Fly By Night Duathlon - F-1 Duathlon

My intention was to keep HR in zone 2 (under 132bpm) and average was in fact 132, so that was pretty close. Maximum was 138, which couldn't be avoided on the long hill. I used a Tempo Trainer set at 178 spm to make sure I took very short, choppy steps on the hills to avoid overwork, and then took it easy on the flats & downhill to lower HR. At the 2 water stations, I dumped the water on my head & back to stay cool.
The overall rank is among 43 female competitors. There were 158 competitors in all, not counting the relay teams.

Nothing in particular.

Not a clean transition. After all my practice putting my helmet on quickly, I set it on the bike wrong so that I tried 3 times to get it on my head before realizing I was trying to put it on backwards. My no-tie water shoes were perfect, but the bike rack was one with slots in a low box rather than rails, and my tire was so tight in the slot I almost pulled the whole box over trying to get it out. Mounting was ok. Had forgotten rubber band but I did fine without it.

Practice with helmet IN TRANSITION AREA before race! Practice taking bike out of rack beforehand to see if there are potential glitches.

I had decided that HR was pretty much meaningless on the bike, so I was going to aim for a pretty comfortable RPE according to what my leg muscles were feeling. The first to start hurting was my left hamstring, has been recovering from injury; when that happened I didn't push any harder. To go up the hills, I had to push hard enough so the bike wouldn't come to a dead stop; but when I crested the top I did not immediately shift into a harder gear and so had a bit of recovery each time. Also, I used easier gears & tried to keep my cadence high, between 85 & 95 (except when climbing, when it was what it was.) In addition, when my speed was slower than 10 mph I took a road position on the hoods instead of aero.
I tried to ride with the same intensity going down the hills. Maximum speed was 35.5 mph, but I did brake a wee bit before some of the turns.
Nutrition: 3 Perpetuem solids & 3 Endurolyte caps (one on each lap of the track). About 3/4 of a water bottle.

Although I think I did pretty well monitoring RPE, I'm strongly considering getting a Power Tap.

I made sure to set my helmet on my aerobars facing the right direction! I grabbed my small water bottle, which probably wasn't necessary because there were 2 water stations.

Maybe skip the water bottle on the run, but maybe not. It's easier to drink from a bottle than a cup..

My intent was to keep HR in zone 3 (under 138) and indeed the average was 137, maximum 142. Again, I took the hills with short choppy steps but pushed harder in the other segments. Taking it easy on the bike really paid off because my legs were not sore or rubbery at all.

I have been doing no speed or hill work for the last 5 weeks due to my hamstring injury. They are now about 90% healed, so hopefully I can add that back in to my training soon.

Got the helmet on ok and did better at getting the bike out by stomping on the box to hold it down. This transition area, which is in pit row, is really tight & congested.

Nothing.

On this leg my intention was to increase my RPE (muscular) on each lap until by the third I was going pretty hard. The hamstring didn't bother me much, and I did let the quads build up a burn & maintain it. ( Thank you, trainerroad!)
I was comfortable enough on the turns that I don't think I braked at all. I leaned the bike into them--at 34+ mph- and felt like a real cyclist! Maximum speed was 34.6 mph.
Nutrition was the same: 3 Perpetuem solids & 3 Endurolyte caps. I took the 2nd of those caps kind of late, well into the 3rd lap. I don't know whether that had anything to do with getting an awful cramp in my right calf near the end of the 3rd lap. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to dismount safely but it was ok. I drank only about half of the second water bottle because it's harder to suck through the longer tube.

Get more scientific with a calculation of how much electrolyte I need, and when. Same with calories. MAKE myself drink enough water.

It all went smoothly despite my calf cramps.

Nothing.

I worried briefly that the calf cramp would make it hard to run, but it didn't bother me. In fact, my legs didn't feel particularly heavy or bad. I couldn't read my watch because when I dumped water on my head at the water station, it ran down my glasses & blurred them. I just ran based on RPE and gave it all I had, but still taking quick fast steps on the hills. My experience with cross-country races did me well, as I knew what hard feels like and have become comfortable running with that feeling . I was pretty done in by the end, though.

With more experience I can learn to push the limits of "hard" some more.

It was dark and I was very tired & hungry, so I didn't do any cool-down. Drank some Recoverite & ate half a Hammer Recovery bar, plus a hamburger & peanut butter sandwich. Socialized a bit, then went home & ate some cottage cheese & banana, had some Electrolyte Fizz, then went to bed.


A week ago the temperature was in the 40's and I had only a few days to work out with the temp near 80°. I did my best to stay cool, but I doubt my body has acclimatized.


I couldn't be happier with how I paced this race. Not only were the splits negative (except the 1st run, which was only a bit faster) but if I compare my percentile ranking among all women, it tells quite a story: For the three run segments, it went from 7th percentile to 19th to 30th; for the bike segments it went from 19th to 35th percentile. Even for transitions, it went from 32nd percentile to 44th to 56th to 51st. For a race in which 75% of the women were under 50, I think that's very satisfactory overall. Only Barb M & I were over 60, and I beat her for the first time of 3 attempts. She's a world-class competitor in the 70+ AG, but she seemed to have just had a bad race day.
Except for the helmet on backwards I had as good a race as I could have had on this day, given my training to date.