A Comfortable Placing

The Yan Yean duathlon was held on our hottest day so far this year. It was great, I just love racing in the heat. It was a sprint distance duathlon with distances advertised at 5/20/3. However I don't think these were too accurate. I'm sure I didn't run sub-3 minute kilometres on the second run.


My head wasn't in its normal racing mindset. One reason was because I was planning on only using the event as a solid threshold training set. Therefore I was planning on holding back a bit during the race. The other reason is I only had 3 hours of sleep due to enjoying a friends engagement party the night before. From forcing myself out of bed until I was part way through my warm up, my mind was in a no-man's land.


To help with keeping my pacing under control I lined up in the middle of the starting bunch. It was quite pleasant not being concerned about what the lead guys were doing. I felt almost relaxed over the first few hundred metres. Not exactly what I'm used to. The first run was a two lap course which took in a descent hill on both laps. On the flats and up the hill I kept thing controlled, but on the downhill I opened up into a controlled fall. I have found descent to be a strong point in my running over the years. Today was no exception. Basically I turn my legs over fast enough to prevent me from going A over T and just let gravity do the rest. On both laps I gained many places during this short, but steep descent, while my heart rate and breathing dropped to easier levels.

Then it was onto the bike. It was as I left transition that I remembered I haven't been practising the running leap onto the bike. I decided now wasn't the time to see if I still had it. With a safe mount, I was out onto the 4x5km lap, very flat course. Not much to say other than I successfully remained comfortable in the time trial position and kept an even effort for the full 20km. Dismounting the bike I looked a bit more professional. Shoes open, feet out, swing the leg over and off right on the perfect running speed. Racing always feels good when I get transition right, and I got the bike to run right on the mark, gaining three positions in the process.

The final run felt great. My legs soon forgot about the bike ride and just wanted to run. I crossed the line knowing I had put in a good effort, but felt far from vomiting like I often tend to do at sprint duathlons. I was surprised to hear my name called out in third place in my age group during the presentations. It was at this stage my lack of sleep was starting to catch up. Time to get home take a nanna nap.

Comments

  1. Ewen24 October 2007 at 20:43

    Good session Jason - congrats on the bling. Bloody triathlon/duathlon run legs - they were always short in my day and it seems they're still short. 3 minute ks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous25 October 2007 at 18:31

    Congrats

    ReplyDelete

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