Maryland Olympic Duathlon - Duathlon

As there were ~400 participants, the race started in waves. Unusually, M45+ started as a separate group, ahead of the younger guys (though after the elites). So I expected that this would put me fairly far forward at the start. As usual, lots of folks set off at a pace that I knew they'd pay for later, and I deliberately held back, though in the humidity it wasn't as easy as I'd have wanted. Mile 1 was more down than up, though the entire course was rolling, and 6:01 was as fast as I would have wanted to be. I eased off in mile 2, to around 6:30, mostly uphill, but still made up a little ground. I went into T1 in 3rd, about 150 yards behind two guys up ahead of me. Feeling fine, though already quite damp.

Nothing. I'm happy to hold back on the first run of a duathlon.

[By the way, what's up with the auto-calc feature on the new BT?? It's way off in calculating my paces for Run1 and Run2. Both were almost identical, around 6:20/mile.]

Relatively efficient, but practice would help. I lost around 20s on the faster guys. Perhaps I could gain a little from replacing the old MTB shoes.

This was the part of the day that let me down. I didn't expect to gain time on the guys ahead, but I didn't expect to lose so much time as I did. It's not a particularly fast bike course. Two 13 mile laps plus the ride in/out to transition. I rode one practice lap yesterday, to test out gearing, cornering, etc., as it's a relatively technical course, with lots of turns, ups and downs, and relatively rough road surfaces. Based on that I had been hoping for around 1:12-1:14, so barely cracking 1:17 wasn't so good. I was mostly riding within myself, not wanting to destroy myself for the second run, but I was certainly not riding easy, and I thought that I was keeping a relatively good position (by my low standards, at least). The humidity was ridiculous, and sweat was pouring out of my aero helmet. I don't think I have ever got so wet on a bike. I was passed by 2 guys from the same AG, and never saw the 2 who had been ahead of me on Run 1. At least, not until I saw them out on the run, when I still had a couple of minutes of biking left to do. So I came into T2 5th in the AG.


I'm not sure what's up with my biking. I know that loss of training through the spring and early summer, mostly due to travel, has probably slowed me. But I thought that I was in ok shape, and my climbing ability seems to be intact: I've done a lot of climbing in the past few weeks, and my times on the climbs have been as good as I've ever done before. And this week I also lowered the bars on my tri bike and installed my fancy new Flo race wheels. I gain on everybody going uphill, but lose time on the flats/downs. It's tempting to say that this is just due to w/kg, but in this crowd I was with other spindly runners and don't stand out at all as a lightweight. I wonder if I'm riding wrong in some way, or if I'm just terribly non-aerodynamic. I may have lost a little time in the last few miles when my rear-wheel magnet was constantly tapping against my bike computer sensor, but that can't have made much difference. Gotta work on this some more.

Slower. This time I lost over 30s on the fast guys. I threw off my now drenched headband and pulled on a visor.

I had been looking forward to this part, as it was where I was hoping to gain back time. I did, and I got the fastest run split of all age-groupers, which was a nice bonus. But I had left myself with too much to do. With the aero helmet off and the sun starting to heat things up a bit, it was actually a relief to have a bit more of a breeze in my face and a little more evaporation action. The run was advertised as 4 miles even, but it was probably around a quarter mile more than that. I was pretty happy with the mile splits: 6:12, 6:19, 6:24, 6:28 (some of the variability is due to ups/downs). My quads started to threaten cramping, but I was feeling fairly strong generally. I picked off one of the guys from the AG who had passed me, and got to within 20s of getting another, but simply ran out of road. Average pace of 6:20/mile was almost identical to Run #1, and was about as good as I would have hoped for under the conditions (rolling hills, hot/humid).


Nothing probably, though I might have pushed a little harder - I had more in the tank than I realized.

I was not thrilled with the overall time, though pleased with the running. I guess that should have been better, as my running has been much more consistent lately.

Surprised that I came 8th out of all age-groupers, but this left me 4th in M45-49. Tough age group!


Biking.
Heat & humidity.


Duathlons are normally small affairs that are consigned to the spring/fall months when lakes are too cold to swim in, so it's nice to have an event that falls in the summer and attracts an unusually large crowd. And this one was very well organized. Is it possible that duathlons would be struggling less if they were more spread throughout the year?