USAT Duathlon National Championships - DuathlonStandard

The heat was crazy and the warmer run I did leading up to this race was probably like 80s when in Cancun a few times and the rest were 40s-50s up here in Boston hence I knew I had to pace smart. I raced by feel and went at whatever pace felt like a tempo effort I could sustain for a 21K. As soon as we started many guys took off do to a crazy downhill but I focused on my pace; I knew some were going to leave their race on the first few miles by going too hard and the ones ahead were too fast for me to keep up anyway.

After 1 mile I was getting into my groove an already catching some of the hammer heads. Before mile two the entire AG was stopped by a crossing train blocking the entire road we had to cross. As soon as I got there I hit the lap button on my watch, the entire group of runners we decided to wait and find out what to do with race officials. Eventually the train stop but it was still blocking the road but we could go around it and while we wrere debating what to do 2 cheaters went ahead and kept on going. Finally we got the green to re-start and I lost 9:30 min. The highlight was that we caught the two cheaters and the entire field was giving them a good choice of not so encouraging words :) I got into T1 in like 7-8 place.

Not much. Due to rehabing injuries from last year and making sure this year I increase my training load gradually to match my fitness and leg adaptation to the stress of running I only ran like 60 miles on March (around 9 hrs) at very easy pace and on April prior the race only logged like 75 miles on 9 hrs. So I am happy with my result given my fitness level and definitely excited to see what I can do later in the year with proper training!

a bit rusty doing transitions but overall good

uumm practice :)

I started the bike and felt great but 5-10 min into it I felt my legs were flat (lacking that extra power) and I knew it was cuz I took 2 days off prior the race. It was planned but it happened that way cuz of traveling and work and eanytime I do that my legs lack that etra pop on race day hence I won't let it happen again. Anyway, this was my 1st ride on my tribike all year and it showed, I was rusty riding it and I was slowing way too much on corners and turns been extra careful. Also I changed my saddle 2-3 weeks ago and while I rode it on the trainer it is different outdoors and the fit wasn't perfect hence I did a lot of moving around and my crotch was on the fire. On lap two I hold a nice pace and it was my fastest lap; while one lap 1 few guys passed me on the 2nd one I was passing peeps. I felt good altough never strong but I focused on eating gels and drinking. By lap 3 I was done, my legs felt weak and I was slowing down so I focused on staying areo and just spin my way back to T2.

avoid not training 2 days before race and ride my tri bike more often. With the crazy heat it was tough to go much harder for me and since I am still gettng myself back in solid shape I went as hard as I could on that day.

Off the bike I began feeling twitches like I was about to cramp although I never did. I knew I was pushing my body way harder of what I've done on training so far and the heat was just exhausting. I focused on keeping a solid pace and keep on moving. I knew I was around top ten and tried to not let anyone catch me but some dude did the last 1/2 mile and I didn't have the fitness to fight back so I gave him some encouraging words as he passed me and just focused to make my way to the finish line

not much, it was all I've got that day

walked a bit, took recovery drink, stretched, got compression tights on, ate and rested.


After crossing the finish line I wasn't totally spent,maybe I could have pushed harder but there was no need as the race was more of a hard training day than an A race. Don't get me wrong, I pushed hard but my fitness level is still not where I want it to be so I rolled with the punches based on what I had for the day and the heat.

My biggest limiter was lack of fitness as I am still working on it but I am very excited as to how it is coing back. Considering how little running (for me) I've been doing in the past few months and the fact it was Duathlon Nationals I am happy with a top 10 place among all this fast athletes. I finished on the worlds slots but I didn't take my place as I have a bigger fish to fried ;) I enjoyed the experienced very much and it gave me a good start for racing season and more motivation to get my fitness to a solid place.



besides the train incident it was a fun race.