Race Report: Presidential Lakes - Grind In The Pines

So, let's get right to it shall we?

1st Run: I took Coach's advice and set my Garmin to auto-lap every half mile. This... was SHEER GENIUS! It worked so well. I was a bit quick off the start, but I think I brought it under control to our target of 10 min/miles fairly quickly. This did leave me in the back of the back, but I stuck to our plan. The first part of the run was over pavement with rolling baby hills. Yes, they did it to me again, they found hills. The 2nd half was over a dirt trail. This was strange for me. The dirt, it kind of sucks the feet a bit and you slide around more than I'm used to. But still, I kept at the target pace and HR. Over all, I thought I nailed this part of the race plan.

T1: Zoom. Quick, easy.

Bike: The bike started off a bit hairy. I had a gaggle of people just lollygagging across the narrow bridge. Like taking up the whole thing. Using the gifted set of lungs I have, I bellowed "ON YOUR LEFT!" and zipped by them. Out on the main course, I settled down and found a gear that worked for me. This bike course was odd. It was billed as flat and fast. One the first leg to the first turn around (we had 3 laps to do) I thought OK, so it's a bit of a false flat, no worries, I can do these. I'll just get a bit of push on the way down. After the turn, I rode for a bit, and look up, and it seemed like I was going up hill again. Every time I looked up, I swear, I was going up hill. How can they find a course that is literally uphill both ways?!

Anyway, I kept my cadence as close to 90 as I could and stayed aero. I hit the water first, and saved some for the tail end of the bike. Hit the gels at 45, 1:15 and 1:45 like planned. At the first turn of lap 2, I switched to the Roctane. After that was gone, went back to the water. This worked out very well.

And no, I didn't puke :P

T2: Flying dismount, jump over the rock, zip boom bang, off on to the run

Run 2: This is where it got interesting. I knew my legs were hammered. So I settled in to a good HR rate and what I thought was a good pace to start to let me legs shake out. The calf cramps went away after the first mile and a half. I had no idea where I was over all, but I was thinking "Stay strong, stay focused, finish hard." So I kept doing my thing. I saw a guy in my AG go buy me at about 3 miles. I thought I was last in my AG, guess not. I decided to make it a race for the cellar. My plan was to keep him in sight, and reel him in slowly. When I saw he was slowing down, I'd increase my cadence a bit to nibble away at his lead. It was working, I was reeling him in. Slowly but surely. I was gaining ground. At the 5k turn around, he saw me and got hip. After that turn it was up hill for a good long way, and I couldn't hang with him. I saw it right away and decided to ease off. We still had 5k to go, maybe he would blow himself up and I could get by him. A bit later, another guy in my AG went by me. He was running strong. At this point, I was hurting. My knees weren't happy and my hips were screaming at me. I ran through a mental checklist (ProTip from Macca, btw) to pull through it: Pace good? HR Good? Breathing ok? Form good? That worked well and I ended up using it several times.

That way back was tough. I was gutting it out, keeping on pace. Grabbing water and gatorade at the water stations and popping a gel on the run as well. I think I picked up my pace a bit at the end when I could see the finish area. There was no sprinting this time, I really did leave it all out on the course.

So, those two guys that past me? It seems I was leading my AG off the bike and onto the run. Ha! :P

So, the tale of the times...

1st Run: 30:54 at a 9:58 avg pace
Bike: 1:23:47 at an avg speed of 18.3 mph
2nd Run: 1:09:07 with an avg pace of 11:09
Overall Time: 3:05, which did get me on the podium in 3rd in my Age Group.

This was a nice way to end the season. I learned so much this year about race, training, and myself. I thought Duathlons would be a bit....easier... than Triathlons for some reason. Not. True. Du's are VERY hard. They are leg killers and you really have to dig deep on that last run.

That being said, I'm looking forward to next race season, where I'm focusing on Triathalons. Specifically two Olympic Distances and two IM 70.3s.

Now... if I can just someone to help me stand up out of this chair, please?