When my Orangetheory studio announced that they would be doing the Dri-Tri, I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to sign up. I’ve done the Dri-Tri lots of times and I think I have done it every time my studio has offered it except the first time. But even with being back at the studio again for about 6 months, I still know I’m not back to where I was before the shutdown. And I didn’t know how I would do with the Dri-Tri this time.
But I forced myself to get over that feeling and realized that’s exactly why I needed to do it. I needed to prove to myself that I could. Even if my time wasn’t anything close to what I used to do, I needed to know I could finish. So I signed up and decided I wasn’t going to look at my old times to see what I used to do and go in with an open mind. I did have 2 ideas of what I would like to do, based on what I know I could do in regular classes. I was hoping I could get onto the bike (the last section of the Dri-Tri) before the 30-minute mark and I was hoping I could finish in under an hour. But I knew that I might not be able to do either, so I wasn’t setting them as big goals, just ideas.
The day of the Dri-Tri was a bit of a weird morning for me. I was still dealing with the burst blood vessel in my eye and it was looking much worse than the 2 days prior (this is normal, the blood is similar to a bruise and it can spread for a while before it starts to fade). I felt like I looked horrible and that everyone would be looking at me. And then when I was getting ready to leave for the studio, the shoelace in one of my shoes broke. I wasn’t going to wear new shoes for a Dri-Tri and didn’t have time to unlace one shoe and put in new laces, so I had to make it work.
And it turned out, I had even less time than I thought. I knew the Dri-Tri wasn’t at a normal workout time for me, but I wrote it in my calendar as being at 10:45am. So I got to the studio around 10:35 so I’d have time to do a little warm-up before starting. Well, I guess I wrote it down wrong because it was actually at 10:30! Fortunately, they hadn’t started when I got there and were going over all the rules. But I didn’t have any time to warm up. They actually were waiting on me to strap my feet into the rower so they could start. So from the time I arrived to the time the clock started was probably under 2 minutes. Not ideal and not something I had ever experienced before.
The first part of the Dri-Tri is the 2000-meter row. This is something we do as a benchmark so I’m very familiar with what I can do and what my time is like. Since the studios reopened, I have done this benchmark twice and they both have been much longer times than I have done in the past. I’m pretty sure the most recent one was one of the worst times I’ve ever had on it. And I knew that doing this row as the first part of the Dri-Tri meant I needed to be very careful to not go too hard and to conserve some energy.
Normally, they say to do 10 really hard pulls and then find a good pace and intensity to stick with. I didn’t do those hard pulls, I figured without a warm-up that was going to be a really bad choice). I just tried to find a steady rhythm and to keep things around the same pace the entire time. I also wanted to try to limit any breaks I might need to take. And I don’t know how or why this happened, but somehow the row this time was much better than when I did the row as a benchmark. My time was still slower than before the shutdown, but it was over a minute faster than the last benchmark. And I was able to only take 2 real breaks and 1 break where I was still rowing but rowing very slowly. I couldn’t believe that! I didn’t care that I was the last person on the rower (I think I had over a minute on the rower when everyone else was already on the floor), I did it and couldn’t believe that it went a lot better than I thought it would.
The floor is all body weight exercises. We had bench hop-overs, bench tap squats, step-ups (which I always do as lunges), push-ups, plank jacks, and burpees. I do little modifications t0 a few of the exercises. The hop-overs are done one leg at a time and not as a hop. The push-ups are on my knees. And the burpees are done using the bench for my hands. Because I’m not competing or trying to get into the regional Dri-Tri workout, it’s ok that I do these modifications. The floor exercises are split up so you do 2 rounds of everything. And normally as I’m starting the second round, I have a moment of thinking that I’m exhausted. And I did have that this time, but I was able to keep going. I just took the breaks when I needed to and then got back to it when I was ready.
When I went over to the bike to start the last second, I took a look at the clock and it was about 25 minutes in. So I had made it to the bike in under 30 minutes and that gave me a nice boost before starting the bike. This is always the longest section for me. If I was on the treadmill, it’s a 5K run (or 2.5K if you powerwalk like I used to). On the bike, it’s 4 times that. I’m not exactly sure that the distance of the bike is 12.4 miles, it’s listed as trips and not miles. But I know the bike needs to show 12.4 to be finished.
I knew I wouldn’t want the resistance level too high on the bike, but I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t too easy because that can also make it tough to go for a long time. So I had it either at my base pace level or the level between my base and push paces. I just changed it when I felt like I was ready for a change, I didn’t worry about tracking intervals or timing anything. I just wanted to go and base it on how I was feeling. When I needed a break for water, I did have to stop pedaling because I don’t have enough balance or stability to do that. But I tried to keep pedaling super slow when I could as I was getting my water bottle or putting it back. But for most of the time I was on the bike, I just tried to let my mind wander because I knew I’d be on there for a while.
I would check my distance every so often and mentally note when I hit different milestones like being half done or 10 minutes in. And I was making pretty decent time compared to what I thought I’d be able to do. The coaches and staff go to each person as they are finishing so they can mark the time and everyone cheers as each person finishes, which is really nice. I was one of the last people to finish, but I didn’t care. I got it done. And my final time was 55:51! I did it in under an hour!
Considering all the things working against me and how I wasn’t sure how I’d do in the Dri-Tri, I was in shock with my final time. Even one of my coaches said he was impressed that I did that well without having the warm-up before we started. I don’t know how I did it and I’m still in a bit of shock, but it happened!
And for completing the Dri-Tri, we all got a certificate, medal, and water bottle.
And yes, you can see a bit of my messed-up eye in that photo, but I was able to make it look much better than it looked in person.
I’m so glad I decided to do the Dri-Tri and didn’t let my worries get to me. I needed this challenge. I needed to see that I could do it and do better than I thought. I needed this proof that I’m not doing that much worse than I was doing before the shutdown. Even with all the things that were going wrong or not my way before I started, I overcame it all and did an amazing job!
I know that this doesn’t mean that I will instantly improve in my regular workouts because I approach those different from how I do the Dri-Tri, but I at least have a new record I can reflect on when I’m trying to see improvements and growth in my workouts.
And despite how I sometimes feel in the middle of a Dri-Tri, now I can’t wait until we have the next one so I can do it all again!
You Might Also Like
Making Challenges More Challenging (or A Dri-Tri First For Me)
Dri-Tri At Home (or Taking Challenges Where I Can)
My First Dri-Tri Relay (or Trying To Not Be Disappointed In Myself)
Learning Something New Every Time (or Being Ok With My Dri-Tri)
Dri-Tri Time (or Beating My Own Records)
My First Dri-Tri (or Beating My Expectations)
