Bad To The Bone Duathlon - Duathlon

There are trails and then there are "those" trails. I had been mixing up my runs between paved flats, paved hills, and crushed rock trails. But I had not done any "real" trail running, the kind where if you were in a jeep, you would kick in to 4 wheel drive. It was a different experience, I have hiked plenty of trails like these, but just never ran them. Once we got to the first steep rock and dirt hill and I got over my "Holy Cow" moment, I just settled in, watched my steps and occasionally looked up at the beautiful KY morning. Overall, it was a fun course and since I'm a slow runner I did not have much traffic ahead of me or behind me.

Work in some "real" trail running to my training.

Took my time just to make sure I did not forget anything.

Nothing.

Oh those wonderful rolling hills we have in KY. Plenty of them on this course along with two pretty good sized hills aptly named the "Evil Twins".
Had bit trouble on the first "twin" with legs cramping up, tried to stretch em out on the bike, but didn't happen. So I had to dismount and stretch. After a couple of minutes I was fine. 2nd "twin" was a bit shorter in length but just as steep, no problems here other than getting passed by a box turtle. ;-) Hydrated well, ate 1 bar cut into thirds every 30 min. Very scenic course, little traffic.

Train on bigger hills.

No issues.

Oh golly. I put on a good face for the first 2 minutes or so while my Wife & Son could still see me. As soon as I rounded a corner though I had to walk a bit...the legs were wondering what the heck was going on now. Began running again...excuse me...began "trying" to run again and the legs did not want any part of it. It seems somewhere between the 2nd transition and 2 minutes into the run, someone had strapped invisible concrete blocks around my legs. I knew very early on this 2nd run that I would be enjoying the sights and sounds more because my running segments would be spaced apart. So I did just that, walked the uphill portions, ran the downhills, and even walked some of the flats. Even though this was only a short duathlon, it was my first one and I did not want to come away from it with a negative feeling, or get hurt trying to run on rocky trail when I was well aware my form and strength had gone away. So I just smiled at the trees, sang with the birds and kept moving forward. My Son who is 12, met me near the end and ran in with me offering encouragement along the way, I smiled at him and did the best with what I had left in me.

0bviously more training.

Walked a tad and then helped hold a tree up.


Faster is not yet in my vocabulary.


As I mentioned before this was my first multi event. I had hoped to have had a few more done before this one, but had a setback early in the year. I had meniscus surgery in April. Started back with light training in June and just gradually increased from there for another month or so. Since I was not having any issues with the knee, I decided to go ahead and start an 8 week Du plan. Overall, I am happy with how my first event turned out. I was just pleased to be out there and have my family with me. And the icing on the cake is after I finished, my Son told me that if he ever had to write one of those "Who is your hero?" papers that it would be me.

*next up - learn to swim.