Unexpected Results At The Dri-Tri (or I Thought I Knew What Would Happen)

I’ve done the Dri-Tri at Orangetheory almost every time it’s been offered. I have only missed 2 that I could have been a part of (this doesn’t count when the studios were closed). It’s a challenge that I have never regretted doing, even if I question why I’m doing it again as I start. But I do love seeing how well I do because it’s a real test of my progress and I usually push myself hard to prove to myself what I can do.

The Dri-Tri is offered twice a year, and the one that just happened was my 11th one when you count the relay and at-home versions or my 9th when you only count the full in-studio ones. So I think I’m pretty experienced in the challenge and things aren’t really unexpected for me anymore. I went into the one this past weekend having a pretty good idea of what time I wanted to get certain parts done and what I wanted my overall time to be. I hoped my row would be done between 11 and 12 minutes and my overall time would be around 55 minutes. This wouldn’t be anything crazy, but it would be an improvement compared to what I have done before.

I was really worried about how I might do since I feel like I haven’t had a lot of improvements recently in my workouts. But I also knew that even when I’ve been having really horrible days, I’ve been able to complete it and that’s my main overall goal. As we were getting ready to start, I focused on getting in a little more stretching so my body wouldn’t be totally cold as we started.

The row has been a struggle for me in workouts, but I really wanted to see what could happen if I focused more on my endurance for the row than what the time or other stats on the rower said. I picked just the 500-meter split time as I was rowing and tried to keep it as stable as possible throughout the entire thing. I did slow my rowing down quite a bit compared to other 2000-meter rows I’ve done. I paused at the back of the rower and made it a bit more like a strength row. I don’t know what my stroke rate was because I didn’t want to focus on that, but I’m guessing it was a lot slower than what I would want it to be if I focused on that. And when the row was done, I was shocked to see that I finished in 10:19. I really thought it would be just over 11 minutes. I couldn’t believe I was 40 seconds faster than my goal!

The floor section isn’t my favorite but it’s not the worst. It can be tough when you are halfway through it because you repeat what you just did. But I tried to zone out when I could and just get through each of the exercises. And I allowed myself to take breaks when needed since that’s one of the only sections where it’s easy to take a break. And when I was done on the floor, I was about 4 minutes ahead of what I thought the time would be. So I knew I was doing great with time when I got to the bike.

The bike section is always the longest for the Dri-Tri. When I used to use the treadmill, it also was the longest section. But I think it’s a lot more manageable for me on the bike. I knew that the last time I did the Dri-Tri, the bike took me about 28 minutes. I figured that was a good time to strive for and I knew that getting it done that quickly would get me below my overall goal time. I put the resistance level below my current base pace level, so I was able to pedal so much faster than I normally could. The RPMs I was getting were so much higher than what I get in class. I knew I was pushing myself a bit harder than I wanted to, but I was noticing that there was a chance I could get the entire thing done in under 50 minutes and I set that as my new goal. About halfway through the bike, I realized that I couldn’t get to that goal if I continued doing what I was doing, so I started to do sprint intervals. I did a sprint for about 30 seconds and then pedaled the rate I was doing before for about 90 seconds or 2 minutes. I knew toward the end that I probably was going too hard, but I was too stubborn to give up on my new goal and just went for it. And it paid off because I finished my distance on the bike and my overall time was 49:44!

This wasn’t the fastest Dri-Tri I’ve ever done, but it’s at the top. And honestly, I felt more accomplished with this than I remember from past ones. I really thought I knew what I could do and what my results would be, and I was over 5 minutes faster than expected! That’s a huge difference!

Of course, I had to take a victory photo after I was done.

We all got medals for completing it plus there was other swag we could take if we’d like. I got a tote bag (which I can always use) and a really nice tumbler.

And when I got back to Orangetheory on Monday, they had a whiteboard up with the overall results. I knew I wouldn’t have placed in the top 3 for women, but since I was the only person who did it on the bike, I technically placed 1st for bike Dri-Tri.

I’m so proud of what I was able to do and how much I shocked myself. I was very sore after I was done and I know that’s because I might have pushed myself a bit too much. But honestly, it felt worth it to me. And hopefully, when the next Dri-Tri comes up in about 6 months, I’ll be able to do it and I’ll have even more improvements in how I do!

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