Fat Tire Duathlon - Race Results

This race was a good warm up to start the year off. This was my first MTB duathlon so I didn't know how I would do. I think I got a little too laid back with the training as I completely neglected any MTB training rides and hoped on my road biking to pick up the slack, but this was apparently not the case. I'll just post the race details as I entered it in beginnertriathlete.com:

Fat Tire Duathlon 2009-01-18 Virginia Beach, Virginia United States Kale Running and Team Tri Power 37F / 3C Overcast

Duathlon - Other Total Time = 1h 44m 25s Overall Rank = 40/62 Age Group = 35 - 39 Age Group Rank = 9/12

Pre-race routine:

Ate an energy bar and drank Gatorade.

There was not much training for this one. I've been running here and there for about 4 miles and mostly road biking. I only rode my mountain bike once within the last 3 months, hoping the road biking would pick up some of the slack. This was not the case.

Event warmup:

Light stretching and running.

Run

Comments:

I put the pace at where I wanted it to be. Being it a XC run and that I still had the MTB and another 5k coming up, I didn't push too hard.

What would you do differently?:

Stretched out and loosened up more.

T1

Comments:

The TA was short and small. I didn't have to travel far to get to my bike and my position on the rack was on the center isle.

Coming in was a little rough since I was a little winded from the hills prior to the TA. Also my shoes weren't the best for transitions. I had MTB shoes with laces and velcro. I forgot to pick up some quick laces so I had to spend some time tying up laces and it wasn't as easy as I thought in 30 degree weather.

What would you do differently?:

Get some quick laces for my MTB shoes.

Bike

Comments:

I knew this would be my weakest part. I did well on the flat/road portions with all the road bike training. I was even able to drop into an aero position and pass a few folks. They eventually caught back up though when we went off road. I couldn't find the power and balance like I used to have last year to maneuver efficiently through the off road portions. Also, being sore from riding the trainer the night before didn't help either.

What would you do differently?:

Get on the mountain bike more to train up the leg muscles.

T2

Comments:

Just like in T1, could had been more efficient if I didn't have to untie laces.

What would you do differently?:

Quick laces.

Run

Comments:

I couldn't get my legs to get moving after leaving T2. I'm sure it's because of the mountain bike portion and not having my legs conditioned for the transition into the run. Some minor muscle cramps shortly after T2 and took a minute to massage it away.

What would you do differently?:

Train on the mountain bike more and some bricks.

Post race

Warm down:

Not much. Stretched, hydrated and went out for some coffee with Roman.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Not training on the mountain bike.

The Night Before the Cape Henry Duathlon

So, against my earlier decision, I went ahead and replaced the bar tape myself. The tape needed to be replaced because of the damage my bike took back at the Richmond Sprint Triathlon in October.

From Cape Henry Duathlon 2008

Figuring it wouldn't be too bad, I stopped by Performance Bikes on the way home from picking up my race packet. Well after reading the instructions on the back, it definitely didn't look hard at all. I picked out a red and black marble color. White looked good but it looks worse when it gets dirty.

From Cape Henry Duathlon 2008

This is what the new marble tape vs. the stock white tape looked like. I may go back to white one day.

From Cape Henry Duathlon 2008

This is the final outcome. Like I said, it wasn't hard at all. The factory tape had adhesive behind it so I had to remove some of it. The new bar tape didn't have an adhesive back but luckily some of it stuck on the bars from the factory tape. Overall, it's a new look and hopefully it may help me spot my bike on the rack now...unless someone else has a Fuji Roubaix with red/black marble tape.

I have no idea how I'm going to do tomorrow. I haven't done any bricks since Richmond. I haven't done any group rides and have only ridden once over 20 miles on the bike. My run has been a lot better though, keeping 5k at a little over a 7 min/mile pace. I'm hoping I can keep a 7:30 pace tomorrow for the first 5k. For the bike, I can only hope for a 18-19 mph pace. For the final run, I hope I can keep it at around a 7:30 pace again. I've never ridden in the rain or even wet conditions, so I'm hoping not to make another spill. This time I'm not messing with rolling transitions or clipped shoes. I'll practice those more during winter. If it does rain, I'm hoping it happens during my run. I still enjoy running in the rain.

Circuit City Files for Bankruptcy

First CompUSA and now Circuit City. I'm going to miss their 24 minute in-store pick up.

clipped from www.engadget.com Circuit City files for bankruptcy by Darren Murph, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 8:16AM Even after shutting down 155 retail stores and announcing plans to cut around 17% of its 43,000 employees, Circuit City couldn't avoid the dreaded bankruptcy court. Today, the Virginia-based company (along with 17 affiliates) petitioned for Chapter 11 protection in Richmond as it attempts to survive under the crushing pressure from Best Buy / Walmart. Beyond that, details about the outfit's future are unclear, though Best Buy has reportedly stated that it "might take over stores that distressed rivals close." Please, no.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k

So this was a nice, fast race at the Oceanfront this weekend. I ran this 2 years ago but that was when it was recreational 5k. This year, as well as last year, they had a "competitive" category. On top of this, my work was able to expense the registration since this would be a team event but we could either choose the walk, recreational 5k or the competitive 5k.

Training into this was some light running during the weeks since I had just come off the Richmond Sprint Triathlon the week prior. I figured I wouldn't have to do much and there wasn't much I can do anyway. I was planning to do a sub-7:30 pace though. According to the site, about 7,000 people registered for the race so it was going to be crowded. Kathy was with me and she was going to do the 5k Recreational run but they had filled up so without a second thought, she decided to enter into the 5k Comptetitive category.

Race morning was cold and wet. Luckily I was able to find my favorite parking spot at the Oceanfront and walk to the nearby packet pickup. After packet pickup, we met at our designated spot and went to take our group photo. Group photo was quick but the race had already started by the time we finished. I took my time getting to the starting line thinking there would be a chip mat there to clock our start time. Man was I wrong. There was no mat so I had no idea how much time I had lost because there was also no time clock that I could see. I relied on my wrist watch and started the timer at the starting line.

Running down Atlantic was fun. I was passing and zig zagging other runners that wanted to hang back and enjoy the run/walk. I didn't bother keeping pace on my watch and ran at whatever pace I felt comfortable, which was fast for the first half.

I got down to the turn around point and made my left onto the boardwalk and that's when the wind hit us. This was expected though. I can't remember ever doing a race at the Oceanfront without the wind getting in the way. I finished the race at 25:13, according to the finish line clock. My watch read 22:00. That puts me at a little over a 7:04 / mile pace. Regardless, it was still a fun race for a good cause. There were plenty of different vendors and food after the race. I was even able to find a free 5k race next week for CHKD, so I'll be back at the Oceanfront again for another short race.

Xbox Live Primetime Delayed. No Netflix, yet.

Whether you want to call it the "new Xbox experience" or the "Xbox Live Primetime", it has been delayed. This would have included the Netflix integration, but it doesn't even look like this will make the delayed launch. Luckily, I still have PlayOn!.

Microsoft Xbox: Not Ready For Primetime - Forbes.com

There's a new member of the "Not Ready for Primetime Players": The Xbox 360.

Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) has delayed the launch of "Xbox Live Primetime," its programmed series of interactive games with real-world prizes, until the spring. Microsoft managers say the delay is necessary in order to ensure a smooth launch of the system's new user interface (or, if you prefer the terminology of Microsoft's PR department, the "new Xbox experience").

Tour de France third place finisher Kohl admits to doping.

AFP and ESPN, among other various sites, have reported third place 2008 Tour de France finisher Bernard Kohl has admitted to doping with CERA. This is the second rider from team Gerolsteiner caught doping, the other being Stefan Schumacher. It looks like the German site has already removed Schumacher as one of their riders, though his picture still lingers. This is the fourth rider so far that has failed the test. Even before Kohl's drug results came out, there have been various debates circulating on whether or not road cycling should be banned from future Olympics. The IOC has called for a retest of the Beijing 2008 frozen samples to test for new generation drugs and if enough fail, this could hurt the image of cycling even more. I still think banning the sport is a little extreme considering how many other sports are just as tarnished, such as MMA with anabolic steroids. It's still a competitor's responsibility so they should be the ones directly punished. These 2-4 year bans are too soft as part of the punishment. The penalty should include a lifetime ban or something as strict to outweigh the risk of taking the substance. It's not like the sport is going to be short of clean, competitive riders to fill in the slots of those failing the tests.

Richmond Sprint Triathlon 2008

finished the Richmond Sprint Triathlon in 1:20:08 (unofficial).
Sent via BlackBerry

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Official Times [link]
400m Swim: 11:27 / Rank: 43
T1: 3:09 / Rank: 12
20k Bike: 39:38 / Rank: 14
T2: 2:02 / Rank: 35
5k Run: 23:56 / Rank: 12
Total Time: 1:20:09

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I first have to say that the race was BLAST! I've done adventure races and individual road races before but all together, this was great.

There was a manditory race brief for first time course racers, which I couldn't make due to traffic so I'll start with the packet pick up. It was at 3Sports in Richmond. Their website looks to be under construction at the moment but their shop was impressive. It was two story, with the 1st floor for runners and the basement area for road bikes, mountain bikes and the shop. They had Cervélo bikes that I'm used to seeing and I want to say I saw an Orbea black and white Orca that was gorgeous. The swag was great, heavily sponsored by Napier Realtors.

Wake up was at 5:15am. Transition area opened up at 6:30am. The ACAC Fitness area was impressive as well. The indoor pool was huge, 50 meters with 8 lanes and smaller pools outside. There was a also an indoor tennis court in another building and they had a lot of machines in the workout floor. It definitely felt like a private club.

Swim
The swim involved splitting the pool between odds and evens on each side. Each side had 4 lanes. We started in order by race number. Each of us had to swim out 50 meters to the end, come back down the same lane. Then we had to duck under the lane dividers into the next lane and repeat. This would equal out to the 400 meters by the time you finished the 4th lap. Swimmers were released in 15 sec intervals to lessen traffic in the lanes. We had to submit our estimated times prior to the race in order to place us in our proper seed. I saw some people get mowed down by other swimmers and some pretty bad traffic causing about 3 swimmers to just stop, while they figured out who goes where.

My time was scheduled to start at around 8:45am. After swimming at the PA Rec center for 25 meters at a time, doing 50 had to take some getting used to. My first lap felt faster than I had planned. It wasn't until the 2nd half of my 2nd lap did I start feeling a little fatigued. I backed it off at the 3rd and picked up back up at the last 50 of the 4th lap. I did give up 3 spots to other swimmers that I knew I could make up on the bike and run. Getting in and out of T1 was systematic and I remembered to take my Cliff Bloks this time.

Bike
This part alone was fun to ride. We rode out in traffic that was supported by local sheriffs. They controlled each intersection allowing racers to go through without any interference. The roads also had bike lanes that made it easy to pass. On top of that, the motorists who passed us all stayed on the left side.

I hit a downhill that had me at 30+ mph and the rush was intense. I topped out my gears, which I have never done before. Naturally, what goes down must come up and unfortunately, when I started my first climb, my chain popped as I switched from my front small ring to the larger. Luckily, I was used to this and I only gave up about 20 secs. Only 3 other riders passed me but these were the same three I passed earlier in the bike leg.

The rest of the hills worked to my advantage. I had no more chain issues and I was able to manage the front gears properly to keep a consistent pace up and down the hills. I saw other bikers struggling up the hills, especially the ones on mountain bikes...sick. Gotta give those riders credit. I continued passing other riders and never giving up any to others, so that continued to fuel my drive. All of this would not last long though. As I passed the final rider before entering the T2 area, I began my rolling transition. I managed to get my left foot out and plant it on top of my shoe but my right shoe was giving me problems. I looked up and before I realized it, the yellow dismount line crept up and I was still moving at about 15 mph. With my right hand fumbling with my right foot, this left me with my left hand on my brakes. Which brakes does the left hand control? The front...so yeah you can imagine what happens next. I went over my bars and did a roll onto the road. Honestly though, it happened so fast, I was immediately back on my feet though I did freak out the nearby supporters and spectators. I even got a compliment for my roll. I credit that to my countless bails on the mountain bike. Practice makes perfect but I seriously need more practice on the rolling dismount and scouting out the dismount line properly.

Run
I was still a little disoriented coming into T2. I couldn't find my rack to put my bike on, and again one of those things you have to rehearse before the race. Things look different when there are less bikes on the rack. Anyway, once I found the rack, transition was systematic as well. Shoes, race number and Hammer gel (yes I tried it this time), then off I went. The run went through a neighborhood and this was a great leg also. It had some minor inclines but nothing like the bike leg. The neighborhood came out to cheer us on. Although I had a bit of a side cramp, it eventually went away. My ankle was a bit sore from the crash as well, but that too went away. I only managed to give up one position to another runner but made up plenty from others. There were 2 water stops, which were plenty enough for a 5k. I gave it a good kick at the end to finish at 1:20:08 (unofficial). I'm eagerly waiting for the official results. I felt great at the end, not like Sandman. I could have gone out for another race, though not at the same pace, but would have enjoyed another ride through the area.

Things I've learned:

• T2 entry...again scouting the dismount line and starting to work on my transition earlier.
• I actually like hills (on a bike).

To sum it up, this was probably the most enjoyable race I've done. The course, supporters and atmosphere were all excellent. This is also a really good race for tri beginners but too bad it was at the end of the season. I'm definitely signing up again for next year. I really enjoyed Richmond and it was great seeing an area that was bike friendly.

Next race, Cape Henry Duathlon.