Wrentham Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

I started in the middle, it was pretty congested for the first couple hundred yards then spaced out. Folks pass me, I focused on running my race at my pace. I catch a women from my tri team. She has never been nice to me but she starts saying you don't want to go to hard and build up lactic acid so you can't ride well; you are moving your arms to much that wastes energy; but do what you want. What the heck? She is the one that tells me how many on my tri team are doing IMLP but never includes me. She annoys me and this critique of my race plan was not helpful at all.

My plan was to run just under my hard 5K stand alone effort. That is what I did and when I run like that I breath hard plus with run induced asthma I breath louder than most folks. I wanted to say something quite unpleasant to her.

She get a little in front of me so I see her the whole rest of the run. It is getting warmer so I take off my Gore shell and carry it in my hand and then take off my arm warmers.

I did pass about 4-5 folks including men after we got strung out.

Not talk to that annoying women and just let it roll off me more.

Decide to take off knee warmers but already have one bike shoe on so I go with one on and one off and who cares.

Firm doesn't time transitions in most of their races, I tried to use Garmin for splits but I must of hit the off button while taking off my shell running and with it taped over had no idea it wasn't working.

I do well in transitions.

Love starting the bike with so many others going slow..lots of folks to pass including folks passing others even up hill. Felt great on the bike and the rolling hills were fun. Saw really high HR and power numbers wonder if I should take it down a notch. After doing all these road races all winter being passed like I'm standing still, I love being the passer..passing young and old, men and women and no one is passing me..sweet!

Steep downhill with sharp right then continue to go hard and hit a patch of road that is all patches and potholes..see my aerobottle jiggle and something yellow eject from my bike. First thought is that silly net thing from aerobottle nope that is still there it was my power tap computer, split second decision brake hard and go look for it. Few minutes in this race doesn't really matter as that computer is a few hundred bucks.

It is amazing how many things went through my head so quickly. I look around and can't find it. I even think I want to just drop out of the race and do not finish. I see something broken in the middle of the road looks like the right size, dodge bikers and cars, pick it up not it. Wow where can it be I can't find it, what should I do, I get more wound up...ah there it is on the other lane of traffic..run across and pick it up and wow it is whole and okay. Run back to my bike put it on the cradle and it actually works..yah!

Now I start riding and passing back the 25 folks or so that passed me while I was searching. My mind is on hyper speed should I have stopped? Lots of things rattling around. Finally I say Kathy focus on the moment all I can control is now.

I get back in my cycling grove, hold back a little and have fun passing folks again. About 3 miles from end I take a powerbar gel which is what they have on IMLP course to see how it feels doing hard effort just to learn as I know I don't really need a gel. Stomach handles it well.

Meet up with run course, I know where I am and keep on going. Dismount on the grass, hussle to my rack spot.

Duration: 35:47 (37:43)
Work: 359 kJ
TSS: 52.1 (intensity factor 0.935)
Norm Power: 180
VI: 1.07
Distance: 10.776 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 417 168 watts
Heart rate: 125 163 153 bpm

Nice power numbers and HR

Not lose power tap CPU and not ease up a bit on my power. I think going forward on sprints I'll nail it as hard as I can the whole bike..my coach agrees with that thought.

I had taken off one knee warmer in T1 so now I take off the second one and put my shoes on.

Estimating 1:30?

Legs felt sluggish but I actually ran well for me. I was pleased with my effort on this run. I can push and tolerate ~18-20 of running hard. I brought my new Fuel Belt 10oz palm water holder with GE in it and it worked great. I have a hard time drinking going all out.

I was passed again by lots of those folks I passed on the bike. I did pass two older gentlemen. I put 2 in the pass column for this part and I passed 3-5 in the first run, so I'm counting 7 for this race.

Tried to pick it up last 1/2 mile not sure if I was successful but worked as hard as I could.

Happy with how I did.

Walked around, found Kevin, felt great after about a minute...I love how I recover so much better than I used to.

Bumped into Kelly and was disappointed I didn't catch her on the bike..she runs about 1 m/m faster than I and I bike faster than she does currently..soon she'll beat me at everything. Aaron found me later and we chatted. Always nice to see BTers at events.


What I see I have improved a lot on is the ability to push myself to that uncomfortable place and tolerate it better. Doing those 5Ks every couple weeks in the winter helped me learn that.At the race I was breathing hard the whole time, most folks I raced near were not. This is new skill for me to push hard for longer and longer. Almost all tris I run slower than when I run training. My 2nd run was faster than my first and I pushed hard on the bike. This is a real improvement for me.

I like to see improvement on paper in race results but who shows up and races I have not control over.

Both my runs were in the 9's which is so exciting for me. Geez this year maybe I can gain 1 m/m in tris on my runs that would absolutely rock!

I like this that my coach said:
Personal growth is not tied to race results. Yes it is fun to get a good paper place some times. But the changes noted above (There were lots of things that would have flustered you in the past that this time just smoothly went along) are worth way more.


Duathlons have many runners that can't swim. Very competitive field and the opening event in MA for tri season. Good course, close to my house.