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Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon - F-1 Duathlon


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Rochester, New York
United States
Yellowjacket Racing
50F / 10C
Overcast
Total Time = 1h 57m 23s
Overall Rank = 57/93
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

I got everything out last night. Bike in car, clothes ready etc. I don't sleep very well and wake up about 5:15. I hang out in bed until about 6:15. Guess what? Its raining. Wonderful.

Eat my normal breakfast and read the paper. I leave a few minutes after 7 and stop for some coffee. I dont drink much of it but try to get some in to avoid a caffeine withdrawal headache. It rains all the way to the race. Finally, as I pull in the parking lot, it stops.
Event warmup:

My goal for this race was to finish in 2:00:00. Last year, in my first ever race, my time was 2:05:55. I worked out an approximate schedule to hit 2 hours. Of course, I leave it at home.

Once on sight, it is cold and windy. About 50 degrees, according to the thermometer in my car. I pump up my tires and walk my bike over to transition. I get a decent spot and spread things out.

I decide to run a little to get warmed up. I jog across the field and get my feet soaked in the process. Great, wet shoes and feet and the race hasnt even started. Oh well.

Deciding what to wear was a significant decision. I see a lot of people in shorts. In warmups, I have my tri shirt and shorts on underneath my long bike pants and bike jacket. Do I want to take these off? Ultimately, I decide to keep on the long pants and jacket. At the end of the day, I decide that having warm legs is not a bad idea, particularly with some nagging leg injuries. If I get hot, I can take off the jacket in transition without much trouble.

I'm glad I left on the long clothes. I was comfortable the whole way. I did unzip the jacket 2/3 the way down on the run and zipped it up for the bike. Good choice.

I do a fewf more warmup jogs. I don't do too much as a 2 hour race is more than my training has been. Don't want to get too tired.
Run
  • 19m 3s
  • 2 miles
  • 09m 31s  min/mile
Comments:

I start near the back of the F1 group. We leave 2 minutes before the sprint group leaves.

The horn sounds and we take off across the field. My stupid HR monitor strap slides off my chest to around my stomach. I bump along trying to get it to stay up and take a reading. In the process, I somehow get my race belt underneath both my jacket and tri shirt. Numbers aren't really important anyway. Whatever.

Well, about 7 minutes into my run, the Sprint people start passing me. One of the first ones to do so is a woman who works with one my kids several times a week. This is her first duathlon, though she has done a few run races and done well.

Anyway, I bump along neither pushing too hard nor lagging. Decent exercsion level. My HR monitor is not working. Grr. Going to have to get some gel for it.

Well, about 3/4 through my run, I get passed by a kid that is smaller than my 8 year old. Unbelievable.

The run finished up uneventfully and I head to transition.
Transition 1
  • 01m
Comments:

We don't get breakouts of transition time, so the above is merely an estimate.

T1 was average at best. I put on my sunglasses thinking they would provide some eye protection for my contact lenses on the ride. But they immediately fog up. Oh well. Toss them in the bag. Shoe swap goes ok.

Get bike off rack and move to mounting area. Get on bike and start to peddle. WHAT?? The chain is not catching on the back. WTH? I play with the gears a bit and it finally catches.

Note to self: Actually ride the bike after taking it out of the car before putting it in transition. Doing a visual inspection is not enough.
Bike
  • 33m 21s
  • 10 miles
  • 17.99 mile/hr
Comments:

I did not get passed on this bike leg. I passed perhaps 50 people, including the kid smaller than my 8 year old. My goal was to stay in aero as much as possible. I also wanted to drink on uphills as that minimizes wind resistance when going slow. I was generally successfull in both of these goals.

Another goal was to not push too hard on the bike, saving myself for the runs. I perhaps pushed marginally harder than I planned. It is a lot of fun to pass people and I passed a lot on this stretch. I know many/most of them will pass me back on the run. But anyway, the ride goes fairly well and I more or less keep my exersion level reasonable the whole way through.
Transition 2
  • 00m 45s
Comments:

T2 goes fairly smoothly. I do mess around with my shoes a bit much. Maybe 5 secs wasted. But otherwise it goes fine.
Run
  • 09m 22s
  • 1 miles
  • 09m 22s  min/mile
Comments:

My legs are a bit tired starting this run but overall in decent shape. I move along at a decent clip, again neither pushing too hard nor relaxing. I do walk some of the uphill sections to keep my HR in check. My HR monitor has finally started to work on this leg. I stay in the high 140's most of this leg.

A 1 mile run goes quickly and it didn;'t seem to take much out of me.
Transition 3
  • 11m
Comments:

This transition goes smoothly. Nothing really to note.
Bike
  • 34m 29s
  • 10 miles
  • 17.40 mile/hr
Comments:

My legs are definitely more fatigued on this ride. But I try to stay comfortable and keep my HR in check. I pass about 3-4 people in the first couple of miles. Then, there is no one in sight.

Keeping to my plan of staying in aero as much as possible and drinking on uphills once my speed is down seems to work fairly well. But with the wind gusts and the constant slope changes, a lot of times I'd have my left arm in aero and right hand on the shifter.

About 2/3 the way through this leg, I catch up to more people. I pass a couple. To my surprise, someone passes me. First person the entire race. #175, I'll have to look him up. He probably was one of the handful of flat tires I saw along the way. My guess is his splits are very different.

My lower back starts to get sore with a mile or so left on the ride. As I near the transition area, I see some runners on the course. Some are finishing the race and some are finishing the sprint. I've still got 2 miles to run.

Anyway, I was able to keep my HR in the low 130's most of this leg. It occasionally got up to the high 130s going uphill. Low 130s are borderline Zone 2 Zone 3 for me while biking. This is about right for this length race.

I drafted this race report before I saw the time splits. I was surpriseed to see that my time on this leg was only 3 seconds slower than the first bike leg. Yes, there was a little difference in the transition times lumped into these bike splits. But given the difference in my legs as well as the gustier weather, I'm surprised.
Transition 4
  • 00m 39s
Comments:

This transition goes smoothly as well. This was my actual time according to the posting.

As I am leaving my bike, I look at my watch. Its at 1:39:30. I had budgeted 20:30 for my last run leg to meet my 2 hour goal. So I am precisely on schedule despite not paying attention to it until now.
Run
  • 18m 4s
  • 2 miles
  • 09m 02s  min/mile
Comments:

I WILL finish this run in faster than 20:30. I dont care that my legs are tired. They still work ok. I WILL finish this race on my goal. I strategize a bit. I know that uphills will be tough. So I will try to mazimize my speed when going downhills. Let gravity do the work.

I am definitely pushing it. My HR is in the low 150. Definitely Zone 3. Breath deeply. Come on. You can deal with this for 20 minutes.

Make that 15 minutes now. BREATH. KEEP YOUR FORM.

My HR goes to 159 at one point. With an estimated max running HR of 175, I know I am pushing Zone 4. Ok, slow it down a bit. Get it under control.

I am now along the road. It feels good to see bikers go by, knowing that they still have to start the run. After watching from the perspective of the biker, this feels good to be the runner.

A long downslope comes up and I let gravity do its thing. I try to move my legs as fast as they will move. KEEP YOUR FORM. Yeah, I am motoring!

Flattens out again and so I slow. I've got 8 minutes to finish. I know its not too much left! YES, I AM DOING IT!

A steep uphill, I purposefully slow to a walk. I want to regulate my breath. Knowing that I had so much time to meet my goal, I actually probably walked more than I needed to. I start jogging up the hill for a bit. Ahhh, it gets really steep. Walk that.

At the top, I have 5 minutes to go and all I have to do is cross the field. Go down the steep hill, and walk back up. At the top, time to give it all I got.

RUN, BREATH, KEEP YOUR FORM!

BANG. 1:57:23.

Holy S#!T, I just saw the split postings. This leg was a full minute faster than my first 2 miles. Looking through the results, I am one of 3 people with a negative split like this. I am truly shocked that I accomplished almost a 9 minute mile pace at the end of this race. My previous personal best run pace was 9:18. OMG!

I beat my goal by 2:37. I beat my time from last year by 8:32. Despite not having optimal training in the last couple of months. (Exactly 1 ride on my bike in the last month. Limited running due to plantar fascitis.) Those 20 pounds lost between then and now definitely help. A new bike does too.

I am very proud and pleased with this race. I had a good plan, generally stuck to it, pushed hard, and exceeded my expectations. I am truly amazed at the negative run split.
Post race
Warm down:

I walked around a bit to settle my breath. I was working hard at the end. I settled down fairly quickly.

The one thing that I want to plan better for next race is having ice available for my feet. I routinely ice them after every run. There was no ice around and no real good spot to ice them anyway. With the very windy and cold conditions, keeping the body covered was more advisable. But definitely something to keep in mind for the future.




Last updated: 2006-04-19 12:00 AM
Running
00:19:03 | 02 miles | 09m 31s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/93
Performance: Good
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
T1
Time: 01:00
Overall: Below average
Run with bike? Average
Jump on bike? Average
Getting up to speed and into shoes: Bad
Biking
00:33:21 | 10 miles | 17.99 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/93
Performance:
Wind: Cross-winds with gusts
Course: My bike time is an estimate. The time posting combines T1, T2, and bike 1. The bike ride was very windy. The course primarily was north south and the wind was gusting out of the west. There were many instances where I could not comfortably get into aero. It was too unstable to risk in some areas. This course is also very hilly. No huge or steep hill, but constantly changing slope. That makes gearing much more challenging.
Road: Potholes Wet Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 00:45
Overall:
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
00:09:22 | 01 miles | 09m 22s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/93
Performance:
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
T3
Time: 11:00
Overall:
Run with bike?
Jump on bike?
Getting up to speed and into shoes:
Biking
00:34:29 | 10 miles | 17.40 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/93
Performance: Good
Wind: Cross-winds with gusts
Course: The wind has gotten stonger it seems. Gusts are more dangerous. The course has dried out a bit from the first leg, however. Thats good.
Road:   Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
T4
Time: 00:39
Overall:
Run with bike?
Jump on bike?
Getting up to speed and into shoes:
Running
00:18:04 | 02 miles | 09m 02s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/93
Performance: Good
Course:
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4

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2006-05-20 8:21 PM

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Master
1324
1000100100100
Rochester, NY
Subject: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon


2006-05-21 2:53 PM
in reply to: #429109

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Expert
1023
1000
Malvern, England
Subject: RE: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon
Well done Rob
You seem to have achieved all your hoped for goals... and what a horrid day for it!

Jackie

2006-05-22 8:20 AM
in reply to: #429109

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Master
1324
1000100100100
Rochester, NY
Subject: RE: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon
Thanks Jackie. I definitely achieved my goals this race. And doing it in poor conditions makes it even better.

Hope to see you at swimming tomorrow.

Rob
2006-05-25 1:02 PM
in reply to: #429109

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Lethbridge, Alberta
Bronze member
Subject: RE: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon
Awesome run splits Rob! Really nice job. Congratulations!
2006-05-26 8:42 AM
in reply to: #434250

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Veteran
298
100100252525
West Henrietta, NY
Subject: RE: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon

Hey Rob,

Great Race!  I must have passed you at some point as well.  Don't worry too much about that young kid, he finished up the Sprint, middle of the pack, after doing the big leg on his single seed bike with 20" wheels.  Hope to meet you one of these days.

Chris.

2006-05-27 4:16 PM
in reply to: #429109

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Champion
11641
50005000100050010025
Fairport, NY
Subject: RE: Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon

Congrats on meeting your goals in tough conditions.

I would have liked that weather that day.



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