Du It Duathlon

Some days you want to race. There may or may not be a race that day, but everything is perfect. You're rested, you're pumped up, the weather is awesome.

This was not one of those days. I'd done a two and a half hour ride/half hour run yesterday, then spent two or three hours on yard work. Because it was a beautiful day. 60s and sunny, a great day to ride, even a decent day to clean up the yard with a handsaw.

When I got up at 5:30 I was actually pretty hopeful. The road was wet, but it wasn't really raining. It was cool, but not really cold. I was thinking that 'hey, this isn't going to be so bad.'

That kind of glass 3/4 full optimism took its first hit about half a mile from the house when it started raining for real. But as Marty said on the race website, just because it's raining at your house doesn't mean it's raining in the park.

Right.

On the highway, at 65mph, of course a steady rain seems like a monsoon. There was no way to talk myself into the idea that I was going to get to Bridgeport and it was going to be nice there.

It wasn't. I dutifully set up my bike, stood in line to get my numbers, and then went back to the car to get as much gear as possible on. However, after warming up it became clear the Asics techical running jacket was going to be one layer too many so I took it off. I'd be racing in my thinnest pain of tights, an underarmour short sleeve under my Hosdka cycling jersey and arm warmers. I offered my jacket to Michael D'Addetta, who was wearing nothing but a singlet and bike shorts and he declined.

Tough, but not the right call as he later admitted.

To Marty's credit he got the race going right about on time, which had seemed impossible at about 7:20.

The course is flat, but it's flat with a kind of steady uphill incline of about half a percent going out (and obviously, half a percent decline coming back).

I've written about this before. The start of every duathlon seems to be the same for me. The run starts and I'm engulfed- I go from starting right in the middle in the front to having 10 or so guys swarm around me. My goal is to run steady, to have two runs very close to each other time-wise. But it's difficult to have so many people running as fast or faster than you at the start of your race and either not get sucked in or panic.

I'd gotten a little panicky at Brian's at the start and let my heart rate get too high. Not today. I actually felt good as we started the first run. Except of course for the number of people in front and around me.

Early on I was 8th or 9th and I was trying to just stay calm and evaluate the people around me. I actually liked most of what I saw, except for two guys, both of whom were running away from the rest of us, one moderately, and the other, significantly. This would be another case for me of misjudging a book by its cover. The guy that was really running away from the rest of us on this first loop had kind of a stocky look and was wearing a cycling jersey with Cannondale on it.

I kind of gave up on winning the race right there. I mean here was this guys who looked totally like a biker, too stocky for a runner, wearing a cycling jersey- and yet he was crushing us. What would happen when this guy got on a bike ?

The majority of the other guys around me were Tri-Fitness guys.

There was a lot of back and forth on the first run, which is an out and back. I was as high up as fourth and back and forth with one Tri-fitiness athlete in particular- Bryan French. He was on me, breathing pretty hard, audible cadence, and I was holding him off in the first half for the most part. After we broke around the cannon and started back, running slightly downhill now, a younger guy went by us and all I could think about was how bright green the outsoles of his running shoes were on the heel. He proceeded to drop us, putting an amazing 30 seconds on us in about 1.5 miles (or so).

Finally, Bryan passed me. I didn't want to pick it up any more. We had about a quarter mile left and I was not interested in picking it up. Not at all. I wanted to get on the bike and blast out of transition.

I settled in and finished a second behind him.

I had a good transition. I did have to abandon the sunglasses I'd worn because they got hung up on the hat I'd had on and I didn't want to waste a few seconds. I got my shoes and helmet on and ran through transition while others were walking. the guy with the lime green outsoles was struggling to change his shoes.

I moved up two or three spots coming out of transition.

The course is flat with a lot of turns. I got out there and I worked on closing down the guy in front of me. I took the turns very aggressively because I'm light, my bike is light and there aren't a lot of crosswalks in the park where you have to worry about sliding on the paint. The first loop was pretty uneventful until the back part. I passed one opponent, but then on the back I started getting pressure form two of the tri-fitness guys. As I rounded the turn to the second loop I had to stay left to avoid people feeding out onto the course- there were actually people just starting the bike after I'd done an entire loop, which is hard to get the math on but...

Someone yelled 'drop your gear' as I went by, standing up to regain my momentum. If this advice was for me it was exactly wrong. I needed to go to an easier gear but I wanted to grind it out to get that speed back up. I was going right through the puddles, not veering like the other riders. Yes, the puddles slowed me down but I was cutting nice straight lines.

As we got to the area where the run turn around was, someone said 'Go left or around the island ?' I thought it was a first looper, so i said nothing. it turned out it was Bryan, who was just about to pass me. He went the long (wrong) way as I followed the arrows on the road, oops. I felt bad, but not too bad.

Especially when Bryan passed me before the turn-around. I did keep him close, but I was unable to reel him back in, however, suddenly I was going past the guy that had crushed us all on the first loop. He was using toe-clips and was on- well, it didn't look like a great bike. The guy that looked like he had to be a biker first was actually a damn good runner and...

I passed him and I'd see him again.

We went into transition in a group and Bryan left first, then me, then Ron Lombardi, the fastest runner.

Do you know the phrase dead legs ? I have never in my life had dead legs like i'd had when I got off my bike. My right shoe went on easy. My left not so much.

When I started running, it was amazing. My legs felt like they were simply not going to respond at all. They did. Dead or not, I found my usual turnover. Within a minute, as I downed a Gu, I was running at my normal pace, my long stride. I was closing on Bryan and holding off Ron. But not for long. I passed Bryan and moved up into second and I fought to hold off Ron but it wasn't happening. He went by me and then started to gap me.

I was running hard. Despite the fact that I was basically having the race I wanted to have, and my second run was close to my first (just about 3 seconds difference between my run 1 time and my run 2 time), I was afraid of being caught.

By Bryan, or the other Tri-Fitness guy, or the guy with the green shoes. I ran the back half of the loop, where I was actually comfortably in third, like three other guys were breathing down my neck, and it was that fear that allowed me to put 37 seconds on the next finisher in a 3 mile span. Really, it was the fear of being caught that pushed me on, that allowed me to actually cut my time on the course by over a minute.

I did learn something in the cold and the rain.

Sometimes fear is good.

I watched my teammates- Dick Korby, Michael D'Addetta (@poycc), and Susan Wines finish- all placing in or winning their age groups- then I put on some warm clothes and enjoyed the feeling of having raced in miserable conditions but come through with reasonable results.

Sometimes that is enough.

Duit Duathlon- Part II

I'm not much a pre-race guy. I like to warm up, get the race out of the way, and then socialise.

I left the house 10 minutes later than I wanted to, so I was about five minutes late to Seaside Park in Bridgeport. I got a good bike warm-up in, but not really enough of a run warm-up and that's no one's fault but mine of course.

I was standing at the starting line with Peter Daly, Charlie Hornak from Force 5 Sports/Athlete's Foot, and two others. One, Taylor- with the enthusiasm of youth (he is, after all, a teenager)- looks at Peter and I and says 'What are you looking to run ?'

This is probably one of the questions I hate the most at a race, regardless of the source. The truth is, I very rarely step up to the line with any idea of what pace I want to run. Why ? I might be good with numbers, but I don't look at races like that. At the Fairfield Half-Marathon, I want to run 6 minute miles, yes, and I need a plan to do that which is more complex than who cares ? At a 5K ? Who knows. I only know myself. I will go out too hard. I will struggle to hang on. One mile might be 5:40, the next might be almost 6:00.

At duathlons you have the added issue of strategy. My coach tells me to 'try and stay up in the mix'. While today's race made me realise that I have to get back to my Brian's work ethic and upgrade the mix (more tempo efforts inside my runs rather than just volume), my plan is actually to evaluate the people around me and run hard but not too hard on the first run. I'm planning to counter-attack on the bike...

I made some crack about running somewhere between 6-8 minutes a mile and then we were off.

It was obviously early that I was not in the A group, Peter, Taylor and a twenty-something being that. I was in the B group. Uh, I was the B group.

I felt a lot like I'd only raced four times all year. I was running ugly, with Charlie not very far behind me and I didn't keep contact with that A group.

What was I thinking as I fell 50 seconds behind Peter- who's just a great guy and a great athlete ? As I fell 35-40 seconds behind the other two 'kids' ?

I was thinking that I had better have one hell of a bike. Oddly enough, even though I felt like I wasn't having a great run, and generally was thinking that lack of sleep (five hours a night) is starting to nip at the edges of my ability, I was still focused on winning. It was my first race on the Elite Razor, and that bike is a fast bike. Whether it goes fast with me straddled on it or not is another matter. But I figured as long as I still had the bike segment in front of me, I had a chance.

I tossed aside my first run shoes, their work down. A spectator, clearly new to duathlon, said 'Oh no, his shoe fell off.' Then I was out of transition. I'd marked the guy in third who'd been in transition 10-15 seconds longer than me and quickly rode him down. That's when I start to feel good, once I've taken out someone. I'm still always paranoid about being overtaken by better riders, but that doesn't happen the way it used to.

It was two extremely flat 5 mile loops on the bike. We got to the 'top' of the loop and I saw Marty's car coming back at me. Peter was riding well, about as well as I was, maybe better. The guy in second was losing ground to him- and me. I did what works for me, what keeps me calm. I concentrated on the next pass and ignored-

Nah- that sounds good, but it would be lying. I never stopped thinking about Peter. I made the pass to take second some time before 4 miles and then just hauled ass. I saw Peter coming back out of the 'lower' turn around. I did something I don't do. I turned my head and took a good long look at where Peter was so I could do the math on how far I was behind. I turned my head back and uttered a very loud 'F@ck'. I did not want to finish second. Peter is, again, a great guy, real nice guy, great athlete. Still didn't want to finish second, not to him or anyone.

Although I busted my ass on the bike, I ended up losing time to Peter. I put about 2:20 and 3:10 on the two other guys that had been in front of me and came into transition second. I had a nice short transition, scooped the gatorade bottle off my bike, and started running like hell. My second run, although 30 seconds slower than the first, was closer to my first run time than everyone in the top finishers except Tyler.

I ran hard, but I ran steady and smooth and my strategy paid off. I had the fourth fastest first run but moved up to third for the second- and adding the second-fastest bike to that was enough to finish second.

But it was the comfortable way that running hard the second run felt that gives me some hope that maybe I am not too far off base right now.

Don't get me wrong. Getting schooled by Peter is not pleasing. He's better, no question, but I think I could have pushed him by staying in the mix on the first run and not finished so far behind. However, I went into the bike fourth and crossed the finish line second, I have a great new bike that I've had a chance to race now, and I had a solid second run that reminded me what I am capable of.

It's time to get it up a gear or two and find my speed.

Marty- you put on an awesome race. Well organised, great course. Do it (or Duit) again next year !

PS Charlie- get some damn 20s on those rims. It wasn't a fat-tire race !

Finding Your Way and the Du It Duathlon

A year ago, if you'd told me that I'd get my season together around the end of September, I'd have doubted it. I'd just dropped out of a duathlon I'd hoped to have a chance to win because of a calf problem and I was staring down Eagleman in a week, with no guarantee I could run. Turned out a little icing solved the calf issue- you'd think after four years as a college coach that would have occurred to me sooner. I was as discouraged as I could have been, although the odd thing is, I'm actually an optimist. After not running for two weeks I not only went to Eagleman and assumed I'd be able to run but PRed the course- although both my times there are among my less impressive long distance races.

So fast forward to this morning. I got off the highway and immediately went the wrong way. Fortunately it was about a minute before I saw Chris Thomas riding to the race- instinct was already telling me to turn around- maybe I was getting something out of my system. I still got to the race about an hour early, registered, checked out my bike with a quick spin and got a spot on the racks where I could actually find my bike.

I was warmed up and ready to go when Marty gave the race instructions. Important note here. I listened to the instructions. The one thing i took away was 'When in doubt, choose right'. All the turns were right hand turns, with the exception of a couple on the run.

OK. I had a gel and cliff blocks in my EH jersey, gatorade on the bike. I was ready to go.

This was another one of these races where I felt buried at the start. People were streaming around me. It was uncomfortable and frustrating- aggravating, really. There was a Bethel guy in front of me and I wasn't sure if it was one I usually beat or get beaten by, although I thought it was the same guy I'd beaten at Greenwich. I was running the pace I wanted to run, so I was trying to shut out all the noise in my head and focus on that.

I did not sort out the field the way I usually do on the first run. I just ran in and focused on having a good transition, which I did- I'm adjusting to using the bike shoes in these races finally.

I took some Gatorade right away and started riding. We'd been told there was no passing in the coned-off area at the start of the riding. The second we exited the cones, I got passed by someone who had actually outrun me as well.

Again, I told myself to let it go. He slowly pulled away, but not far away as he was in sight. And then things started getting strange. We reached a Y intersection with a police officer. There was a LARGE (I mean large) white sign with a big red arrow pointing to the right fork.

The guy ahead of me went left. Confused, I asked the police officer for direction. He pointed right. I went right. I started screaming, while going up hill, because the other road was parallel, but the guy couldn't hear me. I was just wearing myself out, so I stopped screaming. I felt bad for this other guy. If it had been a group ride, I'd have busted my ass to catch him, but going the wrong way- that might only have led more people off course. I felt bad about moving up this way, but I was also busy trying to get my breath back climbing a hill.

I think I had been ready pretty steady, but maybe a little uninspired, and with no rabbit in front of me I just settled in. This was a mistake, and I think, like my first run, I was just a little bit- not much, but a little- having trouble shaking off the training pace. But then another athlete made the race for me. There are several tri clubs in CT and I'm in the one with the fewest people (we're looking for more- all ability levels- join today !). A CT HEAT athlete went by me and made the mistake of being social/nice. He said something like 'Great job', or 'You're doing great.' This was a mistake. I usually say something like 'Keep it up," as it's awkward telling someone you're passing they are doing really well. But It wouldn't have mattered what he'd said. I loathe being passed on the bike, it's an ego shortcoming, I know, but I can't take it, not if it makes me think I'm not working hard enough. Which I wasn't.

I gaged him down the hill, stayed back as required. I came to the conclusion that I just needed to up my cadence to pass him, and that's what I did. I got on top of the gear and started pushing on a flat, opened up a small gap. I never looked back after that, so I'm not sure when (or even really if) I dropped him. But my second five or so mile lap was about two miles an hour faster, and I felt like I was really racing. It was a tremendous difference, and I just want to say thanks to whomever that was for challenging me- it was just what I needed.

When I came back in, it was right behind a pair of more casual-looking athletes who'd obviously missed the repeated instructions about the two-loops on the bike. Why two loops is too much for some people- well, that is just one of those things that happens, I guess.

I had a good second run. I felt really strong heading out, I downed a gel, and when I turned the corner and started up the long uphill, I ran steady. There was a guy in front of me who was not running very well. I passed him and then set my sites on the next guy, who was a long way away and I never did catch.

The bad news was that on the way out on the second run, I saw a significant number of cyclists coming back in on the same road. Problem ? The run and the bike were on opposite sides of the railway parking lot, and there was no, and I mean no, part of the two courses that overlapped. How these people got on the run course, I'll never know. They clearly missed a turn somewhere, and it's amazing they got back at all.

Although my overall time was not great (54:58 ???) for 2-10-2 (and by 2, we mean 2+), and I got beat by one or more people I usually don't get beat by, I actually think this was a good race for me.

Thursday I did a reverse brick- 1 hour hard run, then 60 miles on the bike in under three hours. Friday I did a hard, hilly 68 miles on the bike. Saturday, for an easy day, I ran an hour. Now for all I know, everyone I was racing is also doing an Ironman in July and is on the same training schedule as me, but maybe not. Doesn't matter. The workouts are definitely eating into my racing- and that beats the snot out of the alternative, and what I think my coach would say is my history- my racing interfering with my training.

And when I got kicked in the pants a little bit by another athlete- who was only being nice, no question, whose reward for encouraging me was not appropriate- I responded with a better, more focused effort. That's what I really took out of the race.

Now, I also feel REALLY bad for Marty Schaivone. Marty worked very hard to make this a great race, and through no fault of his quite a few people ended up off course. I'm not going to comment much on that. I'm a big believer that you and only you can prevent navigational errors and you have to know the course. At the same time at least one athlete said a police officer sent them the wrong way. The one person I saw go off course had no excuse I know of, he just missed a sign, arrows in the road, and the general instructions that all the turns were to the right. Regardless, it happened, and the only thing you can say for sure is that it was not Marty's fault. Period.

If you're reading this, Marty, I for one had a great time, it was a great cpurse, and I hope that this doesn't discourage you in any way from doing this again.

I was a little sore going into the race and I'm still sore now. But I feel like a year later, I'm finding my way this season instead of losing it.

Hopefully I'll feel the same way after my afternoon run.