Spring Classic Duathlon - DuathlonStandard

the main focus on both runs today was to dial in on good form and run hard but not so hard that the runner's knee will come back. I felt like I had a good balance of that, and was pleased with my time

Under the circumstances probably nothing - had I not been coming off the injury I would have tried to push the pace a little harder

felt pretty good getting into shoes, getting on bike was a bit clumsy

try to get into shoes a bit earlier, ideally before that first turn out of transition, but getting into the shoes once on the bike was good

bike felt great - felt like I was flying and passed lots of folks, there was one "Hammer Nutrition" clad guy who I was chasing all the way until the second turnaround until I caught him, but he got back in front of me in the last 1-2 miles before T2

thought I was pushing beyond my race pace of 21.98 mph from Blue Lake last year, was bummed that I was just shy of it, but my age group bike time is pretty good. Gearing felt good but probably should have pushed it up a bit to try and squeeze out a little more speed - think I was in the mid rings on the back cog, need to do some more outside rides on this casette in training

felt wobbly coming into T2, didn't feel I had the strength or had practiced dismount enough to do comfortably, that cost me a few seconds of time

Practice dismount more on road and not on trainer

left knee felt sore off the bike, left me to not try and push the pace too hard - thought at first I was only doing @ 11:00 min/mi but halfway into it realized that was the time not the pace!
Too hot on 2nd run with 2 jerseys, arm warmers and tights - really wished I hadn't so many layers on

Again, with the injury recovery I didn't push the run as hard as I could have, especially at the end, but did feel like it was a good effort
Biggest thing I took away from both runs to really think about - and don't know why I thought of this during the first run - is my breathing; need to work on getting into a good pattern with breathing. When I wear the ipod during training runs I don't even think about it, but I wonder if this is another big key to a good run - not so many layers, trust that I'll warm up, or maybe layers that I can easily strip off in transition

water and gatorade - chocolate milk and one of those Muscle Milk shakes
stretches about 20m after


my left knee injury almost kept me out of this race altogether, but it held up good and first 2 post day races the knee feels okay - I think had I not had this injury I could have pushed the runs harder, also should have done a couple more outside rides in racing wheels and practiced dismounts


Overall I am pretty happy with this race - my best time prior was 1:34:47 so even with being mindful on the runs this was 4 & 1/2 minutes off my best time. Also got both runs well under an 8:00 split time, and this was really my best differential between run paces (:26). In some ways, I think the injury has helped me overall because I didn't feel like I was killing myself to get these run paces like I would have before. Will need to take a look at the HRM footpod calibration as it's a bit low.
Take aways:
running - work on good steady deep breathing
bike - dismounts, more time in race rear wheels
overall - watch out for too many layers, need a plan to allow to strip off layers in T1 easily