1st Overall at the Gator Terra Duathlon on May 2, 2009

The Saturday before this race, Katrina and I were in the mountains getting married.  We had a great time!  The only problem is that a week off of a training routine is tough.  I did run and lift weights in the mountains for most of the 7 days, but I think the 13 hour trip back in the truck probably hurt my legs a bit.  We got back around midnight Tuesday night.  Wednesday I ran and lifted weights and then Thursday, I ran and biked at Tyler State Park.  My time was SLOW and I could barely finish. I even skipped my second run.

Friday, we drove to Lincoln Parish Park in Ruston, LA for the race weekend.  After we set up and after a little rain storm, Tom E. and I slowly rode the trails to kind of get a feel for it.  I actually felt really good and strong, but maybe that's because I was going so slow.

On Saturday, the triathletes all started and then about 3 minutes later, the director started the duathletes.  We ran about 1.1 miles up 

the "bat cave" hill and around to the lake trail and back.  Somehow, I started and finished the run first.  As I was coming back, I was second overall, behind one of the triathletes.  I had a quick transition and headed out on the bike.  IMMEDIATELY, I knew my legs were SHOT.  

The guy in the blue shirt passed me on the trail, almost immediately.  Other triathletes also began to pass.  About 2 miles into the bike, I passed the guy in the blue shirt again, but he stayed behind me relatively close.  

We came to the "bunny hop" hills about 2.5 miles into the trails and I saw Jana snapping pictures.  I didn't realize I got that much air, since I wasn't feeling too strong, but I guess I did :)

 

I kept pedaling, though not fast.  I had no climb left in me, but we did finally come to the Tomac hill.  Chris Clemmons said I was about 4th or 5th overall (counting triathletes too), but I don't remember.    Then we came to the switchbacks.  Right before then, I let a number of triathletes pass me.    As we hit the switchbacks, Katrina, Jana, Justin, Diana, Beverly  and Chris were there.  Chris was yelling at me for encouragement, "HIGH ON THE OUTSIDE, LOW ON THE INSIDE, HIGH ON THE OUTSIDE, LOW IN THE INSIDE!".  That actually helped, because I climbed the switchbacks pretty strongly; however, when I hit the road on top, I HAD to recover.  Why couldn't Chris just follow me for the rest of the course??!??

I finally finished the bike and then headed out for the 3.5 mile trail run.  I ran for the first three miles, but had to walk about 100 yards, because my legs were just DEAD.  I was passed by a few people here.  

At the finish line, I did not recall being passed by another duathlon participant, which turned out to be accurate, as I received the "1st Overall" medal.  While I am happy that I won 1st, I was VERY dissappointed with how my body felt during most of the race.  I hope it was due to all of the travel, poor eating and sleep deprivation, but I'm not sure.  I have felt drained all this week too.

I'm heading to Tyler State Park in a few minutes to train, so I'll let you know if that goes any better.  I have the Spread Your Wings 24-hour Adventure Race coming up in two weeks, so I hope things improve!

Results by age group 

Heartbreak Duathlon was Great!

Saturday, February 21, 2009 was the 3rd annual Heartbreak Duathlon at Tyler State Park (put on by my company, SteelSports.net, LLC).  We had the largest turnout ever, with 65 racers.  The two previous years each had 56 racers.

Before the race, Katrina and I had to quickly set up the TA.  I raked the TA, since it had tons of pine straw, rocks and pine cones.  Katrina set up for check-in and started checking in the racers.  She worked her tail off and did a great job.  There were tons of people to check in for one person.  I helped a little and then her mom showed up and helped a lot.

It was about 9:57 and I had barely prepared myself to race.  The rain showers had started to taper off, though, so things were looking up.  Finally, to start on time, I told Chris Clemmons to start the race whenever he was ready.  

Run 1:

At the race start, all 65 racers took off and headed to Loop A.  It was a bit congested at first, so I ran on the side of the trail to pass a couple of people.  There were about 6 people ahead of me for most of the trail, but I planned to just stay relaxed and run at a comfortable pace for me.  I finished the first run in 6th place, after passing two people and getting passed by one at the end.  I finished the run in 19:59, which was a faster time than my training runs.

MBike:

I had a quick transition to the bike and took off.   My TA was so fast, I passed a couple of people.  Two more passed me on the bike, but I actually felt really good and strong on the bike.  I was trying to save a little bit for the last run, but I had a pretty fast ride time.  The pre-race rain had packed the trails VERY nicely, which made them fast.  

The park had done a controlled burn a couple of days before, so it looked like we were riding around Hawaii's smoking volcanoes.   This did not pose a problem, except on D-loop.  There were about 4 trees down on the trails.  This caused me to dismount and go over or under.  One wasn't really on the trail, but right beside it.  I could not see where the trail was, so I stopped and looked around.  I finally found it, so dragged by back tire to help other racers behind me see the route more easily.

I did not use my brakes much, since the trails were so packed, it was pretty easy to corner without slowing.  Plus, I wasn't trying to go fast.  I was just trying to stay steady.  I knew I would finish the ride in less than an hour, so I didn't figure too many people would pass me.  

I finished the mountain bike at 59:30, which included my transition time from run to bike.  I was pretty impressed with how fast I did that, since it was less than an hour for the ride + TA.  My legs still felt very strong, so I quickly transitioned to the run.

Run 2:

As I was running out of the TA past the TA Tent, Katrina said, "Good job, baby".  I could tell she was as surprised as I was by how fast I was going ;-P .  I saw both of the guys who passed me on the mountain bike while on the run.  One guy was 2 minutes 6 seconds ahead and the other was about 44 seconds ahead.

About that time, Chris' family was volunteering at the intersection of loops A & B.  His daughter said, "You're in like 5th place!"  I was kind of surprised and said, "Wow!".  

I passed the closest guy to me at the start of A loop, just past the volunteers.  I didn't know if he would be strong enough to pass me later, since I have NEVER previously run the whole loop without walking up a hill or two.  I felt strong, so decided to push myself to a faster pace and just see what happened.

I kept seeing the other guy ahead of me that was over 2 minutes ahead.  I finished the first run just ahead of that guy, so I was thinking I could beat him on the run, especially, if he pushed real hard on the bike and had drained his legs.  

I ended up running the whole trail on BOTH running legs, which was a first for me.  I closed the gap on the guy ahead, but finished 10 seconds behind him.  I was pretty happy that I was able to close 2 minutes, but wished I had another 200 meters :)

My second run was 21:52, for a total race time of 1:41:21.  I finished in 5th place overall and 3rd place in my division.

I was very happy with this time.  This was almost seven minutes faster than any of my training times.  

As a joke before the race, I told Justin I was going to try to beat his time from last year.  I didn't really think I could, but I was ribbing him for not being able to come :).  Turns out, I did beat his time by over a minute, which amazed me too.  Justin's FAST!

Finally back below one hour!

Afer spending a few hours at work today, I sneaked off to Tyler State Park to get in a quick ride.   This was my 6th time to ride out there this month and my 6th time to ride out there, since March 2008?!?!?!  Wow!  Before the two rides in March of '08, the only other time I rode out there was September of 2007.  My times were much worse.  

So anyway, I finally rode loops A, B, C and D in less than an hour!  I turned 59:15.  I know that's not as fast as some, but it's a milestone in my mountain bike training (Remember I promised to get faster and stronger on the bike, after our Big Chill Adventure Race???).  

I didn't feel all that energetic today and my legs felt a little dead, but I could tell that I still had some pretty good strength left.  I did work out with weights and run this morning, so I'm sure that had a little to do with feeling a little drained.

I'm very excited about not having a significant injury going into this year!  My back injury in February 2007 REALLY slammed me.  Knock on wood, I feel GREAT!

The duathlon is in two days, so my plan is to work out pretty hard tomorrow, take off Friday, while setting up the course and then have a good dinner.  Hopefully, I can have a good, strong race on Saturday.  I plan to push myself pretty hard.  GOTTA MAKE IT HURT!

Mock Duathlon Training

Katrina, Tom, Lesley and Susan met at TSP today to do some duathlon training, since the race is coming in two weeks.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so I'm glad we did it.

My first 2.5 mile trail run took 21:10, which was okay for me, but not fast enough to win :)

I felt pretty good on the run and had a relatively fast TA to the Bike.  My total 9.7 mile mountain bike ride took 1:04:05 with the transition time.  This was my third day in a row to mountain bike at TSP.  My legs were a little tired, but overall, I felt pretty good. 

On a side note, I converted my tires to Stan's No Tubes yesterday.  I have to say, I'm a fan! I had about 30 psi in my tires on the ride and it was pretty smooth.  I think it made me a little faster too, because, even after running 2.5 miles, my actual ride time was 15 seconds faster than yesterday!

On the last run, let's just say, I should not have had a HUGE Mexican lunch yesterday.  My stomach was giving me fits, so I walked a few times to "maintain".  My last 2.5 mile trail run took 26:02, including my transition from the bike.

This was a good training day for me. I have run in the Heartbreak Duathlon for the past two years and this was my fastest time, by over two minutes.  

2007 Heartbreak Duathlon Results My time, 01:53:26

2008 Heartbreak Duathlon Results My time, 2:09:51

Today's time, 1:51:17

I hurt my back pretty bad September 2007, which affected my 2007 and 2008 races, so I'm looking forward to racing injury free this year *fingers crossed*.

With that time, 2007 would have gotten me a 4th place age division finish.  In 2008, it would have been good enough for 3rd, in my division.  We'll see what this year brings!

Thanks for reading!

Rodney

Bike Training

We had a good time at Big Chill Adventure Race 2009, but you can read Katrina's and Justin's blogs on the team site for details.  For me, I felt good for the race, except I had NO power in my legs on the mountain bike on the way back from Rocky Hill Ranch.  This could have been due to slight dehydration, but I think the main reason was not enough bike miles in training.

To remedy that, I have committed to put in many more miles, before the next race.  I have also added some tough hillls on my normal route.  Here is the elevation profile for my new route:

You can click on it for the bigger picture.  It actually has similar climbs to those we encountered in Bastrop, with the exception that Bastrop's hills are longer, steady climbs.

I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday (Tom E.) and he was just coming back from running and biking at Tyler State Park.  I plan to train with him next weekend at the park, so that should help my mountain biking legs too :)

Dustbuster Duathlon

Race:  Dustbuster Duathlon

Date:  January 3, 2009

Location:  Shreveport, LA

Justin told me about the Dustbuster Duathlon he was putting on Wednesday, before the race.  I decided to punish myself for all of the food and snacks I had been eating during the holiday season, so I signed up.

It was a "short" road race with 1.5 mile run, 11.9 mile bike, 1.5 mile run.  I looked at the finish times from previous years and decided that my goal would be to finish in less than one hour, but I would prefer to finish as close to 50 minutes as possible.

I finished in 59:20, but was still disappointed that my legs were not stronger on the bike.  I did do some hill work Friday evening, before the race, but I think it had more to do with not biking enough during the past month.  You know, cold weather, and all.

Anyway, it was a fun race and I'm glad I was able to play outside on a nice, warm day.

Teresa White snapped this photo while she was racing.

Thanks, Justin, for a fun, well-run race!

Results:  

• By Division
• Overall