login
 Run
Comments: So, it should be clear that I am not a good runner - I'm not fast anyway. I also don't practice running before biking and I have never even considered strategy in a Du. Not something I think about since I did my first one and hated it while finishing DFL. I then set of on the mass start and proceed to run a pace that was 10 seconds per mile faster than my previous 5K PR. You can call me stupid becasue it is true. I should have been in the 10:00 to 10:15 range. I finished the first leg in the top 70%. It just wasn't wise. That's my problem with mass starts. I see people passing me and I speed up. What would you do differently?: Keep an eye on the watch and not burn up my legs on that first two miles.  Transition 1
Comments: Made a good transition. My bike was literraly 15 feet from the timing mat. off with the shoes and visor, on with the helmet and glasses, out the door. Run to the mount line was about 25 or 30 feet. Got on the bike and pedaled on the shoes. Got my feet in and did not have time to tighten them before the first minor upgrade (plus tons of traffic as it was a three loop course and the people originally signed up for the Du started 10 minutes before us. No impact though. Strapped the shoes on on the first downgrade and we were in business What would you do differently?: In this case, I probably should have looked at the course a little better and put my shoes on in transition. Maybe lose 5 seconds in T1 but gain 15 or so on the bike leg.  Bike
Comments: One would normally get a good replacement of the uphill business on the downhill, but it was raining and wet and most of us decided that we would be better off taking it easy on the downhill (though I reached over 35 mph on the same spot a couple of times). On the first lap I hit the largest downhill hard and tucked. at the bottom there was a patch that was not smotth, but there was a warning so I saw it and got off the saddle to smooth it out. What was not obvious was the rolling left turn that was covered in water. The first time through I experienced a scary bit of tire slide on both tires. After that, I took it easy on that section and crossed the puddles straight followed by a hard left after the crossing. It was faster that way. You might look at the lap times and say - WTF happened on lap 2? Well, I had my bike tuned up before the race and it was running fine, but I got about 1/4 of the way up the large hill on lap 2 and my rear sprocket bagan to pop. That's annoying. So I shifted it a little to get it right and wham - off the sprocket the chain comes. That's right, chain off on a hill. So, I put the chain back on and have to chug up the hill. It took almost a mile to get my legs back under me. What would you do differently?: Well, I would make it stop raining. Other than that, I probably should have e=went out on my own and looked at the course. I basically had no strategy. lazy, I guess. Transition 2
Comments: So - something I forgot to do in T1. Cover my shoes. I was racing in my Nike Frees, which I had never gotten wet before. Here's the thing, If you get these shoes wet - or your feet are wet - getting them on is almost impossible. The shoes are made to fit like a glove, but wet gloves suck. Same thing in this transition. What should have taken less than 50 seconds took more than 2 minutes. I actually had to sit down on the ground tto get the shoes on my feet. It was much like pulling on a wet pair of socks. What would you do differently?: Cover my shoes. Again - an extra 5 or 10 seconds in T1 would have saved more than a minute in T2. Run
Comments: I started out well. Good pace at right around 10 minute miles, knowing that I would be able to use the downhill at the end to make up some time. As I ran along the lake path, there was a volunteer warning of a puddle. She said - "I have a deep puddle here". Unfortunately the puddle to the left was a lake and the ground to the right was a ditch. Only choice was to get wet, and really - I was pretty freaking wet already. Well, what she didn;t say was that the concrete under the puddle was slick - and most likely she didn't even know it was. I found out quickly as I stepped in and my right foot slid. I torqued my lower back and though - "oh crap". But, no residual affect, so I kept going. I thought it was kind of funny when I heard the volunteer say to the guy behind me "I have a deep, slick puddle here". Glad I could help. I started up the windy uphill and my back started to hurt on the side that I twisted. I did some relaxation techniques to try and loosen it, but it was doing no good. I ran up the hill but I probably could have walked it faster. Pride thing, I guess. When I got to the top I hoped that my back would ease up, but it didn't. More pain and more pain. I thought of someone's sig line on BT that says something about" At some point the pain can't get any worse" but I was starting to doubt that becasue it kept getting worse. Finally I go to the long downhill and leaned back and coasted bringing some relaxation and stretch to my back. Across the dam and I heard someone approaching me about 200 yards to the finish. I picked it up hoping to hold them off. It became obvious that I wasn;t going to be able to and as he passed me I see he is in my AG. Beat my by 10 seconds. I looked at my GPS after the race and it said the last leg of the run was 3.6 miles, not 3.0 miles, but it is what it is. What would you do differently?: Be more careful with the puddle. Post race
Warm down: Stretched my back for a while and got some chocolate milk, drank a bottle of Fluid Recovery Drink and had a couple of Bananas. Had the massage tent peeps check out my back and she thought it was probably just a strain intensified by the pounding of running. Take it easy, she said. What limited your ability to perform faster: No practice going from run to bike. Inability to set my ego aside and run a pace that makes sense. Absolute lack of strategy when it comes to Duathlons. Event comments: Well - last Du I ran I finished DFL. This time I finished better than 11% of the participants. That's something, I guess. There were two points in the last run that I was almost DNF. First one was going up the windy hill after I hurt my back. I called on Vanesa and she answered (like she always seems to do). The second time was on my way to the downhill. Along come 5 or six people (all guys but one). They are racing in the cruiser division, which they do every year, and they have a theme. This year it wa Talladega Nights. They were dressed like Ricky Bobby. One guy was solely wearing tighty whiteys. One guy had a shirt on that said "If you ain't first, you're last". As they came up next to me they asked if I was OK (evidently the pain was reflected on my face). I said yeah, just a little back pain and they started with the "Shake and Bake" and made me laugh out loud. Rerally picked me up. My wife got a picture of them. Profile Album Last updated: 2010-01-21 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
54F / 12C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 298/336
Age Group = 40-44
Age Group Rank = 33/37
Well, we found out on Saturday that this race had been changed from a Tri to a Du, which was not good for me. Since we had traveled down to Kansas City on Saturday so that the kids go go to Worlds of Fun, there wasn't any point of not racing. Troiubles abound, however, as nothing seemed to go right. I knew that I wasn't going to reach my goal time as it would take me longer to run the 2 mile first run leg than it would take me to swim 587 yrad, so I had to regroup. It rained all day Saturday, so Worlds of Fun was not all that great. I had the females drop me off at the room after dinner and tey went back to the park. While there, I discovered that my front tire was flat and would not re-inflate because the LBS had not put any teflon tape on the threads. I would have to hope the bike suppport at the race would have some as Home Depot was already closing and I didn't have the car anyway.
Got up at 5:30 and had my wife take me to the race site. Got there around 6 and I had my pick of transition spots. I picked on the was about midway up across from the bike in/out and right next to the run in for the first leg and out for the last. It was a good spot. Had a bagel and a bottle of water mixed with Gu.
I got my spot picked out and headed to the bike shop to see what they could do about my tire. They had no teflon tape so the mechanic and I got into creative mode. Nothing worked. Finally we took the extender all of the way off and noticed that it had been stripped out when it was put back on (which is why you use teflon tape instead of trying to twist it really hard with what looked like a set of pliers being applied. With a combination of super glue and electrical tape, we finally got the tire to take airr, took the extender off and used a needle noe pliersa to close the valve. It worked, but took about 45 minutes. I did not get a chance to ride my bike becasue it was raining off and on and I didn;t want to chance a flat. I ran about 1/2 mile and did some light stretching and talked about the course with a local guy that had been on it a couple of time. Dude left some stuff out. The website says that the course is "flatter than mosst Tri courses". Where, the himalayas? It wasn't IM St George, but it definitely wasn't flat on the run or the bike.