Bangs Lake race plan

I have my next race coming up this weekend, the Bangs Lake Duathlon. The distances are 5k run/20k bike/5k run, so it has all the makings for a short, hard all-out effort. My run and bike are feeling pretty good right now, and after checking the times from last year’s race I’m setting a pretty lofty goal for myself this weekend: top 10 overall!

I know I can do the run legs in around 20 minutes each, and the bike portion I can do in about 35 minutes, so comparing that to last year’s times it looks like I can finish in the top 10 finishers overall. Granted the race is a pretty small race but that would be an awesome result for me.

So the race plan right now is to come out steady on the first run (shooting for a 20-21 minute time), hit it pretty hard on the bike, and then give it all I have on the last run (sub 20 minute). The variables will be how I feel on the bike and how I feel on the second run. If I can hold a 24 mph pace on the bike (which I can’t), I would have a 31 minute bike split; a 22 mph pace would give me a 33:49 bike split; a 20 mph pace would give me a 37:12. I think if I can hold a 21/22 mph I should have enough left to have a good sub-20 run afterwards. Too much faster than that and I think I would blow up before the end. I've done a couple run/bike/run repeated bricks lately (at race intensity) to give my body a feel for the race effort and I think I should have enough in me to hold on at the end even after a hard bike. Should be a fun race!