I finally made it back late on Monday and was interested to see this morning that there was not one thread on duathlon nationals. I added the smiley so you wouldn’t think I was a grumpy troll (well maybe, my travel was the worst I’ve had on the way to a race and sleeping on the floor of the terminal is not good on the back ;).
Despite not recognizing any of the new people, the quality of the racing was again high and it was again a well-done race. If you didn’t take the opportunity to race any of the three versions held at Mason then you missed out on a nice race.
Interestingly enough, the guy who won my age group also won his age group at triathlon nationals a month ago.
My wife missed her flight from a different location but was able to pick up a free ticket and come the next day, so now I may actually be able to fly to Long Course Worlds in October.
Chad
P.S. As I was halfway through the second run on Sunday, I was again reminded why duathlon is not very popular; th3re is nothing more painful that the 5K second run in short course duathlon.
Not even a headliner on duathlon.com, but that site mainly sucks ass anyway.
Chad, was waiting for you race report. So, how did you do?
Dave
I was there and it was very tough but I still am starting to favor Duathlon over Triathlon. I thought it was a great event that was first class all around. Although after a 10K intial run, 40k bike, I found pain on the final 5K run! About the last mile my left hamstring started cramping up and by the time I finished it was very sore! But what a great opportunity to come and race against some of the best athletes! Link to my race report below…sorry it’s on that ‘other’ board!
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/...d-view.asp?tid=85375
Chad…very nice finish by the way! Hopefully I can work my way up to within about 7 or 8 minutes of your finish time by Richmond next year!!!
I think of the first run in 10K/40K/5K races as the effort level of half-marathon. It should feel fast but not that hard for the first 10K. Otherwise your ride suffers some, but your second run really, really hurts. Even the ride should not feel too hard until at least 30K, otherwise the last run falls apart again. This is even more important at the longer distances with equal runs sandwiching the ride. You can really make up some ground on a second 8K of an 8K/50K/8K if your competitors have not paced the run/ride well.
Chad
I think of the first run in 10K/40K/5K races as the effort level of half-marathon. It should feel fast but not that hard for the first 10K. Otherwise your ride suffers some, but your second run really, really hurts. Even the ride should not feel too hard until at least 30K, otherwise the last run falls apart again. This is even more important at the longer distances with equal runs sandwiching the ride. You can really make up some ground on a second 8K of an 8K/50K/8K if your competitors have not paced the run/ride well.
Chad
I really didn’t know how to prepare for this and still not quite sure what I’ll different do for next year except get faster! I felt comfortable for the first 10K run but didn’t feel like I was in a good Rhythm on the bike until about mile 10 and that’s when I started riding a little more aggressive. That probably hurt my second run a little but at least I kind of know what to look for in future races like this. And I’m not sure what else I could have done but…that last run hurts!!!
For my first two years of multi sport racing I only did Du’s. I remember being upset about the lack of support or love that Duathlon’s received. Now that I’m in my first full season doing tri’s my opinion has changed. Tri’s are so much more challenging (IMHO) and more interesting to train for. When I see someone before a race with their race number on wearing running shoes I think to myself “get in the pool and learn how to swim” Granted there are thousands of Duathlete’s that could get my azz but come on get in the water with the rest of us, what are you afraid of…
I have done one Du and found it much harder that Tri’s. Since one has to be a killer runner and biker, and really enjoy pain,
it was not for me.
I wish more of the folks who do not like to swim would do Du’s. It is a great sport.
Dave
I guess it all depends… my strength is running so I don’t mind running twice. I find doing three seperate events and more importantly TRAINING for 3 seperate events is much harder…
For me it’s not really harder it’s just a different challenge that I like trying to conquer. Now, in two weeks when I do another Tri I’ll be all fired up about Triathlons again! I try to just live for the moment. Although, at some point to get more competitive I’ll probably need to shift my training focus to one or the other.
I don’t think there is any doubt that it is harder to train for a triathlon. Finding a pool in some places is not easy. This was not a question of du vs. tri so much as a comment on the generally apathy of the tri public about duathlon, even for a national championship. When they announced that the overall winner and 35-39 age group winner (Craig Greenslit) also won his AG at tri nationals I was interested to see how his times compared to the other triathletes. Only Chuck Sloan cycled/ran faster (he was 3rd overall in Oregon) by about 15 seconds and incidently, Sloan won duathlon nationals last year at the Mason race. I just have to figure out where I am going to cut off 4 1/2 minutes to be competitive …
Chad
Chad,
I saw yer name up high in the results, nice work!!!
(PS - what happened to tetsuoni? I didn’t see a finish time for him, that’s very unusual.)
Looks like you need to work on the bike, your runs were both very strong relative to the field, IIRC.
(not that yer bike split wasn’t fast, but I think you lost more time there than on the runs)
That one young kid had some silly-fast run splits, if he ever learns how to bike he’ll be a machine.
It’s just amazing to me how fast the really fast dudes can run, knowing they hafta bike, and then run fast again after the bike as well. Mind blowing…
Great job Chad! Good to see you score another top 10 OV at Du nationals.
I saw John at the start, but never had a chance to speak with him. When I said something to him at the awards he was taking a nap on a bench and did not respond.
Looks like you need to work on the bike, your runs were both very strong relative to the field, IIRC.
(not that yer bike split wasn’t fast, but I think you lost more time there than on the runs)
True enough, though I was three minutes faster than last year (on a longer course) and 9th (once you take out the errors in results) compared to 38th from 06. My bike split from a couple of week’s ago indicated to me that I ought to have been a little faster, but I did not have it on Sunday and gave it my best effort. I think arriving a few days earlier would have helped, but I was lucky to get off when I did, so all in all it was a satisfying effort at the end of the day. I am definately looking forward to Richmond Short Course next year, even though it will again mean a long West to East Coast trip. I would love to have folks come and try racing in my back yard with no humidity and 85 degree temps at 8 am.
The young kid who ran 32:07 is actually being coached by a friend of mine from Missouri (I knew him when he was a Marine) and he told me that he (the young man) has been riding for about six weeks now. He did it on a road bike with shorty bars and I don’t remember if he had any other aero equipment on the bike. Oh, to be young again. Running 5:10s on a very hilly course in high humidity is fairly incredible.
Chad
John had a bout of food poisoning or a bad stomach virus that he got just before or during the drive to Mason. I saw him at the end of lap one of the first run and he was about ready to pass out. Definetely not a regular day for John.
Musta picked it up from onea those slow rollers* he got at a truckstop along the way on the roadtrip.
- slow rollers are the nasty hotdogs on the roller machine that sit there for weeks on end before some poor slob actually buys and eats one of 'em.
Bummer, I know he was planning on throwing down a strong race there too.
That is too bad after making the long drive.
Two years ago he beat me on that course, despite having traveled to and raced long-course worlds a couple of weeks earlier. I wondered what happened because I never saw him at the finish.
Chad
Sorry Chad, I never heard you and wanted to meet you.
I got a bad case of food poisoning. I crawled through the opening 5K of 10, and realized I’d seriously compromise any recovery by further depleting myself just to finish, so I dropped out at 5K.
You did great!
See you at LC Nats. and/or Worlds?
I have to agree. I’ve only done one du, which was an off-road race and the only time I’ve ever used a mountain bike for what they’re intended for. It was incredibly tough and amazing fun. Quads were trashed for about 4 days afterwards. Locally duathlons only seem to occur as an alternative to tris or I would do them as much as I could. My daughter, with 2 Kids of Steel tris under her belt is opting for a try-a-du this year - maybe she’ll be hooked… I hope so.
.
I would agree training for 3 events is harder, especially for those of us not coming from a swim background. From the one du ive done i’d say that its a MUCH faster pace than most triathlons ive ever done in a similar setting/distance. 5k/10mi/1mi. I ran high 5’s/mi(capable of mid 5s but hamstrings were tight all week) and biked close to 30mph and that was only good enough for 6th OV. The guy who won it had to be doing sub 5:10/mi and biking >29mph at a local event. Very humbling but also motivating to get my run times faster. I cant even imagine how fast everyone is going at the bigger du’s