Animo Tri Simulation

What: Animo Mini Sprint Simulation, 350m swim-11k bike-3.4k run
Where: Alabang Country Club and Ayala Alabang Village
When: June 7, 2009, 6:30 am
Who: Jamike (Try-Athlete), Jun (Solemates), hubby and myself

 
– Hubby, Jamike, and Jun –

– with Jun and Jamike –

I woke up at 5 a.m. to do pre-simulation data gathering: took note of my time at last year’s mini sprint and the time of the 3rd placer who was closer to my age than the 1st and 2nd placers who were in their teens and printed out four copies of the race map, one for each of us.

We arrived at the Club to find Jun waiting for us at the parking lot and Jamike already doing laps at the pool.  After a few minutes of chit chat, we jumped in and officially started the our simulation.

SWIM: 350m

We swam 14 laps in a 25m pool.  I swam in almost 11 mins. which was a big improvement from the slow 18 mins I did last year.  But, I seriously think the push offs at the end of each 25m made a big difference.  I don’t know how I’ll perform in a 50m pool.  Hopefully, a bit faster than 18 mins.  Gulp.

BIKE: 11k

When I had Annie’s bike tuned up for Animo last week, Hans, the owner of GranTrail bike shop at West Gate Center in Alabang who is an old acquaintance of mine from a million years ago, offered to lend me his own bike for the upcoming triathlon.  (How lucky am I?!  Uhm, if you see how handsome the bike is, you’ll reply “VERY LUCKY!”)  For this training day, Hans even lent the bike for practice.  

I hopped onto the bike and felt comfortable instantly.  We biked out of Alabang Country Club (not the actual route) and headed towards Narra where the bike portion really starts.  We thought we followed the ocho loop but learned only after that we still got it wrong despite my printouts.  (We’ll probably bike this again before race day.)

I forgot to turn on my Garmin for this one so I have no clue how I did.  Even when I remembered to switch on my Garmin in the middle of the bike trip, I couldn’t.  Admittedly, I still can’t let go of the handlebars until now.  So, for the entire 11k, I could not take a sip of water, scratch my forehead when it got itchy, or worse, wipe off a bug that landed in between my eyes!

The start of the bike trip was a bit tough.  My butt and shoulders were aching.  But, after a few kilometers, I learned to relax and enjoy the ride.

RUN: 3.4k

Need I say that this was my favorite part?  The route isn’t the flat course anymore like last year.  This new course starts flat, but once you hit University Ave., there’s a gradual incline, slight downhill, then a climb up again after the turnaround.  It’s a nice, short yet challenging route.

We ran 4.6k—a bit more than the required—at 5:35 average pace.  We were huffing and puffing all the way to the end, but that made the finish even more fulfilling.

Click here for more info on Animo Triathlon.