Scituate Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

Last year I got a little burned on the runs by holding back too much. This year my goal was to go out hard and try to run at the limit. Even so, there were still a bunch of guys much faster, with the top run time at 9:33.

Last year I was something like 35th on the first run, and this year I was about 45 seconds faster over the same distance, so a bit of an improvement.

Not much - without any speed work, and with an IM in two weeks, there isn't much to complain about.

I lost maybe five seconds with my helmet strap - it's a relatively new helmet and has a magnet instead of the traditional snap in strap. I guess the magnet was upside down.

Right off the bat I had some issues with my Powertap as I got a message saying multiple power meters found. I think that somehow my headunit picked up another power meter nearby. As a result I was never able to rescan and calibrate the powertap, and didn't have any power. I tried unsuccessfully to calibrate while riding, but gave up after a few miles.

The forecast was for winds in the 15 mph range, but it felt like a lot more than that. I'm sure that I was putting out close to 400 watts in some sections right into the wind and barely hitting 20 mph! The course was rolling with about 450 feet of elevation during the bike leg.

As a result of having no power I went off HR, shooting for around 170, which I know would equate to somewhere around 310-320, about my goal wattage for this race. I would have liked to see how much power I put out, as I was also hoping to use the race as somewhat of an assessment of my power - oh well!

I passed all but two of the guys in front of me and came into transition in third place overall. My time was slower than last year by about two and a half minutes, but the distance was also about 1.3 miles longer than last year.


Double check that my powertap was calibrated and synced before the race - somehow it picked up signals from another power meter once I started.

Not a horrible transition - I took a swig of water too, which ate away a few seconds.

The first mile was gradually downhill and came in at 5:59. Then when it turned uphill my pace slowed a bit.

When I came into transition I was just in front of the 4th place racer, but I was able to pull away in the first mile of the run. However, Barry Phelps, a real good runner, hunted me down and passed me to claim the third overall spot.

Again, my time was about 30-45 seconds faster than last year, so my fitness has improved a bit. I was hoping to maintain that 6:00 pace, but I think the effects of riding 60 miles and running hard off the bike for IM training yesterday finally got to me.

I walked around the finish area and grabbed some beverages and food, waiting for Katie to finish up. She came in 4th in her AG, two spots higher than last year!


No speed work and IM training - Beach 2 Battleship is less than two weeks away.


I moved up one spot from last year - 5th to 4th. So in three years I should take top honors! I defaulted into winning my AG as the 2nd place overall guy was also in my AG.

I was hoping to do well, but didn't know exactly how things would go, as I've only been running around 25-30 miles per week since a marathon about a month ago. My training has been pretty heavy since the marathon, and I didn't do any sort of tapering for this race.

Overall, it went well and Katie and I enjoyed the day.