2008 Steelcase Grand Duathlon

Well thank goodness spring has arrived! I've been able to get outside for more of my running and biking which really helps bring the joy back to the sport for me. I've trained moderately through the winter, not as much as I would have liked, but not nothing either. My overall fitness is probably not too far off from where it was at the end of the season last October for my last races but I don't think that I made too many gains (other than in swimming).

My first race this year was the Steelcase Grand Duathlon in Kentwood, MI on 4/27/08. It was a sprint distance, with a 5k run, 30k bike, 5k run, so I figured it would be a nice easy way to start the year. It was a new race and a new course to me so I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I'm pretty comfortable with those distances so I knew that I wouldn't have any problem finishing. The race was put on by 3Disciplines, a local USAT endorsed race organization, which incidentally supports the Ann Arbor Triathlon Club by giving us discounted race entry fees through their 'Clubs First' program.

On to the details: We were a little late arriving but didn't have any problem checking in at registration and getting my number, chip, etc. Since I have learned not to overdo my transitions (like I did in the past) I was able to quickly set up and then jog around a bit for a 5-10 minute warm-up. My standalone 5k PR is 21:36 (6:57/mi) so my goal for this race was to do both run legs at a 7:30/mi pace for a total of about 47 minutes running. I figured that I could hold 18-19 mph on the bike for the duration so I assumed that the bike leg would take me about 60 minutes. Adding a few minutes for transitions I was hoping to finish the race in around 1:50.

The first 5k run started at a brisk pace and I missed the first mile marker so I couldn't gauge the pace that I was running very well (I'm terrible at pacing myself by perceived exertion). At what I thought was the first mile marker my watch read 7:38 and there were a lot of people ahead of me so I was feeling very very slow. Toward the end of the first run leg I was not feeling very well, my stomach was tightening, I was getting a headache and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the hell so many people were in front of me!!! I figured that I was just paying for allowing myself to get dehydrated the day before at a beer festival, but I decided that I would push on anyway and finish the race in whatever amount of time it took. I never glanced at my watch again until I hit the timing mat at T1, to my surprise it read 21:45! I had run a 7:00/mi pace but I still felt like crap. I took time to drink and catch my breath in T1 and ended up spending about 2 minutes doing so (oops!).

Then it was on to the bike. A few weeks ago I picked up a beautiful new Cervelo P2C race bike and this was the first time that I was going to really get to put it through the paces to see if my improved position would make me any faster. I had done a few training rides on it but was still adjusting to riding in the "aero" time-trial position. Unfortunately the transmitter for my bike computer must have gotten jostled during the loading/unloading process because I noticed right away that I wasn't getting any readout for speed or cadence. The first bit of the bike leg was through an industrial park and then it was out onto the street. Once we hit the street the wind came into play, it was 20-30mph and almost straight out of the west meaning that we would spend a little under half of the distance going into a nice (read: nasty) little head wind. I didn't really focus on the wind but just went to work trying to catch some of those fast runners. By about 20k I figured that I had passed most of the people that I would easily catch and should focus on just slowly catching the girl ahead of me that seemed to be riding nearly the exact same pace as me. I caught her about 5k from the end of the bike and decided that rather than trying to put some time between us I would just go with my normal strategy of dropping some speed in favor of higher cadence to 'freshen' my legs a little for the bike-run transition as I had felt my left calf threatening to cramp a little on the bike. I tend to forget about my watch during races so I didn't take notice of my time going into or coming out of T2, but I felt pretty good getting off the bike.

On the way out of T2 I knew that I was in trouble. I could feel my calves twitching and starting to cramp. Within the first 1/4 mile I had to stop and rub them down quickly in hopes of keeping them from locking up entirely as they have in the past. My dad was watching me and he said that he could visibly see my calves knotting and cramping up as I was running. Not fun. I decided that I would just HTFU and finish the race: only 5k to go, it couldn't hurt that bad! If the first 5k felt slow the second one felt like I was moving at a glacial pace. I felt like I was just out there plodding along, not racing, not running, just jogging at a painfully slow pace. Within a mile I was passed by the girl that I had chased down on the bike and by the 2 mile mark I was being passed by a 50 year old lady which, no disrespect to her at all, was just depressing for me. But I kept putting one foot in front of the next and eventually finished, meeting my family at the end of the finisher's chute.

Here is the breakdown of my performance:
124 Finishers
5k run -
Time: 21:45
Rate: 7:00 min/mile
Rank: 58/124
T1: 2:09
30k bike -
Time: 53:57
Rate: 20.7 mph
Rank: 54/124
T2: 1:04
5k run -
Time: 24:02
Rate: 7:45 min/mile
Rank: 69/124
Overall:
Time: 1:42:23
Overall Rank: 61/124
Gender Rank: 52/90
AG Rank: 6/8

Overall I can't be too disappointed with my performance, I beat my goal time by almost 8 minutes but I still didn't feel too good about how I did relative to the rest of the field. But I figure that at least I didn't lose too much fitness over the winter so now it's just a matter of building up to the Steelhead 70.3 race in August.

Lessons learned from this race: 1) I have to figure out what the heck is up with my calf cramps 2) I need to practice my transitions very very badly so that I can cut that time by at least half. My next post will be on the topic of transitions and what I learned by watching a local duathlon (instead of racing in it).