Hagerstown Duathlon #1

Well the first race of the season snuck up on me!  I was sick for a good part of February and my son decided to share the flu with me, so I missed a bit of early March as well.  As luck would have it, my family was scheduled to go on vacation near the end of March and I got a much needed rest and some great open water swimming in while vacationing in Barbados!  Unfortunately, we had to return back to the cold northeast, but when I got back I was rested and relaxed.  I dove into training with vim and vigor, but I knew I was a bit short of training due to illness.  I decided to race my first duathlon of the season as best I could but I had no real expectations of a great result.

The Hagerstown duathlon is a sprint duathlon consisting of a 1.9 mile run, 10 mile bike and 5k second run.  It's a fast course.  It has now been added to the USAT duathlon series, which in addition to giving some props to duathlon, also attracted a stronger field.  The increased competition is great and makes it all the more challenging to have a podium finish.

The weather started off cool, but warmed up nicely by the time the race started.  I positioned myself in the front of the field and made sure to check everyone's calves for numbers between 50 and 54.

Run #1

The race started off fast, my plan was to run a conservative 7:30 per mile pace and try to keep the competition has close as possible.  However, there were a number of racers in my age group clearly running sub 7 minute miles.  It was tempting to try and pick up the pace and stay with them, but I stuck to my race plan and kept a conservative 7:26 pace (clock time said I ran faster but I swear by my watch!).  I came into transition in 7th or 8th place.

I had an uneventful T1, I was just trying to focus on picking off age groupers on the bike.

Bike

I had the full TT rig for this race, featuring my new PowerTap P1 pedals for transmitting my power data.  I had set a goal of riding the 10 miles @100% of FTP.  This should not have been to hard since I anticipated the whole bike portion would take 30 minutes or less.  I set a goal of 100% FTP for the 10 mile course and I totally nailed it.  Maybe when I re-visit this course in the fall I will shoot for 102%.  The bike course really didn't take too much out of my legs (it is fairly flat with just a few sections to climb) and has some slightly downhill sections where you can really push the big ring.  I managed to work my way up to 6th place on the bike and I could see a gaggle of people in my age group maybe 30 seconds up the rode, but I could never get any closer than that.  Seems they were pushing the pace as well.  Just as I got into T2, I saw one of my age group rivals who I race against frequently still in transition.  I figured with a good T2 I might have a shot at catching him.

T2 was equally uneventful. I switched shoes, ditched the helmet and got out of there.

Run #2

I ran out of transition hoping to catch a few more people (I was still dreaming of the podium) about 1/4 of a mile out of T2 I caught my first rival, thanks to latching onto the heals of a young lady who paced me like she was my own personal rabbit!  I was now in 5th place and hoping to move up.  As I ran downhill toward the turn-around I saw 2 other racers in my age group.  They were at least a minute ahead and did not appear to be waiting for me.  I had to accept the reality that this was as close as I was going to get.  I still kept a good pace as I approached the finish, always weary that someone might be trying to catch me too.  My goal was to run as close to 7:45 per mile as possible and I ended up running 7:40 per mile and running a personal best 2nd run on the course by 10 seconds.  I missed a race PR by 20 seconds but considering I am rarely in my best form this early in the season I am cautiously optimistic.

All things considered, a great way to start the season.  It was all the more enjoyable since one of the women I coach made the podium. I feel a sense of accomplishment, even if I didn't get a chance to stand up there with her.  My next race is 4 weeks out and I already feel good about it.  Check back in a month's time for the full story!

Peace and good training!

Coach Rob