Jill Malley knows more about competition than she thinks. “You’re doing great,” she said over my shoulder as I pedaled hamsterlike on the stationary bike. Then, leaning in, she added confidentially, “You’ve gone farther than anyone I’ve seen so far.” Nothing like a well-timed stroke to keep a guy from dialing back the stationary bike just when he thinks he’s had all he can take of going nowhere fast.

So I was surprised when I stopped to thank Malley for her support after Sunday’s 4th Bi-annual Splash, Spin & Sprint Indoor Triathlon at her response. “I just can’t imagine people going that far,” said Malley, who belongs to the UNC Wellness Center at Meadowmont where the event was held and had volunteered to help with the event.

First, the SSSIT isn’t that long: You swim for 15 minutes, you ride a stationary bike for 15 minutes, you run a treadmill for 15 minutes. I should say that in theory it isn’t that long. Fifteen minutes in the pool? I can at least float. Do the stationary bike for a quarter of an hour? I do two-hour mountain bike rides. Run on a treadmill for 15 minutes? Please! Two problems with this theory.

One, because 15 minutes might seem like a drop in the bucket compared to your regular workout your inclination might be to do it fast, as fast as you can. Which might work for one event, but then you realize you have two left. (That approach is especially risky in the pool if you’re not a swimmer.) Three sprints back to back to back and you’ve had a workout.

And two, while 15 is a small number, 45 minutes (3 x 15) is about the length of a typical class at a fitness center. Imagine going full throttle for 45 minutes in your favorite fitness class. Which is what surprised me about Malley’s observation because she takes one of  the more arduous 45-minute (or longer) classes offered: a spin class. Spinning may not translate to the pool, but it’s 45 minutes of non-stop exertion none-the-less.

The winter indoor triathlon has been slow to catch on in these parts but flourishes in the Midwest. It’s a great concept, providing motivation to keep working out over the winter. It’s especially well-suited as a cross-training alternative for warm-weather outdoors athletes, from road cyclists to runners. Kathy DeBlasio, Meadowmont’s Lifestyle Enhancement Director, says the SSSIT was created for those reasons and to give the curious a sense of what a triathlon is about. The distances are comparable to those in a Sprint triathlon, which typically consists of a 500-meter swim, 12.4-mile bike ride, 3.1-mile run.

To further encourage the Kathy Malleys out there, here’s a look at who does indoor triathlons, with some numbers from the Meadowmont event:

By sex
Females: 22
Males: 10

By age
Teens: 1
20-29: 2
30-39: 6
40-49: 15
50-59: 7

Swim
Most lengths completed (25 yard pool): 44
Average: 30

Bike
Farthest distance: 9.08 miles
Average: 5.32 miles

Treadmill
Farthest distance: 2.33 miles
Average: 1.77 miles

Those numbers alone should should make Jill Malley think again about doing Meadowmont’s next indoor tri, scheduled for November (date tbd). And if she needs a little more motivation, let’s turn to the man who’s job it is to convince runners they can run 100 miles at 10,000 feet and mountain bikers that they can ride 100 miles at 10,000 feet, Ken Chlouber, founder of the Leadville 100s. At pre-race meetings before each event, Chlouber encourages the field to do the seemingly impossible with this statement: “You’re tougher than you think you are … and you can do more than you think you can.”

See you on the bike next to mine in November, Jill.