Duathlon Debut

Last weekend I was talked into, I mean really had my arm twisted, into trying out my first Duathlon. It was promised to be a pretty laid back race and sounded like a good opportunity to either begin my multi-sport adventure or decide if my multi-sport career would be short lived.

This particular race was the second of a three race series in the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon series. All three races are set up different from each other. This one started out with a 1.4 mile run, 3.6 mile bike, 2.5 run, 7.2 bike with a final 50 yard sprint to the finish.

I must admit I was feeling a lot of prerace jitters from arriving early and seeing a lot of real serious cyclists with TT bikes pulling into the lot. I started feeling like this might not be as laid back as I originally thought. But I was prepared to stick it out even if it meant I would come in last place. The race began on time and we were off with the running start. This was about the time I realized how heavy my legs already felt from a pretty tough training week during the prior week. The duathlon was a fairly last minute decision and one not well prepared for. I spent the first run trying to warm up my legs to the idea that we were going to be doing this motion for at least the next hour or hour and a half, eventually they started to get the idea and began moving a bit better.

After a quick first run I hopped on the bike picking up things to remember for next time (ie what gear I leave my bike in from the warm up so I don't start in a huge gear straight off of running!). I realize that there are little things that I just need to spend time on to get a bit quicker, mounting and dismounting a bike being one of those things. Next time I promise myself to be quicker, smoother and better overall in the mounting area. The first loop of the bike course felt good. In retrospect I think I should have pushed harder during this portion of the race as I was holding back knowing there was a lot of race left.

The bike loop went by quickly and I was suddenly back to running. This portion of the race was a 2.5 out and back... my favorite. It was interesting to feel my legs tranisition from the bike to running. It's not as easy as you would think, it just wasn't as fluid as I imagined. I felt like I was sort of retraining the muscle to this new activity. My legs were definitely tired at this point of the race so I just went with some of my running go to mantras when I'm trying to pick up some speed on really tired legs.

The out and back turned out to be really hilly, it almost seemed like once you got over one hill you were right on the back of another. So needless to say I was pretty slow during this portion of the race and slightly disappointed at my performance here. I just assumed that the running would be easy for me but really it's all a lot of leg work and was tough. The best part of this portion of the race was getting to see some friends on their way back from the out and back. They both looked great even though I knew we were all tired and it pushed me to keep going. It lifted me up a bit and kept me pushing.

Another lesson was learned on this run course, TAKE OFF YOUR HELMET in the transition area! I was so excited to keep going with the race I just started running off with my helmet on.

On to the final two loops of the bike course. Overall my legs were done here so I just started talking myself up the hill we first encountered on each of the loops. Focusing my thoughts on controlling my breathing and focusing on my cadence kept me from getting bogged down in the burn in my legs. Overall this segment of the race felt great. Granted I was still pretty slow compared to most of the competitors. Given that I've had my bike all of 2 months and this was the first real time taking it out and pushing myself I feel really good about my performance.

First Duathlon crossed of the bucket list. As far as my future in multi-sport activities... I'd say it's pretty good.