grab water and Gatorade bottles from the aid stations and put them in your water bottle holders.
- There are hockey-type nets prior to the bike aid stations into which you toss your used bottles. Then you grab new ones from the volunteers at the aid station.
- The swim is no longer 2 loops, it is one big loop. (That sounds better!)
I learned a lot! This meeting alone was so worth my Chicago Tri membership fee!
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