S: 13,800 yds - 3hr 13min
B: 102.38 mi - 5hr 50min
R: 25.90 mi - 3hr 21min
Total: 12hr 24min
Last year I began the multisport season with the Double Oak Duathlon; a short, ~1 hour race right in my own backyard at Oak Mountain State Park. It went well and I thought it was a good distance for the first race of the year, so I decided to do it again. This year's duathlon was to be the same course as last year; a 5k run, 20k bike, and 2.5k run, with a 0.6 mile section on single track trail in each of the runs. To sum it up in short, I was able to get the win! Here's how it happened:
Run 1 and T1 - 20:52
As we lined up, I began to size up the competition and noticed there were maybe 1-2 guys that I did not know that looked like they could be fast. Locally, I knew there was no one out there that could beat me so the main threat would be from an unknown competitor. The goal for the race was to win, and I wouldn't be happy with anything else. As the gun went off, we took off. The race began with a 0.25 mile slight uphill and everyone was just crushing it. I looked down at my Garmin after a minute and we were still running 5:25 pace (up a slight incline, remember) and I was sitting in 10th place (ridiculous). I decided there was no way any of these guys could keep it up so I backed down to a more reasonable 5:50-6:10 pace (depending on the hills). Sure enough, a couple of guys started to fade and I quickly moved into 4th place. I had noticed that one guy shot straight off the front at the beginning of the race...he looked like a runner and I knew he would be the guy to beat. Miles 1 and 2 clicked by in 6:02 and 5:54 before entering the single track for the last little bit of the run. No issues there and I approached T1 in 4th place ready to lay down some watts.
Bike - 32:06
Duathlon is so hard, don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise. IMO, it's way harder than triathlon. Try running a 5k at full gas and then hop on your bike and do a 30 minute threshold interval...it's not easy! The leader of the race had about 1:45 on me starting the bike, so I had my work cut out for me. The first couple minutes of the bike were flat/downhill so I spent that time letting my heart drop 185 bpm down to 160 bpm. As soon as we hit the main road I settled into a hard effort of 270-280 watts, knowing that I would soon start to reel in the 3 leaders. At the 3 mile mark I saw 2nd and 3rd place up the road. Not long after I was up on them and quickly blew by them. As we approached the turnaround I caught a glimpse of the leader. He must have been a slow descender because after a short descent I was right up on him as we rounded the turnaround cone. At this point, I decided to put my vo2 work to use and used the long hill right after the turnaround to punch it hard for about a minute in order to leave him in the dust. At the top of the hill I had a sizable gap, and from there on I was just following the lead motorcycle into T2 while trying to increase my lead.
T2 and Run 2 - 10:02
I rolled into T2 with what I later would find out to be about a 2 minute lead. After fumbling with my shoes I ran out to start the run and a quick glance behind me showed no sign of any competitors. The first part of the run was on uphill single track trail, and I hammered it hard knowing that the guy in 2nd was a strong runner. As the minutes went by, however, he was still out of sight so I knew I had it in the bag. The last half mile was downhill so I coasted into the finish line and snapped the tape with a ~1 minute margin of victory. This year is off to a good start so far...hopefully there will be more where this came from!
Last year I began the multisport season with the Double Oak Duathlon; a short, ~1 hour race right in my own backyard at Oak Mountain State Park. It went well and I thought it was a good distance for the first race of the year, so I decided to do it again. This year's duathlon was to be the same course as last year; a 5k run, 20k bike, and 2.5k run, with a 0.6 mile section on single track trail in each of the runs. To sum it up in short, I was able to get the win! Here's how it happened:
Run 1 and T1 - 20:52
As we lined up, I began to size up the competition and noticed there were maybe 1-2 guys that I did not know that looked like they could be fast. Locally, I knew there was no one out there that could beat me so the main threat would be from an unknown competitor. The goal for the race was to win, and I wouldn't be happy with anything else. As the gun went off, we took off. The race began with a 0.25 mile slight uphill and everyone was just crushing it. I looked down at my Garmin after a minute and we were still running 5:25 pace (up a slight incline, remember) and I was sitting in 10th place (ridiculous). I decided there was no way any of these guys could keep it up so I backed down to a more reasonable 5:50-6:10 pace (depending on the hills). Sure enough, a couple of guys started to fade and I quickly moved into 4th place. I had noticed that one guy shot straight off the front at the beginning of the race...he looked like a runner and I knew he would be the guy to beat. Miles 1 and 2 clicked by in 6:02 and 5:54 before entering the single track for the last little bit of the run. No issues there and I approached T1 in 4th place ready to lay down some watts.
Bike - 32:06
Duathlon is so hard, don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise. IMO, it's way harder than triathlon. Try running a 5k at full gas and then hop on your bike and do a 30 minute threshold interval...it's not easy! The leader of the race had about 1:45 on me starting the bike, so I had my work cut out for me. The first couple minutes of the bike were flat/downhill so I spent that time letting my heart drop 185 bpm down to 160 bpm. As soon as we hit the main road I settled into a hard effort of 270-280 watts, knowing that I would soon start to reel in the 3 leaders. At the 3 mile mark I saw 2nd and 3rd place up the road. Not long after I was up on them and quickly blew by them. As we approached the turnaround I caught a glimpse of the leader. He must have been a slow descender because after a short descent I was right up on him as we rounded the turnaround cone. At this point, I decided to put my vo2 work to use and used the long hill right after the turnaround to punch it hard for about a minute in order to leave him in the dust. At the top of the hill I had a sizable gap, and from there on I was just following the lead motorcycle into T2 while trying to increase my lead.
T2 and Run 2 - 10:02
I rolled into T2 with what I later would find out to be about a 2 minute lead. After fumbling with my shoes I ran out to start the run and a quick glance behind me showed no sign of any competitors. The first part of the run was on uphill single track trail, and I hammered it hard knowing that the guy in 2nd was a strong runner. As the minutes went by, however, he was still out of sight so I knew I had it in the bag. The last half mile was downhill so I coasted into the finish line and snapped the tape with a ~1 minute margin of victory. This year is off to a good start so far...hopefully there will be more where this came from!
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| the top 3 overall podium |
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