Quakerman Duathlon

This is where it all began for me last year. With a fresh new bike I set out, having no idea what to expect. This race hooked me to strive to become something that resembles a multi-sport athlete. So, needless to say, I needed to come back this year for a visit.

I had kept my eye on the registration list over the past couple of weeks, gauging the competition, trying to predict how I might finish. I didn't recognize too strong a field and felt as though I had a decent chance to win. Then on the way to the race this morning, my wife checked the list again, and notified me that Cameron Townsend was racing as well. Cameron is head and shoulders above the rest of the competitors that typically enter duathlons, myself included. With sub-6 minute/mile running paces and 25mph+ bike speeds, he is a formidable opponent. Last year, at this event, he soundly beat me by over 15 minutes. This had become a race for 2nd place.

The first leg, a two mile run (sprint), quickly got underway and sure enough Cameron and a few other got away. I kept my cadence high and worked it as much as I dared, trying to not blow it all right away. I entered transition in 6th place, 12:07/6:04 pace.

Yesterday, I worked on improving my transition time, by leaving my bike shoes on the pedals the whole time. Feeling comfortable enough, I decided to try it in this race. I typically have a transition time around :45, so I was pleased with :37. This helped me exit transition in 3rd place, only about :10 behind second place. 1st place (Cameron) was out of transition just as I entered.

The bike...I love it!! I can go fast, usually faster than most of the competition. I credit this to good gear, a better set up and my weekly time trial racing. I caught the 2nd place racer within the 1st mile and now I was just racing to put as much of a gap between myself and the racers behind me to help for the final run. 22 miles later, I had the 2nd fastest bike time, 53:56/24.5 mph. I also established a 3 minute lead on the 3rd place rider.

Another good transition, :37, that new strategy took about :20 of my total transition time from my last race.

2nd run...always my nemesis. My times typically fall off here and today wasn't any different. Most races that I do, only have a 3 mile run at the end, this one was 4. I pushed as hard as I could and finished the 4 miles in 27:39/6:55 pace. I only gave back about :19 to the 3rd place runner. Overall I had the 7th best final run.

Overall, I finished 2nd out of 43, 1 out of 5 in my age group. 5:30 behind the leader. I'll take these results, as I have made a big stride closer to what I consider the best in the area and I am demonstrating some strong bike work. I'm still lacking in the run, especially the 2nd, though in this race, even the best 2nd run time would't have snagged the victory for me.

Next week, Tri in the Buff Duathlon. 5K run, 40K bike, 5K run. Both Cameron and the athlete that I came 2nd to in Keuka will be there, along with all of the other usual suspects. Should be a tough one!

Keuka Lake Duathlon

After a decent week of taper, I was ready for my first attempt at the Keuka Lake Duathlon. Nice weather today, about 65 at the start overcast, but the sun came out mid-race. Not too much wind, overall mostly ideal.

5K run, 22K bike, 5K run.

My plan today was to stay in the 6:45/mile pace for the first 5K, hammer the bike hard and empty the tank in the 2nd run, hoping for the best.

The run course was a mostly flat out and back. I was able to hang in there with a 20:35/6:37 and entered transition in 4th place. The leader was about 2 minutes ahead of me at this point. T1 time: 55sec. Not that great.

Once, I got on the bike it was on! I felt like I was flying and I passed the 3rd place and 2nd place runners shortly into the bike leg. The course had a couple of decent climbs and nice, fast descents. I averaged 22.5mph and entered T2 in 2nd place. After a 44 second transition, I set out on the final run, with the leader in sight. I was about :50 behind and gaining! We hit the final turn and I was about 30 seconds or so behind. Then he turned on the afterburners and left me in the dust. Ugh! That combined with my rapidly slowing pace, ended up finishing with a 2 minute deficit. Still good enough to hold on solidly for 2nd place.

Overall, I was satisfied with my efforts. My bike was strong and my second run is getting better. I still need to get my run down in both the 1st and 2nd legs, but I guess this will come with training. I can also use some improvement in my transitions, maybe leave my shoes attached to the bike? Seeing the victory in front of my eyes, only to let it run away, is only going to serve to motivate me train harder and dig deeper.

Connections Duathlon

Will we ever get to spring? All week long my darling wife kept checking the weather forecast for today. Snow, rain, 30's, 40's, 50's, sun, clouds, wind, etc.

Anyway, this morning we woke up to strong winds and a wind warning, great! Another perfect WNY race day.

I chose this race to replace the 6hr Ultra I was going to do today. I guess I made a good trade, 1hr vs. 6hrs in this crap.

This was a bit different from past duathlons I've competed in; only one run, which meant we all started on the bike. They started us out in waves of 15, I was in the 4th wave out of 6 or 7. These waves were set up based on when you registered, so there was quite a mixture of racers in my wave, from full tri bikes to modified street bikes to hybrid touring bikes. One girl wasn't even wearing a helmet, duh!

The bike portion (advertised as a 14-mile route) actually only measured 13 miles, per my GPS watch. It consisted of a steady, but mild climb up for the first 6 miles or so against the wind and a nice downhill with the wind for the second half. I was really able to fly down the decline, and finished the bike leg in 36:40 (21.3 mph pace, maxed out at 34.4mph.)

My transition was an acceptable :40, inspired by the voice of my wife, "Run fast! It's cold out!!"

The run was along the Lake Erie waterfront, with the first 1.5 miles directly away from the wind. This was helpful getting my running legs under me, but dreadful making the turning. I simply held on for the last 1.5 trying to gut it out and keep my feet moving. I finished the 5K in 22:43/7:21 pace. I'm not super excited by this pace, but considering the elements, I guess I'll take it.

All in all: 1:00:03 (timing had me at 1:00:19 and 1 second out of 4th, grrrr). 5/65 overall, 1/4 in my age group.

The race itself was pretty well organized. I thought that the start might be a bit chaotic, because of the bike start, but they actually pulled it off quite well with the wave start. Unfortunately, this wave start threw the usually reliable and fast Score This Timing a loop and we had to wait for almost 2hrs for results. Other than that, a nice race. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone trying their first duathlon.

Wilson Wet and Wild Duathlon

Race Day! Perfect day, mid-70's, sun, low humidity, tiny breeze. Course, flat and fast (well for some people.)

My goal for this race was quite simple, win. The usual "big shots" were not there, so I figured I had a decent chance. Boy was I WRONG!

Run 1 (1.7 miles): A short out and back along the park roads, with two tiny but steepish hills. I went out strong and felt decent, until the end of the first mile. Then something went just horribly wrong. My energy...GONE! Uh oh...Heart rate was incredibly high, peaked at 223 (if this is even possible) and averaged 192. Something was very wrong (way too high for the beginning of a race.) 1st mile finished at 7:12, .7 at 7:43/pace. I finished Run 1 in 12:34 in 10th place. I was okay with this though, as I knew my strength was definitely in the bike.

T1: :45, eh, okay, I guess, nothing to be too proud of, but I was looking forward to making up some time on the bike.

Bike: (18.6 miles): A very flat course, with only a couple of rolling "bumps". I felt good here, but I held back thinking ahead to the final run. I certainly did not push to my limit, as I had in past races. I finished the bike portion in 53:05/21.0mph, 3rd best bike time, I'm generally pleased with this, but I may have made a mistake here. I certainly could have gained at least a couple of more minutes if I pushed, but really was not sure what was going on with my body. My heart rate was still all over the place, averaging 189BPM (I typically don't average much over 155 on the bike even when going all out.)

T2: :47, not happy with this, I actually stopped ran back to grab my hat, stupid! Regardless of this, I came out of transition in 3rd place, 2 minutes behind 2nd place and 1:30 ahead of 4th.

Run 2 (3.1 miles): Picture this, 18-wheeler cruising down the highway, tires flying off one at a time, and then crashing head on into a brick wall and exploding into a giant fireball. I was running, but I was truly gone. I hoped, in vain, to just be able to run fast enough to hold off the charging racers behind me. Alas, this was not the case, and I fell to 7th. I ran this 5K in 29:07/9:23 pace (ugh!)

Finishing Time: 1:36:21 (7th of 26) My previously chosen "target" who beat me in the Quakerman and then I returned the favor at Tri in the Buff, won and destroyed me by over 7 minutes.

What happened? Well, in a word NUTRITION. I ate like crap all week, while on vacation and it really caught up with me. I started a new way of eating after Memorial Day and it seemed to work quite well; lots of energy, decent weight loss, and improvements in runs and bike races. I'll get more into the specifics in a future blog. However, this week I fell back into the crap routine and paid for it. Lesson learned.

Tri in the Buff Duathlon

Another great race day. I was very excited for this day, being my 2nd duathlon in as many weeks. Still on my high from placing last week, I went in hoping for another good performance. The big competition were two men who have competed at the national level and qualified for the world duathlon championships. I had no intention in beating them today, but I was gunning for "best of the rest". A total of 30 athletes registered for this race, but only 18 finished with a time.

Today's course was slightly longer than last week's; 5K run, 40K bike, 5K run.

Run 1: My goal was not to start out too fast. I was aiming for 7:30 splits. I did head out a bit faster for the first mile, but reigned it in for the 2nd and 3rd. I entered the transition area in 7th place.

Mileage: 3.12
Time/Pace: 23:04/7:24
Splits: 7:14, 7:30, 7:29
Elevation Gain: 32 ft
Avg HR: 161

T1: :59, not thrilled about this and came out of the transition area in 8th. Also, I forgot to grab my Cliff Shots that I had laid out, so no fuel for me during the bike. I was worried on how I'd hold up.

Bike: I love the bike. I feel like I'm just flying. The course was two loops with a decent hill halfway through for a total of 25 miles. Plenty of downhill as well. I push as hard as I can with a fast cadence until my legs can't burn anymore, before I gear down. I caught and passed all of those ahead of me except for the "two studs". I was the 4th fastest bike time (3rd fastest apparently dropped out before the end).

Mileage: 25.05
Time/Avg Sp/Top Sp: 1:11:02/21.1/31.9
Elevation Gain: 404ft
Avg HR:156

T2: :52, slightly better, but again (WHOA!) wobbly legs. I did remember to grab my Cliff Shots and ate all three packs during my final run.

Run 2: Goal here was to get under 8:00/mile, if possible. My legs definitely were beat and I fell a bit short of this. 4th best run and good enough to hang on to third.

Mileage: 3.09
Time/Pace: 24:54/8:02
Splits: 7:50, 8:11, 8:13
Elevation Gain: 32
Avg HR: 161

Total: 2:00:52

The Battle for Third
Last week, I missed 3rd overall by about 1:30 to the overall female winner. As my luck would have it, she was racing again today, so I set my sights on beating her (I knew I had no realistic chance on tracking down the other two.) I finished the first run about :21 ahead of her, but she had a much better T1, which put us neck and neck getting on the bike. I was able to open it up and grab a :35 lead going into T2. She gained again in T2, another :09, so I had to hang on to a razor thin :24 going into the final 5K. I was able to hold off her late charge, as she was only able to trim :04 off of my lead, coming in :26 behind me. I'm sure she had no idea this battle was going on, but for me it was truly motivating, so my hats off to her!

So, for the second week in a row, I've won something!! I again didn't stick around for the awards (had to show an apartment), but they will be shipping. I'll snap a pic for all of you when I get it.

Quakerman Duathlon

My first duathlon...I had no idea what to expect, but I sure was charged up to start. I set some general goals, run 7:30/splits and bike at a pace between 20-25 MPH. Other than that, go as hard as I could, as long as I could.

Run 1 (2 Miles, I measured 1.99): 14:25 ( 7:13, 7:12), I was totally amped up and just went with it. I was thinking wow this would be a great pace to finish with! 10th fastest time.

T1: :59, thought I could have moved a bit faster here, but had to walk as soon as I entered. This was a bit confusing, because at the pre-race meeting we were told we could run until we grabbed our bikes. I had my shoes open and ready to receive my feet, bike helmet on my handlebars with straps out. Slight issue locking in my left pedal, but I think I just was anxious to hit the road.

Bike (22 Miles, I measured 20.86): 57:40/Avg Sp 21.7/Top Sp 29.9, pretty nice bike course, some rolling hills, but nothing too challenging. There were some traffic control issues and on this two lap course, I actually missed a turn. It wasn't clearly marked and didn't have flaggers like the rest of the turns. I guess I should have studied the road map better, my fault. I had one of the triathletes that kept me a bit of company and that helped quite a bit. Have I mentioned how much I love my bike? It's so smooth and I feel as though I get so much power out of it, even after only three weeks. In the second lap most of the big time triathletes zipped by me with their full aero bikes. (Sigh) During the bike I took in two servings of Clif Shots (about 200 calories) We didn't get to ride right up to the transition area, so the little run in my bike shoes on somewhat jelly legs was awkward to say the least. I finished the bike with the 2nd fastest time. Nice!

T2: :52 Wow...I found out suddenly that I really kicked my ass on the bike. I knew I was pushing hard, but didn't realize how hard. Legs were very wobbly getting out of the transition area, but I did.

Run 2 (4 Miles, I measured 3.94): 32:57 (8:06, 8:09, 8:30, 8:10) I knew right off the bat that I was not going to get to 7:30 splits. It was all I could do now to target 8:00/mile. The run out of the transition area was a slight downhill a a pretty "rooty" path, not very good for jelly legs. Then a slight uphill, before winding through a quiet, nicely shaded (thank God!) residential area. The race officials handled traffic and directions well. I was just about completely spent at mile 3 and was running on shear will power. I refused to stop running, knowing that if I did, I wouldn't be able to start again. In some ways it reminded me of my first marathon right around mile 23. Anyway....finished this leg in the 10th fastest time.


Add it all up and what do you get?!?

Total Time: 1:45:55

Overall: 4 out of 35, 3 out of 33 men, 1 out of 2 in my age group


This seems impressive for me, but I have to remember that the studs of the day did the triathlon not the duathlon, so I won't take TOO MUCH stock in this place. I didn't stick around for awards, so I don't know if I won anything. I won't complain too much if I get something.


Now on to my race review...


Overall, I think this race went off smoothly, especially for it's second time and the fact that the race director had some vehicle issues on his final course ride through prior to the start. The transition area was monitored well, packet pick up was easy, and there was a decent crowd on the course with tons of volunteers.


What could be improved? I think the timing was a bit messed up. I clocked myself at 1:45:55, but the time on the website was 1:46:56, almost exactly a minute off. There wasn't a gun start, just a lady counting down and saying "GO!" when we were supposed to start. I can imagine that starting two different events (duathlon and triathlon) at two locations at the same time must be tough, but I think a gun or horn would have taken care of this. I had one slightly irritating moment that I didn't discover until my second time around the bike loop, during the first loop I missed a turn. All of the other turns had very helpful people pointing the way. In the second loop I got the right turn, because the flag person was actually there. Hopefully, I didn't add too much time to my ride and I had a few others that were around me that made the same mistake. Again, the race director must have worked tirelessly to get all of this together, one suggestion...never ask a crowd of over 300 people if they have any questions after you review the rules and right before you start!

And lastly, I rewarded myself with this tasty treat....can anyone identify it?!?

Look Mom! No Socks!!

That's right! No socks. Why? Well, yesterday I purchased a pair of triathlon shoes (pictured) and I guess the deal is you don't wear socks because of the swim and a quicker transition. Also, the don't have any ties, just a pull string to tighten up, if neccessary. I'm not quite ready for a tri yet, but I am doing a duathlon this weekend, so I felt as though I should give these a shot.

The plan today was to run 2, bike 20, run 2 to simulate a duathlon. The transition setup wasn't the best, I had to walk through the hotel lobby to the back where I put my bike and then back out. Didn't do too bad though.

Here's the stats:

Run 1
Mileage: 2.02
Time/Pace: 17:26/8:38
Avg HR: 140

T1: 1:02

Bike
Mileage: 20.03
Time/Av Sp/Top Sp: 59:44/20.1/34.4
Avg HR: 146

T2: :58

Run 2
Mileage: 2.00
Time/Pace: 15:50/7:55
Avg HR: 155

Whew! Pretty pleased with this overall. Running and biking without socks wasn't too bad. The shoes are pretty comfortable, I wonder how they will hold up over a longer run.