I did the Mt. Rainer Duathlon in 2013 and had a great race. Back then it was also the National Duathlon championship. Since the only person in my age group which was faster also was the overall winner he got the overall reward and the age group title rolled down to me. Needless to say the race today didn’t go THAT well. I did a decent performance but fitness wise I’m at a different level.
The lead up to the race wasn’t ideal, 9 days before the race I was destroyed in bed with a fever. I skipped a whole bunch of workouts and only had a few easy recovery workouts in the last few days leading up to the race. While I finally thought that I was back in training mode and making progress this sickness certainly dampened my motivation.
Sunday rolled around and despite that race not having any real importance to me I woke up many times and had restless sleep. Apparently, I was more nervous about the race and if I was well enough to race than I was admitting to myself. The race plan called for a 6:10-6:15min/mile for the first run. Bike was best effort for the duration and then again for the 2nd run.
Run 1:
Once the race started 5 people where quickly upfront and I was wondering if I should go along. I decided against it and went with my own pace slowly loosing distance on them. I ran the first mile a little on the fast side just under 6min. On person who was initially leading the pack fell back and was a mere 50 yards in front of me. Since we were running into the wind I decided to burn a match and close the gap. I drafted that guy for a while but noticed that we were loosing speed. Not before long I had to go around him and lead myself. I didn’t look back and ran by myself the next few miles back to transition. Since I did this race before I only briefly studied the course for the turns. I completely forgot all the hills which were much tougher than I remembered. I recalled that last time I was running with a guy who was running in the lead pack, but today it was simple not in my cards to run with them. I finished the first run in 32:23 which is an 6:21min/mile pace. This was 15 seconds a mile slower than in 2013. (Avg HR: 182bpm)
T1:
I had a quick transition but noticed that I forgot to change my watch to Multisport and hand to change the setting by hand to the next sport.
Bike:
I could not believe that I had problems with my bike computer again as two years ago. Crazy, I can’t recall having that problem anywhere else. The screen would turn on and just say working. Oh well not much I could do besides turn it off and on a couple times until 10min into the race it finally turned on.
I had a hard time to push hard. I got a new bike fit and the new position still takes some time getting used to but I also felt as if I had now power. The bike was quite different compared to 2013, It was lonely. I didn’t see anybody for the longest time until I started overtaking people who did the short course. Once I reached the climb I remembered from the blog from 2013 that it took me 8min to climb the hill. So I set my mind on roughly 8min of climbing and kept the effort just below 300watts. On the climb eventually two people overtook me. I tried to go with them but slowly but certainly lost on them. The downhill was fast and less sketchy than last time since I only had to overtake a few slower people from the short course. I wasn’t excited to start my 2nd loop but at least I had confidence that I could keep up that effort. Another guy passed me but then a little later took a wrong turn, the police man called after him so not sure what was going on, but I didn’t see him anymore. (this was on the 2nd loop so he surely knew the course) The 2nd climb felt almost easier, it didn’t seem to bother me and before long I was on top. Since I was struggling with the new bike position I forced myself to ride aero while riding into the wind on top of the hill and I mostly did. It wasn’t easy, and despite it being a comparatively short bike (if compared to Ironman) I was ready to get off the bike. Another guy overtook me just before the downhill but I decided to stay with him (legal following distance) and overtook him just before transition. Which meant I was in 8th place. (Avg HR: 162bpm)
I was not too happy with my bike. Aside from that my power numbers were much lower I didn’t like it how uncomfortable I felt and that I couldn’t push myself harder. Especially the first 20min on the bike I felt very sluggish.
T2:
Again futzing with my watch to change the sport to running. I also kept an eye on the other guy in transition, but I was out first.
Run 2:
Heading out for Run #2 (still futzing with the watch)
I was hopping that some of the people in front of me would fade and couldn’t run another fast run. So I focused on my own run quick short steps and settle in at a fast pace. I was quickly back to my 6:10min/mile and saw a few people in front of me. The distances were substantial and I knew that I could not close them just by running faster. I also noticed that the next guy behind me was farther back. So my main focus was to keep pushing and run the fastest time I could. I was closing in on the people in front of me but not fast enough. While I struggled on the bike and wasn’t in a great mood, the run felt decent. I was suffering but had confidence that I could finish at the pace and was just pushing on.
I finished the 2nd run in 23:07 with a pace of 6:05min/mile. (Avg HR: 177bpm)
Again interesting to see that despite the HR being 5 beats lower, the pace 16sec/mile faster.
Result:
The final time was 2:22:03 which is almost 5min slower than in 2013. I lost a little over one minute on the first run and 3.5min on the bike. 2nd run was about the same.
I came in 4th in my age group and missed the podium by 30 seconds. That was a disappointment. That was the first local race in a long time where I didn’t make the podium.
Thinking about the race and how I was able to push both runs (heart rate wise and pace) I’m happy with that. I guess I’m just in a different spot fitness wise. After all in 2013 I had already done an Ironman at that time of the year.
Congrats to all my friend who raced!
Thanks to BuDu racing for putting on another great race!
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