An aquabike in 2022?

 Back in 2019, I started laying the groundwork for dabbing my toe into multi-sports. You may be asking "What is a multi-sport?" and your confusion is understandable. Multi-sports are athletic endeavours that incorporate two or more sports into one event. The most common multi-sport is the triathlon: swim, bike, and run. 

Ever since triathlons started becoming popular back in high school, I've always wanted to give it a shot. The problem is that I am not a runner. Even at my lightest and my most in-fit shape of my life, I could not run. I was a swimmer and a bicyclist but not a runner. Later on the triathlon race organizers would offer bike-run events, but that still wasn't what I needed. I needed a swim-bike race. 

Fast forward to about 3-4 years ago, I started reading about a new event that some triathlon race organizers were offering: an "aquabike" race. As the name implies, this a race where you swim and then bike. This was exactly was I was looking for! 

As I mentioned above, I started working out what it would take for me to train and participate in an aquabike event. I discovered that there were a few distance aquabike events: a sprint distance and an Olympic distance. Since I was not in shape yet, I decided that I would start with the shorter sprint distance and if I wanted to move up, I would have a good foundation to build and the experience of doing the shorter distances. 

The sprint aquabike is generally comprised of about a ½ mile swim and about 12 miles on the bike. I was already regularly swimming a mile in the local pool, so I felt the swim portion would be do-able. The 12 mile bike was something I was going to need to build up to. I was also going to need to need some triathlon specific race day equipment, like tri-shorts & jersey, etc. 

My 1998 Cannondale Multisport 1000 tri-bike!

Initially I was just going to use my 1993 Cannondale M700 fitted with skinnier tires, but when sharing my plans with my brother, he mentioned that he had the bike for me: a Cannondale tri-bike! It was close to being ready to ride. She needed a few minor parts, like pedals, handle bar tape, new brake lever hoods, etc., but she would be a great bike for the aquabike, way better than my mtn bike! As I was getting everything ready, I hit a roadblock. A major roadblock. The year 2020. Everything came to stop, along with my motivation. The pool was closed and it didn't look like the race I wanted to do was going to take place. I shelved the idea for a later time period. 

Fast forward to today, things are starting to return to semi-normal around here. Things are dying down at work and I'm getting the itch to drop more weight and hopefully shed a few health issues I've acquired along the way. 

Today I was talking to a co-worker and that conversation has sparked me to get back on the aquabike train. The event I was planning on doing 2020 is scheduled for 2022, so I'm going to make it my training goal. Stay tuned for more news as I get back into the aquabike world!