2014 South Bay Duathlon - Sprint

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to race in NorCal. It rained this last week. The sun came out yesterday and all the flowers exploded into splendor. The hills are green. The air is clean. I've overdosed on endorphins.

Race season has officially begun. WOOT!! This is the third year I've done the South Bay Duathlon. I like this race because I get to wake up the body on a shorter run and check out how the Christmas equipment actually works in a race.

The race is a 2+ mile run, 10 mile bike, and another 2.18 mile run. There are a lot of competitive women that do this race so, this isn't really a race for me. Instead, I wanted to focus on getting my run pacing under control and I wanted to bike up to my race watts -- of course, I wanted to hang on to the skills I already have, like fast transition time.

Run #1 – 20:55  I still started out too fast and spent the first ½ mile “slowing down”. But I DID back it off to show a small gain over the run. 

These shorts make my butt look big!

T1: 1:24   -  When I pulled my bike off the rack, I slid my bottle off the holder! I had to hold my bike and reach for my bottle on the ground. This will come back to cost me. 

Christmas front hydration is AWESOME

The bike was pretty fantastic. This is the first year that I've had a functioning power meter. Since I wanted to ride UP to my goal race watts, this meant there was much less guess work on where I needed to be. It also meant that the 2 times up a short but steep hill, I knew how much above FTP (functional limit) I was riding. It's a balance between not losing time on the hill and still having legs on the run.

Bike – 0:34:10  I knew I could work smarter and still come away with a similar result to last year.

T2: 0:40 3rd fastest in AG!! (thank you Molly -- free time)

Finally out on the last run. This is where it got interesting. 

1 1/2 mile to go - my legs hurt and my lungs hurt. My time was 15-20 seconds slower than I wanted. My mind was pretty clear. I thought about "THIS is what Molly and coach talk about. My turn!"

1 mile to go -

VOICE: "You can walk now... it wouldn't take you long to walk less than 2 miles"

ME: "Yeah. I could walk but, I don't want to"

VOICE: "You could slow it down. It would be more comfortable"

ME: "But I want to pick it up to be running where I planned"

3/4 mile to go - I heard footsteps. This person didn't pass me. Pound. Pound. Pound. I didn't know it but, she was in my age group. We came up on a woman who was obviously losing steam. She was in my age group. Her team mate was trying to motivate her. "Don't let these girls go!". She didn't have it. 

1/2 mile to - I slowed down just a tad since I was going faster than I could hold even for the last 1/2 mile. The woman passed me. That's when I saw she was one of MY team mates AND she was in my age group. I let her go hoping I could dip into the reserves on that final 1/4 mile.

Final stretch - I pushed hard and I kept pushing through all the timing mats not knowing which one actually worked. I made back some ground but she beat me by 14 seconds!!!!

Run#2 – 20:24 This was the first time my legs hurt more than my lungs!!!

Overall - 1:17:33 for 1:27 PR!!! 

Grumpy can't NOT take pictures of random dogs. This old Golden wanted to run with the racers too.

Random Dog