TriSports.com Desert Classic Road Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

Since this was my very first DU I wasn't sure how hard to really push it on the first run. At the start I was sitting around 3rd and then when we reached the trail I had a couple people go around me. Partially a product of not warming up fully but also my reluctance to really hammer the run. Looking back I could have hit the run a bit harder and probably posted closer to a top 3 or 4 run split.

Warm up better, run faster.

One investment coming this year will be tri shoes. Shoes on the ground, had to dial them down and then mount at the line. I suppose tri shoes and a flying mount (with practice) could save me another 10 seconds or so but otherwise transition was smooth and fast.

Few things struck me about this bike, especially after.
1. It's time to tri bike shop because I'm giving up free speed.
2. I'm just now really getting back on the bike so I didn't expect anything grand in terms of pace.
3. I really misjudge (not in my favor) the time of a gap on the bike.

My goal here was to push it a little bit for the first lap, get a feel for how I was doing and then try and push it harder the second lap. I came out of transition in a pretty sweet spot but within a couple miles I could hear the wooosh of a couple discs flying past me. This would happen a few more times and all I could think about was my lack of a dedicated bike and lack of time on the bike. Regardless, I decided to just try and hang on and give up as little time as possible.

two thirds through the bike a few more people passed me that I knew were in my age group. As I was heading towards the last turn around I saw them going by the other direction and way over calculated the size of lead they had on me. I figured they had a couple minutes and that would make it tough to reel them in on the final run...so I started to hammer as hard as I could to limit the bleeding. By the time I rolled into transition they were just leaving on the run so my calculations were way off, they had at most a 30 second lead on me. Stupid

Not panic at the end of the bike and save a bit more energy/legs for the final run. I really believe it cost me a couple minutes bringing the run home.

Almost forgot to take my feet out of my shoes prior to dismounting! Unstrapped, hopped off, ran in, slid the NB 1600s with their xtenez laces on and hit the road.

Nothing at all, fast as I had in me.

Running up the road freaking hurt and my heart rate was through the roof. All attributable to how hard I was hammering the bike coming in. Again, stupid. Anyway, I made the left turn on the road to a couple friends shouting "go run em down BT" and I was on the hunt. I could see the last 4 people that passed me on the bike just up the road and turning onto the trail. That's where I set my sights first. Another half mile up the trail I passed one of them and was reeling two of the other three in rapidly. Within another half mile I was around both of them and starting to put time on my friend just up ahead. Didn't take much longer to go around him and then I could see three more people bobbing up and down in the desert ahead. I told myself I was catching all three of them as well.

Made the halfway turn and starting descending ever so slightly and picked up the pace. The first guy in front of me was doing the same thing and I wasn't making too much time on him. However, we were making time on the two other people in front of us. Up through the last rise before the descent into the finish and we got those two and I was hot on the feet guy in front of me. Dang if I could actually reel him in though. I got as close as maybe 10 feet coming into the finish chute but ran out of real estate. I was popped but what a blast.

Better bike pacing so I could put a bit more effort into the run.

Bike strength. Rookie woes.


Apparently this is a new event company this year and being a first for me, I cannot compare it to before. However, it was a blast, seemed well organized and left me with a big smile on my face. Definitely will be back for this one next year.