Spring Classic Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

I was once again off my pace, but the only positive comment is that sustaining this pace was more comfortable and sustainable than in the past, so I can tell my overall endurance is improving

Need to push it harder!

Getting through T1 was good, even though pavement wet had shoes clipped to bike anyway

I really need my own bike stand for transition area, or need to get the accessories out from under the saddle, because my bike is so tall it flops all over the place and that makes it harder to stage helmet well

Bike was a total bust:
getting into shoes was hard, socks made it slippery
noticed right out of gate rear tire felt sluggish, noticed that I didn't have compatible C02 cartridges with nozzle, tried to ride it out, then at first turnaround at mile 2.91 realized tire totally flat, pulled off course next to another stranded racer, who thankfully and generously gave me 2 correctly-fitting bottles of CO2, also lost drink straw in first mile, so zero hydration on bike, tried stupidly to fill flat tire first, which didn't work, then ended up changing tube out, turned out tube never got correctly seated as I had to pull over again at second turnaround to put more air in, also getting stuff back into saddle bag and zipping up was a huge problem - at least I did finish it
volunteer was very helpful in holding bike while changing, did hear on her radio while changing that the 1st place cyclist was 1 mi from transition

Need to check compatiblity of cartridges and nozzle
Need to better understand valve extenders on new racing tires
Need to check tire pressure about 30 min before the gun to make sure they are okay
need a better system for getting to accesories in future races
If this happens in future races - hit the HR lap button so I can tell exactly how much time I've lost - I have no idea what my pace was once I finally got going

ended up with a bunch of tire tubes & gear in my shirt pockets, which I ended up going back to bike twice to dump them
got calf cramping when putting on shoes

try to lift up leg to get shoes in to avoid cramping, which I could feel for first mile

run pace felt comfortable, was concerned because I really pushed hard on bike to try and make up some time, quads were burning on bike but this pace felt comfortable - did have a good push at the end to get past a couple of other racers and drive to the finish, that was one of the better running finishes

push it harder overall!

stretching, walking around
drank up bike bottle Glukeos drink
also drank bottle of Darigold choc milkshake, this wasn't as hard to choke down as muscle milk


I need to get comfortable pushing the runs harder, I need to get a better sense of what the 7:00 pace feels like and be able to hold that


Every racer will have a bad one sometime, and today it was my turn. It was a good learning experience and I got some good takeaways on this, and have some things to work on with bike gear and my run pacing. The bike was real disappoiment but the biggest disappointment in myself was the run times, especially the first one before things went south - last year's first run pace was 7:11, the only positive thing about these runs is that I didn't feel like I was pushing as hard to keep the pace, so knowing that I need to push past to that uncomfortable level will get me much closer to my 7:00 split goal - the HR data also shows that I didn't push as hard as I could have, the HR data was in the 170s and for pushing my goal pace should be right around my max HR 184 or so
AA volunteers like last year's lost timing chip were very helpful and supportive with holding my bike while changing it, also thanks to the other racer who gave me CO2, and was sorry to hear that her bike was DOA on the course