Trooper Biathlon - Duathlon

I started out fast, took advantage of the downhill segments (something I've been working on in training) and pushed hard without going TOO fast. Overall I think I paced this really well.

Not much, maybe start closer to the front next time?

I'm still struggling clipping in quickly with the new pedals. This was exactly what I didn't want. I still had a good T1 time because these issues happened after I crossed the mat, so they actually affected the bike time instead. Otherwise I thought my time at the rack was spent wisely, and deciding not to wear the jacket was a great move.

Gotta work on clipping in better

This bike was kinda a new experience for me. I'm used to passing loads of people during a tri due to my poor swimming. This was not the case here. I passed a couple people early and settled into a really great pace, eventually going back and forth with the same few people for a long time. Coming up to the bottom of the big hill a group of 5 or 6 had caught up to me and it took some serious battling on the climb to keep them at bay. I would've liked to had a better climbing day and maybe caught some people, but fighting to keep anyone from passing me was really challenging and fun. Once I made it to the top the worst thing happened, my calves starting cramping, my right one was especially painful. I could barely take the pain to continue pedaling as I was trying to rub them and force the cramp out. As this is happening all the hard work I just put in on the hill disappeared as everyone I stayed ahead of began passing me like I was standing still, and there was nothing I could do about it. My calves never fully recovered, but I was able to start pedaling again and I was mad. I over took a few of the guys who passed me and finished the strong, hoping that the cramps wouldn't come back on the 2nd run.

I gotta work on hydrating during races, as I suspect thats where the cramps came from. I only drank about half of my bottle (a good portion of that after the climb when I tried forcing some down) and even that small amount didn't sit well. Perhaps at longer events when I'm not pushing so close to threshold this won't be a big problem. I can't complain about the rest of the ride though, I fought hard on the hill and pushed a fast pace everywhere else.

This went really well. I got my feet out of the shoes easily, and passed a couple guys at the dismount line because they stopped to get off their bikes. The only bad thing was the dismount line was one gravel.. ouch!

Nothing

I knew this was gonna be tough with the big climb so late in the bike, and having my calves cramp up so badly didn't help. Luckily they didn't lock up completely, but they never felt right. I still pushed hard and tried to catch one of the guys I battled with for much of the bike. I got pretty close to him with less than a mile to go, but then the big hill came and he just pulled away and I never got that close again. Another guy I went back and forth on the bike with was trying to come up on me and I had to keep pushing to keep my lead on him. There wasn't much kick left at the end and luckily I didn't need it.

All things considered not much. My goal was combined 26:00 on the runs, which I figured something like 12:30 and 13:30 would be the way to get it, and thats almost exactly what happened so I'm pretty happy.

Not much, I just rode my bike back to the parking area with my stuff. Stretched a little before getting some food.


The cramping on the bike was probably the difference between 12th and 11th OA for me, but overall I think I had a great race.


This was a really fun event. They had plaques for 1/2/3 in every age group which I thought was pretty cool. I feel like race season officially started for me after this.

On a personal note my running has come a long way and my placement was actually higher with both runs than the bike, something I never thought I would do. I couldn't be happier, and look forward to continued improvement. On the flipside, I still think I'm naturally a better cyclist and the training has just not match my running so far. And the dirty little secret is my climbing is probably not where it was last year and will be a point of focus as the season goes on.