Flashback post for Duathlon National Championships

This is my version of a flashback episode, the kind on TV where they show you the ending first and then work backwards to show how they got there.  Why would I set up a post this way?  Good question.  The answer is I want to get to the conclusion right away before circling back to the issues that came up along the way.

Duathlon Age Group  National Championships

When I first heard that the Duathlon national championships were being held in St. Paul, MN, I got really excited.  First of all, I really enjoyed duathlons – no swimming!  Second, St. Paul is only about a 5 hour drive from my house and most of my wife’s family lives in the Twin Cities area.  Signing up for this race seemed like a great idea at the time of registration.

While that last sentence sounds ominous, the race actually went really well.  I ended up with a 2^nd place finish in my age-group and a 7^th place finish overall.  My results were good enough to qualify me for a spot on Team USA for the Duathlon World Championships next year in Australia.  I still haven’t made up my mind about that yet – I would love to go and compete as part of Team USA, however travel expenses for a race in Australia are a little outside my budget.  As for this race, the course started off with a 2.86 mile run, 19.39 mile bike and finally ended with a 2.73 mile run because of course modifications due to recent flooding along the Mississippi River.

Run #1 started off fast!  I lined up in the second row of runners and started well, however I was quickly pasted by about 10 more runners.  Often times in a race, people start out fast and then fade, but not this group.  This field of competitors was made up of the fastest duathletes from around the country. Despite me running pretty much exactly what I planned, I still finished the first run in 22^nd place.  Time: 15:13, run pace 5:19.

I wasn’t sure how the bike leg would go.  As you’ll read below, my bike ride the day before wasn’t very good so I wasn’t sure what kind of legs I would have on this morning.  To make matters worse, the bike course was just awful!  There was a ~ 150 yard run from the end of the transition area to where you could mount your bike, by far the longest distance I’ve had to run with my bike.  And the roads were covered in pot holes and uneven pavement.  I actually hit a pretty big pothole right after mounting my bike causing my water bottle to bounce out of its holder…now I had nothing to drink for the entire bike section.  Everyone had to deal with these roads though, there were plenty of crashes and spills, so I’m not going to complain about losing a water bottle.  Overall I think I had a good bike portion; I was very strong on the climbs and continually passed people, however I was too cautious on the descents (did I mention the crashes and spills?) and ended up getting passes by multiple riders.  I will need to work on that, but my bike section was still the 12^th fastest overall on the day.  Time: 49:01, bike speed 23.7 mph (this time includes run from transition exit to bike mounting line).

Run #2 felt great.  Leaving transition, I took a quick look back and didn’t see anyone following me.  I knew I could relax a bit; not that I didn’t run hard, I just didn’t have to worry about someone running me down right then.  I still went out and ran as hard as I could but I was feeling pretty happing knowing that I wouldn’t have to fight it out during the final run.  Turns out I was still able to post the 9^th fastest 2^nd run.  Time: 15:01, run pace 5:30.

Overall I was very happy with my results.  My total time was 1:20:20 which as I said put me 2^nd in my age-group and 7^th overall (full results here ).  I spent the rest of the weekend in a much better mood then the way I started it, as you’ll read below.

Leading up to the race

(Queue the flash back montage!)

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a control freak.  I know exactly how I like to prepare, what I like to eat, how much sleep I need and so on.  However I spent the week before this race at a ski resort in Maine attending a conference on drug resistance (I’m a microbiologist first and athlete second).  While the conference itself was good for those who have an interest in that sort of thing, the week spent attending the conference did not lend itself well to preparing for this race.  I didn’t sleep or eat well (buffets every meal are not a good idea for someone who likes to eat!), however I felt like I trained the best I could while in Maine.  Initially I thought I would only be able to run while at the conference, but I was actually able to rent a road bike one day and go out for a nice ride.  But the worst part by far was the travel.  Since the conference didn’t end until the day before the race, I basically had to fly directly from Maine to packet pickup in St. Paul (along with a 2 hour layover in New York).  All of this together left me very stressed out and crabby when I met my family at the airport – and I continued in this mood all the way until race morning.

My wife was already in St. Paul when my plane landed.  She drove up a couple days early to visit her family and was able to bring all of my gear, including my bike.  As soon as we checked into our hotel I went out for a ride to stretch my legs after being on a plane most of the day.  In short, my bike ride sucked!  My average speed was almost 4 mph slower than normal and it wasn’t because I was trying to take it easy.  I just didn’t have it in me after all of the travelling.  This sent my stress and crabbiness levels even higher.  Convinced something was wrong with my bike, I spent much of the night before the race sitting in my hotel room tinkering with my bike.  When I was done playing mechanic – which I don’t play well – my brakes were all messed up.  Way to go Tim!  Fortunately real mechanics were available at the transition area before the race to undo all of the wrong I did.

In my next post, I want to go into a couple issues that really presented themselves for this race.  Those issues are:  1) traveling to a race where extended family lives and 2) the pressure I put on myself before each race.  I’m really curious if other people react the same way I do, or if I’m just crazy. 

Training when life gets in the way

I haven’t really had any races lately, so I thought it would be a good idea to really try and push myself  by either increasing the endurance (how long) or the intensity (how fast) of my training.  That plan worked well for about a week before life took the priority over training.

Week 1:  Keep pushing until you crack.

I’m not sure if “professional” coaches would recommend this, but I wanted to really push myself in training until I cracked – the point where I had to quit.  Obviously I didn’t want to injure myself, but I did want to see how far I could push myself before I had to stop.  So during the week I went hard.  Lots of tempo runs, intervals on the bike and brick workouts where I would bike hard and then immediately run.  Monday through Friday I was able to meet every challenge but Saturday I finally cracked.  The plan was a 50 mile bike ride with a lot of hills, followed by an 8 mile run at 10K pace (approximately 5:40 min/mile).  Apparently this was my limit because I cracked on the run – at the 7 mile mark I couldn’t go any further.  I was trying to crack and accomplished my weekly goal however I was upset the rest of the day because I was so close to completing the entire workout.   Even though I couldn’t finish, I ended up with my biggest training week of the year:  Bike: > 200 miles; run: > 30 miles; swim: > 2 miles; time: > 13 hours.  

Week 2:  Travel keeps me off my bike.

I had to travel to Boston for work for the better part of this week which I knew would mess up my schedule.  It meant I wouldn’t be able to ride much and would have to find other ways to work out without my bike (in other words, mainly running and swimming if I could).  First of all, let’s just say I don’t know how people in big cities manage to do any sort of endurance workouts.  Even at 5:30 am, it was difficult running outside in Boston.  There is so much traffic and the fact that you have to slow down or stop basically every block really makes it hard to get into a rhythm.  One day I was able to find a nice park with about a 2 mile loop that I could run repeats of, however the rest of the time I was stuck in the hotel fitness center.  This basically means beat down treadmills, spin classes and a 50 ft. (about 17 meter) swimming pool.  Needless to say, not the most inspiring set up.

Week 3:  Single dad and more travel, plus a hometown 5K.

I’m not a single dad; in fact I have a very accommodating wife who allows and encourages me to spend all of this time and money doing triathlons and other sports.  Unfortunately though, no less than 4 hours after I returned home from Boston, my wife had to leave unexpectedly for 3 days.  This meant that I had 3 days of “training” while being the only one home with my kids…so much for getting back in a good routine after my Boston trip.  But I did what all good parents do that want time to themselves, I let the kids watch a bunch of cartoons while I rode my trainer and ran on the treadmill!  It was after I finished on one of those days that the kids confessed they got bored and raided the kitchen pantry.  Their “snack” consisted of oatmeal bars, crackers and cheese sticks.  The next day I tried to get in a swim at the beach.  This time I had them sit on the beach and read a book while I swam intervals, stopping every 2 minute so I could look up and check on them.  I was only able to hang in there for about 12 minutes (6 intervals!) before deciding it was a workout with diminishing returns.  After that, I decided to just stop trying to workout and enjoy my time with the kids until my wife came home.

My wife returned just in time for a planned visit to Illinois where we were going camping over the Fourth of July weekend and visit with family.  My wife, kids and I ended up racing a 5K in my hometown along with a cousin of mine (thanks Kevin Rudkin!).  It was a good time and I was actually really pleased with my time (17:09; 5:24 pace according to my GPS), but I was anxious to get home and return to a set schedule, not to mention sleep in my own bed. 

No matter how hard you try to keep a set schedule when training, you sometimes just run into a stretch like the past 3 weeks for me where you can’t control things.  I was able to get in one really good week, but then life just got crazy and you have to realize training can’t always be your top priority (this was difficult for me to admit, trust me).  Of course it’s easier to say that now since I didn’t have a race during this time, which will not be the case a couple weeks from now.  I have more traveling to do for work and this time I have a race the day after flying home.  I’m not sure how I’m going to handle that – being off my bike for a week and then having to race it the day after coming home is kind of freaking me out.  But I guess I’ll just have to get in as much quality training now and hope for the best, right?  I’ll let you know in my next post how that plan works out.

No, there was no venison for dinner…

  I’ll confess that this isn’t my first version of this blog post, which is why it’s now a week overdue.   I originally started this with a long, somewhat angry rant about how a deer ran out in front of me early one morning and caused me to crash.  I was mad – at the deer, at the condition of my now crashed bike…and maybe a little bit ticked at my wife for not answering the phone when I called for a ride home while bruised and bloody on the side of the road – but mostly at the deer.  Of course everyone I told thought it was the funniest thing in the world…have you ever hit a deer at 25 mph while riding your bike? “Funny” is not how I would describe it.  “I guess you’re having venison for dinner?” they would joke.  No, the deer ran off into the woods probably laughing at me crumpled on the ground.  Oh well, on to better things…

  I had another race this past week, the 2nd event in the Scheel’s Duathlon Series.  In the first duathlon of the series I finished third overall, coming in behind two professionals.  I knew the winner of that first race wouldn’t be participating in this time, leaving just one professional (Jeff Paul) to focus on.  I never realistically thought I would beat him, but it was more realistic to beat one pro instead of two, right?  I arrived at the race site earlier than normal – thank you kids for not complaining about waking up at 5:30 am on a Sunday (during summer break too!).  I set up my transition area and then moved off to the side.  Again, I’m not a big talker before the race.  I like to warm up briefly and then try to focus on the race and work up my confidence.  My wife and kids are great cheerleaders for me, but I’m not yet to the point where I expect to do well when I arrive at a race. After a few last minute instructions, we all lined up and waited for the start.

Run 1:  The opening run was just over 2 miles and fairly flat.  I started up front and within a mile it was just me and Jeff Paul leading the pack.  I don’t think either of us was going all out and he seemed content just to run with me.  We came into transition right with each other, me 1 second ahead thanks to the inside track.  Run time: 10:59; run pace 5:19 min/mile; run split = 1st. 

Bike:  I was taught a lesson here.  Coming off the run, I had a smooth transition onto my bike and had taken over the lead about 0.5 miles in.  But then by the 1 mile mark, the lead was mine no more.  I hear, “Nice job!” as a Jeff Paul bicycle blur blew past me.  Within another mile, he was far enough ahead of me that I knew the only time I’d see him again was at the turnaround points.  The way this 20 mile bike course was set up, we had 3 separate 180° turns after a 5 mile segment.  While I hate 180° turns on my bike (it kills your average speed and can be dangerous if you’re in a crowd), I do like that you can keep tabs on where the other racers are.  At each turn, I fell further and further back of first.  Going into the final 5 miles on the bike, I was a little over 2 minutes back.  But on the bright side, I was about a minute and a half up on the racer behind me.  Bike time: 48:10; bike speed 24.9 mph; bike split = 3rd. 

Run 2:  This was a repeat of the opening run, with a small increase in distance due to the placement of the finish line.  Coming off my bike and starting my run, my wife told me I was about 2 – 3 minutes back of the leader.  I pretty much gave up hope of winning the race at that point – there was no way to make up that much time with only 2+ miles of running.  Oh well.  Since I was “comfortably” in 2nd place, my only goal was to get into a good rhythm and run a steady pace.  The run went by quickly and uneventfully; I couldn’t see anyone in front of me or behind.  As I approached the finish line I charged hard and actually finished with something still left in the tank.  Run time: 11:39; run pace 5:38 min/mile; run split = 2nd. 

Finish line:  This was a really fun race and I was really excited to take 2nd place overall.  My total time was 1:11:38; a link to the race results can be found at Iowa City Duathlon Results.  With this still being just the start of my 2nd season of bike racing, I’m not discouraged at all that Jeff Paul has twice this year destroyed me on the bike portion of these duathlons.  If anything, I guess it tells me where I need to improve if I want to start hanging with talented competitors like these.  I love competing with athletes like this because it really motivates me to push harder.  However there is a line I won’t cross.  While others left the race to get in an additional workout, what did I do?  I went to get ice cream!!