If completing a triathlon has been on your bucket list, or you’re just looking for a way to challenge yourself this year, TriMuskoka has a no-excuses event that you can’t refuse: the second annual Winter Indoor Triathlon. A 45-minute, go-at-your-own-pace fun event, it offers a taste of what a larger triathlon is like without a big training commitment ahead of time. Unless you’re competitive, that is, in which case you’d better get started.
Dozens of newbies “tri”-ed it for the first time in 2017. “A significant number of people had never done a triathlon before and we had oodles of youth come out and we hope this is something that spurs them on to get active in a sport that’s a big part of our community,” said organizer Rich Trenholm following last year’s event.
“It gives people a goal to strive toward when they might otherwise just be sitting inside hiding from the cold,” says this year’s organizer Kaitlyn Habermehl, adding that many of last year’s participants asked if they would be running the event again. “We had a lot of positive feedback.”
The event format is simple: swim as far as you can in a pool for 15 minutes; bike as far as you can go on a stationary bike; and then run for 15 minutes around the indoor track at the Canada Summit Centre. Each wave is small — just 12 people, which means only two per lane in the pool. You can ask to go head-to-head against friends, or you can enter on your own.
“The nice thing about the event for a first-timer is that it is in a very controlled environment,” says Habermehl. The swim is in a pool rather than open water which allows participants to take breaks at the end of a lane if needed; the bike is on stationary equipment so riders can pedal as fast or slow as they want to; and then you can run or walk or do a combination of the two for the final leg on the indoor track. And everyone has five minutes between each activity. “Everyone is on the same page here and we cheer each other on. It can be as hard as you want it to be. It’s a great place to start.”
The indoor tri is followed by a fun afternoon at Camp Tawingo, complete with tubing, sledding, cross-country skiing, broomball, campfires with hot chocolate and goodies, and a light afternoon meal for participants.
The cost is just $20 for youth and $35 for TriMuskoka members, $40 for non-members. Any participants who aren’t a Triathlon Ontario member must pay a one-day fee of $2 for youth or $4 for adults. There is a $10 fee for any non-participants who want to join in the fun at Camp Tawingo. Register here.
You can read more about the inaugural TriMuskoka Winter Indoor Triathlon here.
And if that gets you revved up for another challenge, registration is also open for the TriMuskokan, another fun event with try-a-tri, short-course tri, swim/bike, duathlon, and relay options. Learn more about the TriMuskokan here.
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
Join the discussion: