The year in review

The coach in me is writing this year in review, the athlete in me will now sit back and listen ( I promise).

Goal: I started the year with the goal of becoming a full time duathlete.   No triathlons or bike racing this year.  I had begun seeing good results as a duathlete and I decided to see what I could do if I focused on the discipline.

Let's start with the race reviews and then work backwards looking at the training that led up to the race and seeing why the races went the way they did.

Race #1: Hagerstown duathlon #1 - read the race report here.

Grade: C 

Too many mistakes for someone who has been racing as long as I have.  Add that to the fact that I was racing a duathlon with a mere 25 TOTAL run miles on my legs and that explains the C grade somewhat.  Despite those facts I had a decent race for the first race of the season.  I had a fair amount of bike training under my belt, but not much outdoor riding due to the bad Maryland winter.  I actually road faster over the course than I had 6 months prior, mostly due to a lot of VO2 max work and functional threshold work on the Computrainer.  My second run let me down a bit, but this was to be expected owing to the few miles I had run in training.  I paid the price for the hard effort and within an hour of finishing the race my calves were already getting sore; a sure sign of too hard an effort on too little training.

I had little time to recover as the next day I was off to a 5 day training camp in the Blue Ridge mountains.  Peaks Coaching group offers a power training camp where you ride in the morning and then analyze your power files when you return.  This was a great camp, but I suffered greatly the first few days, having not fully recovered from the race the day before.  I put in over 17 hours and 240 miles on the bike that week.  Needless to say I was tired when I got home! I took it easy most of the week and then re-tested most of my key metrics.  Just as predicted,  all my metrics, FTP @ 20 mins, 5 mins, 1 min , all rose after the huge workload and some active recovery.  I now had 4 weeks until my next race.

Race #2: Cascade Lake duathlon

Grade: A-

Unfortunately I never did a race report for this race so I will do a brief synopsis now.  The short of it is, I won my age group and placed 7th overall!  So why the A-?  I was unhappy with my bike split as I had predicted a faster split having raced this course faster previously.  Still, it was hard to be too dissatisfied with a win!  So how did I get there?  After my huge workload from the training camp and my recovery week I started working on longer, tougher workouts on the bike and run.  I ran more miles in the 4 weeks between this race and the first race then I ran in the first 3 and 1/2 months of the year. Cascade Lake is known for its short, but very tough (read hilly) bike course.  I was toughening up for the hard effort ahead.  I added a long run every week and a run / bike brick every other week to get ready.  In hindsight, I should have added some hill climbing on the bike and perhaps that bike split would have been closer to what I expected.

Race #3: MD Olympic duathlon

Grade: C-

This was my goal race for the year and it was a major disappointment.  I had raced this race 3 times prior, so I know the course (it's hard) and I should know what is required to do well.  Now a major reason why this race went as badly as it did was I got sick two weeks before the race and could not train at all week leading up to it. I arrived at the race medicated up to my eyeballs, with an upset stomach and slight case of vertigo.  The smart athlete would have just used this as a training race and moved on, but alas since this was my goal race and I tried to race it anyway.  Bad idea.  I was lightheaded and dizzy and really out of it to start the race and about an hour in, even though I was feeling better, I could feel my energy levels fading.  The last 2 miles of the bike really took their toll and although I transitioned quickly and started off at a reasonable 8:30 per mile pace as soon as the road spiked upwards the wheels (or legs in this case) fell off.  The heat coupled with being sick brought on a wave a nausea that forced me to stop and walk.  After the wave subsided, I would start running again only to be hit with another wave of nausea.  This went on for the rest of the race.  I finished with my worst time ever in this race.  Even though I was sick I went back and looked at my training over the 7 weeks between races.  Most of my training was bang on, but I did note one glaring omission.   I had no long runs!  My longest run in the seven weeks was 5.5 miles way too short for such as hard race.  I need long runs of at least 75 minutes to harden up for a race with 10k of running over hot, hilly terrain.  I will definitely rectify this next season.

At this point in the season I had no other races planned.  Since my A race had turned into a disaster I decided to target the second Hagerstown duathlon as another A race.  I had quite a bit of time before this race so I scheduled another duathlon about 3 weeks ahead of the final race to test my fitness.  With my race schedule set for the rest of the year a new wrinkle emerged.  I had to go to Florida for a month in August!  Its freaking blazing hot down there!  I found this out the hard way as I tried to start my long run around 9 am in the morning.  I was fried in 45 minutes and had to walk a fair amount of it.  After that experience I was on the road by 6:30 AM every morning!  Being forced to get up so early forced me to get every workout in because I knew if I missed the morning opportunity I would not get a second chance again that day.  This was by far my most consistent training of the year and my results were incredible.  By the time I returned back to Maryland I was in the best shape I had been in a few years.  The addition of the long runs had made my run really strong and the bike workouts even included a Strava KOM.   After a nice recovery, I headed off to my next race. Oh yeah one other point of note; my run mileage TRIPLED between races.

Race #4: Central Park Duathlon - read the race report here.

Grade: A

One of my goals for the year was to get to the point where all of my duathlon runs were sub 8 minutes per mile.  The Central Park duathlon was where I made that goal a reality.  I also started using a new tool for pacing on the bike; Best Bike Split.  Best Bike Split helps you predict your pacing based on your FTP and a profile of your bike and the race course.  It will then create a Garmin (or PowerTap Joule) workout that you can follow during your race to ensure proper pacing.  I tried it out as a test in the race and it worked fairly well.  Best Bike split predicted a time of 34:36 for the course, and my actual time was 34:56.  Given the conditions on the course (read the  race report for details) this was startlingly accurate.  I subscribed to the service the next day.  Against a very tough field I finished 4th in my age group and 27th overall.  Even more importantly to me, my first and second run splits differed by only 25 seconds.  This is significant because it showed I paced the bike perfectly and was able to have a strong run off the bike; a significant improvement over previous years.  This left 3 weeks to get ready for my last race of the season.

Race #5: Hagerstown duathlon #2 - read the race report here.
Grade: A

This race was as close to perfect as I have been in a while.  My planned time was 1 hour ten minutes which would have been a PR by about 2 minutes.  Instead I went 1 hour 8 minutes 9 seconds!  I demolished my PR and I actually think I may have underperformed on the bike!  Best Bike split had predicted a split of 27 minutes and 16 seconds based on a normalized power of 225 watts.  My actual split was 29:07 with a normalized power of 196 watts.  The Hagerstown course is back loaded, meaning the toughest part of the bike is the last 3 miles.  Even though I rode fast, I was somewhat conservative in the opening part of the course saving my strength for the end.  In retrospect, I probably could have pushed harder on the bike.  I know this for my next race in Hagerstown, which incidentally will be my first race of 2015.  I once again used Best Bike Split to pace my race and for the most part it was pretty good.  One gripe I do have, for courses with lots of grade changes some of the segments are very short requiring frequent changes in power output.  For instance, look at the first five race intervals for this race:

#1 00:00:36 0.22 mi 0.22 mi 21.37 mph 180 watts
#2 00:00:33 0.13 mi 0.35 mi 14.45 mph 273 watts
#3 00:00:32 0.2 mi 0.55 mi 22.74 mph 172 watts
#4 00:00:48 0.32 mi 0.87 mi 23.89 mph 219 watts
#5 00:03:03 0.99 mi 1.86 mi 19.43 mph 237 watts

Trying to dial in a certain power output for 30 seconds is pretty tough, by the time you get it dialed in you are switching to the new power output.  Its not until interval #5 that you can really dial into a pace (perhaps a better strategy would be to find a reasonable mean value for a series of short intervals and use that instead).  At any rate, I plan on giving the guys over at BBS some feedback and seeing what they say.  The other notable improvement in my training leading up to this race was a commitment to weekly run intervals on the track.  This allowed me to have my best run splits of the year and maintain my goal of sub 8 minute miles for both runs.  My run splits were also quite close in this race, only about a 20 second difference per mile between the 1st and 2nd run.

After I reviewed the year, I went back out of curiosity and skimmed over my races from other years.  I noticed an interesting trend.  My best races always seemed to come in September and October.  Interestingly, a lot of my goal races were in May and June.  I have decided to change this for obvious reasons!  One of the things I have struggled with, is getting my athletes to keep good training journals.  I think a lot of them don't see the point or the value.  Hopefully this will give them some insight into just how useful this information can be.  So I am gearing up for the new season using this data, I hope everyone takes the time to look into their data as well. If you have questions or comments I would love to hear them.  Have a great 2015!

Happy New year!

Coach Rob

Hagerstown duathlon #2 - The season is over!

Yay! The season (for me anyway) is over!  It was long, it had some highs (first age group win), lows (complete debacle at my "A" race),  and some unexpected twists (training in Florida for 3 weeks).  But when all was said and done, I finished the season with 2 impressive performances and a huge amount of knowledge gained (more on that later).

Hagerstown duathlon #2 - Race report (1.9 mile run, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run)

Pre-race:

One of the things I really like about this race is it does not start until 9:30!  Despite that fact,  I still need to be at the race site by 8:15 or so to get registered, but at least I have ample time to wake up and warm up.  This is the fourth time I have done this race.  The race is run two times a year, once in April and then again in October.  This race is my first and last race of the year.  As such, it is a great way to gauge my progress from the time the season starts through the end of the year.  I spent the hour or so before the race chatting with other racers and testing out a new tool in my racing arsenal.  I recently started using Best Bike Split .  Best Bike Split will devise a Garmin workout based on your personal function threshold power (FTP) data, the course you are riding and your bike specs.  After entering the data, Best Bike Split will then generate the power numbers you need to hold based on the elevation profile and your FTP.  It will tell how much power to use and how long to maintain that output.  This was my first race using the workout generated for me, so I wanted to do a brief test run prior to the start of the race.   After seeing the numbers appear on my screen I felt ready try it out for real.  There was still a some time before the race started so I watched the kids duathlon that they run prior to our race.  It's great to see the future of the sport with their bikes with baskets, and watermelon helmets! As the kids were finishing their race I was getting ready to start mine.  I was definitely seeking the podium in this race so I made sure to position myself near the front at the start at keep an eye on the competition in my age group.  There were a few racers I knew would be tough competition so I made sure to keep an eye on them when the gun went off.

Run 1:

The first 5 minutes are always the worst.  Going from standing still to 7 minutes per mile is never pleasant. So I can only imagine how hard it must be for the guy in my age group who was lighting it up with 6 minute miles!  Oh well, maybe I'd catch him on the bike (I say this merely to console myself, I don't think I really believed that).   A number of racers went out really fast.  Despite this I stayed well within my planned pace and finished the first 1.9 miles in 13:35 (7:09 per miles).  As I entered transition I figured I was about 40th overall and maybe 4th in my age group.  But I was in contention!  With the exception of that 6 minute mile guy everyone else was within striking distance. So into transition I ran.....

T1:

I'm usually pretty quick in transition, but someone must have hit my bike and my helmet got all messed up.  It took me some time to get the whole strap thing straightened out and that jacked up my T1 time by about 20 seconds.   Still I got out of there in 51 seconds and onto the.....

Bike:

I guess you could say this is the portion of every event I ultimately live for.  I turned on my Best Bike Split workout and the numbers started pouring in.  So now I had a plan to follow as I turned the pedals.  One thing about the workout plan is that some of the power numbers are for very short periods of time. So you might be asked to maintain, say, 225 watts for 1 minute, but by the time you get dialed into said 225 watts, it may be time to dial in another wattage, and with wattage as chaotic as it is, dialing in the right amount can be quite challenging.  Needless to say I saw quite a few, "low wattage" and "high wattage" alerts.  Despite the challenge, I felt really strong on the bike and was reeling in cyclists left and right.  About 3 miles in a guy in my age group went by me like the TGV!  Dude was moving!  Despite that, I felt pretty good and no one else passed me.  OK that is not quite true, one other racer did pass me but I re-caught him later in the race.  With 1 mile to go I saw one other racer in my age group up ahead, I passed him briefly only to have him re-pass me on a steep hill.  I kept him within site, took my feet out of my shoes with 1/4 mile to go, and zip passed him in....

T2:

Perfect T2, 29 seconds, 8th fastest in the race.  Need I say more ?

Run 2:

This is the make or break part of every duathlon.  I knew I would need to run really fast to maintain what I thought was my current 3rd place (turned out I was wrong I was actually in 4th, but whose counting...).  My legs felt pretty good as I left T2, but I knew it would still be a few minutes until they loosened up completely.  I was running pretty well (7:43 pace) when M45-49 #4 raced past me.  I tried to stay with him and I managed to for about 1/10 of mile before I realized his pace was not going to relent but mine would need to.  Despite my desire, I had to let him go or risk spontaneously combusting.  I still believed I could catch him (delusional I was obviously).  Now I was determined not to let anyone else catch me.  A few young speedy guys did pass me around mile 2, but I didn't feel to bad about that.  With about 1/2 a mile to go I was strangely alone.  I could still see M45-49 #4 but he was too far ahead of me to think about trying to close on him.  I glanced behind me but no one was in site (the course is sort of curvy here so it hides any chasers pretty well).  At this point I just decided to make sure I got the PR I had planned (I was shooting for 1 hour 9 minutes and 30 seconds).  I ran hard to the finish and almost coughed up a lung upon crossing the finish line.  Not a great feeling, but not altogether unexpected either.  I gave up my timing chip and went over to check my splits.

Post race:

I finished 5th in my age group, but amazingly I was 24th overall!  This means that old guys between 45 and 49 made up an astounding 20% of the top 24.  Pretty impressive for us old guys!  I was right about that 6 minute per mile guy, I never did see him again, but I did out split him on the bike so it was a small victory.  I can also console myself with the fact that I had the 12th fastest bike split in the race.  I was very happy about that.  I also was happy with my overall time of 1 hour 8 minutes and 9 seconds.  This was better than 4 minutes faster than my previous best race in Hagerstown.  It's gonna be tough to PR next April, but I will cross that bridge when I get there.

Post race analysis also showed that my power output was somewhat lower than I am capable of. What does that tell me you ask?  Well a couple of things.  For one, I can do a faster bike split.  The Best Bike Split workout seemed like it had the right numbers (in fact, it predicted a faster bike split). It was, however, difficult to hit the correct number constantly due to the quick changes.  I intend to give this program another shot, perhaps on a longer course with fewer elevation changes, to see how accurate the program really can be. By and large Best Bike Split was still helpful for preventing me from going too hard and perhaps that accounted for my good second run off the bike.

Its now time to take a break for a few weeks and take in all that I have learned this season.  One thing that has become evident is that I seem to race better later in the year, so next year I will target all my major events later in the year.  Live, learn, enjoy and best of luck to all those still racing.

Peace

Rob

Central Park Duathlon Race report

I think its official, I am a duathlete.  I have been doing duathlons longer than I have been doing triathlons but I was using them mainly to strengthen my run and,to prepare for longer triathlons.  Over the last few years however, I started to see results.  Second place, third place, a bunch of fourth places. I even won my age group earlier this year at the Cascade Lake duathlon in Westminster, MD.  I guess all the work on my run actually paid off!

I spent a fair amount of time last year devoted to improving my swimming, and while I did see improvement, it did not significantly impact my placings in most triathlons.  So this year after some careful planning, I decided to ditch triathlon for a season and make a go of it as a full time duathlete.  When I initial chose my races I did not include the Central Park duathlon,  mostly because I was trying to race locally as much as possible.  That said, I have a soft spot for racing in Central park.  It was where I did my first bike race, I have had some of my best races there, and the course is a good mix of up, down and curvy.  Just what I like.  Since my A race for the summer was a disaster, I got sick 1 week prior to that race, I planned to use the Central Park race to build for my next milestone the Hagerstown duathlon in October.  As luck would have it, I had the best 6 weeks of training prior to the Central Park race I have ever had.  I came to NYC race ready and I brought out the Colnago for good measure!

The weather had been great this week so I should have known it would rain overnight.  It wasn't terrible, I have certainly trained and raced in worse conditions, but it did put a damper on my mood.  I was going over in my head all my wet weather tactics: Avoid the white lines, pedal though the curves for more traction, no standing and sprinting.  I got to the race early and encountered issue #2.  I was registered, but as a FEMALE!  Ok, I'm thinking this is an easy issue to fix.  The woman registering me says I need to see the race director.  "Sure, no problem", I say.  I walk over to the race director.  I explain the error.  He says, "So you made a mistake when you signed up."  I say, "No, at least not knowingly."  He says," Well we don't touch the computer you must have a made a mistake!".  I am thinking, "This is dumb!  Obviously I am not a woman and I am not trying to race as a woman can we just change the "F" to an "M"?", I just say, "I am not arguing, just tell me what I need to do."  He looks at me a bit surprised and then calls over an assistant.  "Change his registration from female to male."  I am thinking, "Really?  You went through all that and you could have just told someone to change the damn thing ?"   OK enough time wasted, I get my packet, my chip, race numbers , etc. and set up my transition area.  I got to the race early (which I usually do) and had unfettered access to the bathroom (real bathrooms, no Porta potties!).  This turned out to be a great strategy since there are only 3 toilets.  Late arrivals had long waits for the facilities.  Since this is a short race ( 2.1 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2.1 mile run), I go to warm up. The run starts straight up a hill so I don't want my heart rate sitting at 90 when the guns goes off.  I am trying to podium in this race, which I know will be a tough task, since there are some fast old guys in NYC.  All the same if you want it, you have to believe you can do it.


First run:

Bang!  The gun goes off  and folks are flying up this hill!  I don't feel so great at the start (this is pretty normal for me though) I stay positive for the first mile and by the turn around I am starting to feel ok.  But there are A LOT of people ahead of me!  Experience tells me some of these people went out to fast, I am running right where I need to be right around a 7:45 pace.  As I approach transition, I notice it has taken me a bit longer than I expected.  I begin to wonder,  "Did I slow down?" I focus back on the race, run #1 is over, worry about the details AFTER the race!

T1:

My bike is racked right near the run entrance, I wore my shades on the run so I don't need to put those on.  Helmet goes on first, check.  I decided NOT to mount my shoes on my pedals since it was wet and I didn't want to attempt a flying start on wet pavement.  Shoe change went ok, or so I thought.  I get to the mount line and I can't clip in, "Weird I just rode yesterday with no problem..... hmmm, feels like something is on my shoes.... SHIT! I left my cleat covers on!"  OK definite faux pas there.  I feel dumb now, never did that before!  Off the bike, take both covers off, I was about to just throw them away when I remembered how much they cost, I stick them in my tri-suit back pocket.  Now I am thinking, "Let's get this party started!"

Bike:

I am a cyclist.  I raced my bike for 15 years straight before I even considered doing multi-sport and this is where I have the most fun.  I am psyched , but a mere 1/4 of a mile into the bike there is a terrible accident as a another racer has hit a person jogging in the park.  I am hard on the brakes slowing down to get past the accident without causing any physical harm to myself.  For the next 3 miles I feel as if I am riding an obstacle course!  Dodging slower riders, joggers, tourists, dogs (yes dogs!). Central park is used much more than when I raced here in the 80s and 90s.  The twisty descent to the 110th street hill is harrowing with riders not holding their line, slower riders in the wrong lane, and yes, DOGS!  I managed to move up a bit then came the 110th street hill.  Here is where my hill repeats and consistently hilly rides really paid off.  I caught or closed on numerous riders which helped me get clear of those speedy runners who left me on run #1.  The west side of the park was a bit less congested than the east side but only marginally.  I was still more or less picking my way around slower riders for much of the first loop of the bike.  As I approached the end of loop #1 I checked my split time.  I was about 75 seconds ahead of my projected pace and I felt pretty good, event with all the grit and grime I was picking up from the wet roads.  I now remembered the fallen rider and was preparing to ride to the far right to avoid the accident only to find that an ambulance and a fire engine were now blocking virtually the entire road!  Hard on the brakes again, I ease over to the left of the road, and being totally mindful of all the runners, I managed to squeeze past the accident scene.  Back on the gas, full on now, looking only at the road and my power meter numbers, I am prepared to go full gas until 1 mile from T2.  On the twisty descent before the 110th street hill, a racer took and incredibly bad line and basically crossed the whole road forcing me and and another ride to slow to avoid her.  Much to my surprise, she then starts explaining to me ,"This isn't my race bike... I had a flat.... blah blah blah." I am really trying to race here, give me the details later, "OK?" After that much of the ride was uneventful until we got about 1/2 a mile from T2.  Spread across the entire road were 4 people on their bikes; stopped in the middle of the road, 4 across, just chatting!  All I can think is, "Where are the course marshals?".  OK I am close to T2, I drop a gear or 2 to prepare my legs for that last run.  I open my shoes, slow down, and another racer goes inside me on the left to get into T2 before me.  I was a bit annoyed at that, I mean its transition not the finish line.

T2:

Almost flawless, I missed the rack on the first attempt at racking my bike, but other than that uneventful.

Second run:

I felt about 7 out of 10 when I left transition.  I was determined not to give too much back to anyone I passed on the bike.  I felt slow getting up that first hill, but once I crested, the legs began to loosen up.  My bete noire for duathlon, and triathlon as well, has always been the final run.  Today I broke through.  All those transition runs and track work suffering paid major dividends.  I was finally able to run sub 8 minute pace for the second run and actually accelerate to the finish.  I had a kick!  I could close on people!  It was awesome!  I also felt good about only being re-passed by 2 people instead of the steady stream of runners I usually see.   I know for certain how I will be training for the Hagerstown duathlon!


Post race:

It was great performing up to my training.  My power numbers and run pace was dead on.  Even though I did not podium (4th place again!), I felt I raced my best race and that's really all you can ask. As for that first run taking longer than I expected a quick check of my watch revealed the course was actually 2.27 miles and not 2.1.  Ok I feel better now! I am looking forward to that last race of the season and a well deserved rest after that.

Peace and keep training !

Rob

First race of the year - Hagerstown Duathlon #1

So I arrived at the first race of the year cautiously optimistic.  This one of my favorite races for a couple of reasons:  1) It's short!  I mean the whole race is over in about 75 minutes for me.  Hell, the ride to the race takes an hour.  2) I have done well at this race.  I have a 2nd and a 4th place in my age group in this race.  3) It's fast!  The bike is mostly downhill for almost 6 miles, and the run is basically flat.

I was only cautiously optimistic mostly because I hadn't really been running.  I mean, I really hadn't been running, I had logged all of 19 miles running, which is not a recipe for a success.  On the other hand, I had LOADS of cycling miles, lots of intervals, and a healthy amount of confidence.

Perhaps I had a bit too much confidence.  I decided to eschew my normal race day ritual.  No checklist, no race day plan, I would just wing it.  So you probably know how that turned out.  Among the things I forgot: Race number belt, extra jacket (to keep warm before the race), and water bottles!  Now the first 2, were annoying, but not really a problem.  The water bottles, now that was problem.  I actually had remembered them, but I put them in the freezer to stay cold for the ride to the race and forgot to take them out.  Of course, I would have remembered them if I had my checklist which I normally check before I leave the house, but you know why that didn't work.

The first race of the year is actually the easiest for me.  I usually have nothing to lose.   That was definitely the case this year due to the tough winter Maryland experienced.  I was mainly interested in getting some racing data to get an idea of where my fitness was.  I found out.  The Hagerstown duathlon is a sprint basically, 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, followed by a final 5k run.

It was a pretty good day weather wise.  Cool and calm winds.  Since the race is short I started warming up 30 minutes before the race went off.  I got up a good sweat and when the gun went off I was nicely warmed up.  Maybe too nicely warmed up, I went out at a 6:30 pace!  Luckily I had NOT forgotten my Garmin and I realized I need to quickly reign in the pace or my legs would be jelly by the second run.  I eased my pace back to a very respectable (considering my lack of run mileage) 7:45 per mile.  I finished the first 2 miles in 14:21.

I didn't feel too bad after that effort and I was really looking forward to getting on my bike.  I ditched my shoes, and had my bike shoes already clipped into the pedal and did my first flying mount of the season.  I took 5 or 6 pedal strokes to get up to speed, and then eased my feet into my shoes.  You make a tight right hand turn and you are out on the bike course.  My bike strategy was to ride at my functional threshold power for the entire ride.  I also wanted to break 30 minutes for the bike if possible, even though I knew the last 3 miles would make that tough.  I was feeling pretty good, and started to feel really good when I went through the 5 mile mark in 14:30!  I was 30 seconds ahead of my dream pace (my actual goal time was 31:00).   Just after the 6 mile mark, a guy in my age group, passed me.  This is always a challenge for me.  I decided since it was the first race of the year I was going to push a bit and stay with him.  We spent the next 4 miles trading passes and about a 1/2 mile from T2 he pulled ahead for good.  He didn't get so far ahead of me that I couldn't see him so I just kept him in my sites.

I zipped through T2 in 55 seconds and caught sight of the guy who had passed me.  I ran past him about a 1/2 mile into the run.  Despite this I was no longer feeling so great.  My legs were getting heavy, my muscles were starting to feel like they could cramp at any moment.  So now I had to pay for all that lack of running.  I downed as much Gatorade as I could at the next rest stop then set about just trying to hang on and not feel to bad.  I was now running about an 8:35 pace, give or take 5 seconds.  I was just looking for the mile to go marker, which meant I would only have to survive another 8 minutes or so.  I was in survival mode and just wanted to maintain my pace when I heard footsteps.  Crap, someone in my age group was trying to catch me.  Much as I hated to, I increased my pace.  The footsteps got a bit louder, I had about 1/4 mile to go.  I picked it up a bit more.  The footsteps seemed to quiet a bit.  I could see the finish banner now.  At that point, I just kicked for the line with everything I had.  As a crossed the line, I turned around to see the footsteps turning the last corner, I had managed to hold off his charge.

I finished with a very respectable time (about a minute slower than last year's best, but a better bike time).  There were some FAST old guys in my age group though.  I finished a respectable 6th in my age group and left with the realization that a lot more running was in my future.

Later that day my calves started complaining.  This normally would not alarm me, but I was scheduled to start a 6 day training camp the next day.  I was starting to think this training camp would be way more interesting than the race.......... see my next post for the gory details....

Keep training ......

Peace

Robert