I am a Duathlete

It's official. I am a Duathlete.

This is freaking awesome. I can even begin to express how it feels to me. It's more than the sense of accomplishment from finishing a race that two months ago I was wondering if I was ready for. It's more than taking home Age Group Honors. It's more than hearing people cheer as I crossed the line.

This is proof that I am have started my journey to Ironman. There I said it. I've taken my first step. I've got momentum started. To me, that feels incredibly great. This is possibly the most important journey of self discovery I've ever undertaken.

I've had a few days to replay the race one or two (billion) times in my head, talk it over with Coach and pour over the data. As I've done this, I've noticed my goals changing, and my targets for this year shifting.

As I reviewed my first run, I was pleased with what I saw. My race plan called for me to do the first run at about a 12 minute/mile pace. This most definitely did not happen. The first mile at 8:45 and the second at around 8:53 opened up my eyes. I knew I had speed over short distances (short as in under 400 meters). To be able to hold this pace for two miles was a huge leap forward for me. I read back in my blog and saw how excited I was to hit a 12 minute mile pace. This totally blows that out of the water, all in really three months of consistant training.

Playing through the bike in my head, and looking at the times for it, I wanted to be a bit faster. But I had some weather to deal with. Tail winds on the out leg helped, but the cross winds and head winds on the in leg were hard. Still over all, I had a good speed of about 16.5 mph for the bike portion. Not blazing fast compared to some. But I've had my bike for just over a month. The shoes and pedals for less than. Before I had my bike, I was training on a stationary bike in the gym. Being able to make key passes early and late after such little road time really showed me how far I've come in such a short time.

Then there was that dreaded last 5k run. I had to really dig deep for that. Not to finish it, but to keep pushing myself to finish it running without walking. It took some effort to shove the pain in my left hammy to a corner of my mind and keep it there. That was the first time I had experienced something like that. Now I know I can deal with it, and I learned that I can push through it to find that other side. What's more, I kept a good (for me) pace of 10min/mile or so. Again, where I was three months ago and where I was during the race is incredible to me.

I honestly know I couldn't have made these gains without my Coach, Heather. It was her training plan that's brought me from injury prone at the beginning to where I am now. And standing here, four days later, I see that I have a lot of work to do still. Oh yes dear friends. I have a lot of work to do.

I'm still not a strong runner. Running is still my weakest event and it takes work for me to do it. Still, I'm getting more comfortable with the run. By the end of my race season, my goal is to get my pace sub 8's. I think this is doable. I know I can get strong and faster and gain more endurance.

Ah the bike, what I feel is my strongest event. I'm looking forward to improvement here as well. I'm feeling more comfortable on the bike each time I get on it. I think aerobars will help me out, as I generate more power with less effort when I'm down on the horns. For the bike, my goal is to have an average speed in the low 20's this season. Again, I think this is very doable from where I'm sitting now.

Race wise, always room for metric tons of improvement. I'll keep this goal short and sweet. I'm shooting for a top 25% over all finish in my A race in August.

So I have a lot of work to do, and I'm looking forward to each session and the benefits I'll gain from Heather's planning, her experience and her advice.

She even said it's ok for me to use Ducky Floats during swim training. If I provide pictures.