Duathlon Iceland - DuathlonXterra

I started out to fast as always ! The first part was a bit down hill so I took some very long steps. I was running next to the undefeated Duathlon champion. He has won every Duathlon every held here :o That is 5 by the way. Reason he wins, he runs like the wind. He is a 15-16 minute 5k runner, and he is not a bad biker either. Actually I think in all the previous Duathlons he has had the fast split time in ALL event !! On this first little down hill part I was running next to him and taking very long step it felt easy, but then we turned and it was straight. I knew right away that I had started to fast. Now I had to settle down and find a good rhythm. The “Champion” was already disappearing in the distance so no reason to think about him any more. The triathlon champion (also undefeated) came up to me and ran straight by me :( That was not good I had really hope I would be able to keep up with him but I just couldn’t :( We went of the road and onto small trails, which was nice, only probably was that I did not know the route so I had no way of knowing how far we had come. Suddenly we came out of the forest and the first lap was over. I could now see the guy in front of me and he was not really increasing his lead :) As we came to the part where we go through the forest the next guy came up to me. But I was able to stay with him, it was not easy but now knowing how far we had to go until the bike helped.
We came out of the forest together I was a little faster getting my helmet on, and I got a 10 meters head start.


Start a little slower, pace it a bit better

Up the road I could see the guy in front, just 50 meters ahead or so, going slowly up the first hill. I could feel that the run had been very hard, too hard, my legs where not happy. The guy I started just before came up to me and went straight by me. Not a good sign, I knew that I was a better biker then him. Ok I had not been on my mountain bike in 6 months but still. I took his wheel and he soon got us up to the guy in front. The road conditions where pretty bad, there where a lot of lose gravel and only a few places where a line was free from gravel. Buy now my legs had recovered a bit and I was ready to make a move. At the next point with a little bit harder surface I went to the front with a hard acceleration. The 2 others had no response and I quickly opened a gap. Then a short but very step hill came up, and I almost died on it, maybe I should have waited a bit with my attack. The guy I had finished the run with came up to me again, but my triathlon nemesis (Every time he wins, I finish second :( ) This was my chance to finally beat him, so I kept the pressure on. At the end of lap there is a very long hill probably a mile long or so, we hit the bottom together. We looked at each other, and said I guess it is up hill now. At this point the speed finally dropped so I had a chance to take of my sunglasses (clear glass). It was raining and I had gotten so much water on them that I could hardly see out of them. With the glasses out of the way it was a bit easier finding a line through the gravel. About halfway up I discovered that I had drop the guy. That was good because I knew he would be able to beat me on the final run. So I kept the pressure on. The next lap went by pretty fast, I was able to extend my lead a bit, but I was getting a bit worried about my legs and the finale run. As I came onto the long hill up towards the transition I could actually see the leader up in front, and he was tired ! He kept looking back, so that just made me push even harder. At the end of the bike I was probably only 20-30 seconds behind him, but now we had to run again :(

Train a bit more on my MTB, and maybe buy a new straight wheel, so my breaks don’t touch it while I ride. I had to have the breaks touch, else I would have had almost no breaking on the back wheel and that is not a good idea.

I had to stop myself from screaming out loud, oh the paid…..and we had to run 2 laps :( Doh. I did get a chance to see how far I was ahead of the next guy, and I knew it was possible to stay ahead of him if I did not get a cramp. So guess what happened ! CRAMP, luckily for me I court it early so I did not have to stop. What I did was to shorten my steps and easing of a little bit. Just enough so I would not cramp up. At this point my breathing was completely out of control. I was running above and be on what my heart thought it should be doing on a Sunday morning. At the start of the second lap I had another chance to see how far I was ahead of the next guy. He had gained a bit, to mush for my liking, but I knew I should be able to hold him of until the finale part, where I knew I could run all out. As I came up to the finale part, he still had not court me but I could see him come up behind but if was too late for him. I tried to kick, ok maybe kick is not really the right word, let s just say I tried to increase my speed. How much it actually increased I don’t know, probably not a lot, but I came out of the forest around 10 seconds ahead :) And then I was ready to die. I was completely done

Nothing

Got out of my wet clothes


I could feel that my throat is still not a 100% and having just started to train again after my sickness was probably the reason why my pulse was so high. HR Avg 175 Max 185, that is high. 175 Avg and that is with the bike where normally if I hit 160 I am going like a bat out of h…

The season is now over, and it is time to start building a foundation for next year.



The times are not official !!!!!!
And I had the fastest bike split :)