First race of the 2010 season! I was really excited for the whole weekend to get here that it was all I could think about all week. I took Friday off of work to run some last minute errands and then it was time to head out. I drove down to Galena with a friend and we arrived at our rented cabin (CTC rents several cabins for the 50-60 members that race that weekend). We got there pretty early so we had plenty of time to drop off our bikes at T1 (Galena is a point to point race) and drive the course before it got too dark. Everyone else slowly showed up at the cabin and we settled in for dinner and an early night. I didn't sleep too well that night, which is not uncommon for me. I tend to get little to no sleep the night before any race or big event. I just get jittery and my mind won’t shut down. I’m working on ways to relax a bit more the night before but I still haven’t got it all figured out just yet. So I only got a couple hours of sleep but I felt pretty good in the morning.
We drove out to T1 in the morning, set up our gear, and then settled in to wait for our start times. The duathlon is run side-by-side with the triathlon so we would all be out on the course together for the most part. The duathlon started out with a 2 mile run (instead of a 660 yard swim for the triathlon), then a 17.48 mile bike and a 4.3 mile run. The duathlon starts off on a downhill, and last year I remember going out way too fast and then blowing up later in the race. This year I was going to start off slowly and take the first run easy, try to push it on the bike and finish strong on the run.
First run was pretty uneventful, I tried not to push it too hard and kept a pretty modest pace the whole way. The run starts off on a downhill but it’s an out and back run so we come right up the same hill we just ran down.
The bike course is pretty challenging and hilly (at least for the Midwest). This year I had a new weapon on the bike: my PowerTap. I kept an eye on my power the whole race and made sure not to spike too much on the uphills and tried to keep my wattage steady even on the downhills. I knew about halfway through the bike course that I was going to beat my bike split from last year, so I felt pretty good about that. What I didn't feel good about was the fact that pretty much everyone I was sharing a cabin with that weekend passed me on the bike. That stung a little. Well, actually a lot. But I had to suck it up and just run my own race.
Coming off the bike I felt good, but not great. I took a quick stretch in T2 and then headed out for my second run. I felt pretty good until I hit a pretty big hill. I felt my quads cramp up and I had to back off the pace. The flat parts of the course felt fine but pretty soon I found myself having to slow to a walk on the uphills. So much for not cramping on the run…. I was still able to kick it up a bit on the last half mile into the finish line to finish with a sprint.
Overall it was a so-so race. It wasn't the disaster I thought it might be but it certainly wasn't a strong start to the season. I had a rough time target which I beat, and I had a race plan which I stuck to so I was pretty happy with that. I beat my time from last year by about 15 minutes but I seem to remember the weather was a lot worse last year (very windy). It was a tough race but still a fun one.
The rest of the weekend was a blast. We relaxed after the race and watched Tour of California coverage (individual time trial!). Afterwards we headed over to the CTC party down the street (fun!). The next day we rode the race course backwards as a group. The smaller group I was riding with got lost and we ended up tackling on a pretty steep uphill climb (easily the steepest hill I've ever tackled). Wow, that hill was nutty, most everyone had to unclip and walk it up the hill but I was able to crawl/claw my way up to the top. After we got back on the course we headed back to the cabins to wash up before we made the drive back to Chicago. All in all a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment