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Yesterday I raced my second duathlon race ever. First one was in 1991 or 1992, and I vividly recall it being an awfull experience. I think that it was partially a XC race.
Well, yesterday was done on flat road which is a decent surface for "serious" biking. My preparations for this race included a disasterous Bike-Run x 4 workout couple of weeks ago. For instance, after that workout my running has mostly been a pain in the ass. And nothing else.
Then on last Wednesday morning I sneaked out for a early morning tempo ride (20km in 33:40 = 35.6km/h) during which I used aerobars (which I got to borrow from Ile) for the first time in my life. Based on this base training I dared to face 44km bike ride with 10k "warm-up" and 5k "cool down".
As fun as it was, the race itself was a pretty long (2:11:44) performance which included 3.5 minutes of sad examples of bad transitions both from run to bike and bike to run. But I took them as a hands-on learning experience. On the other hand, they might have prevent me for achieving higher podium spots than the AG bronze which I earned.
Next up... recovery.
I think that last time I wore spikes was in 2008 when I participated XC race in the US (Derwood, MD) or then it was in 2009 at Run Through the Grapevine (Mt. Airy, MD).
Anyway, on Sunday wearing spikes sounded a reasonable choice since we were going to run mostly on grass. But now I have to restate that choice: it was an horrible idea. Now both of my heels are peeled and torn. I can't even fit my running shoes on. Damn it.
Otherwise that XC race was a nice experience. I recall vividly that a moment before (30 sec) the start, at the starting line, I began to reason my presence in that race. Since I'm sort of a shade of what I used to be, my expectations for the race were minimal - not to finish last. What kind of goal is that? Another point of reality was that right after the gun will go off, I will just watch all the runners vanish into the horizon. Well, both of these ideas came true... But even if I was slow a crap (there was a moment when I was ashamed to on that XC track), I finished.
Next up... Duathlon Nationals. I just hope that I can fit my racing flats on next Sunday.
Stupid me with no patience whatsoever. Even if last Sunday's XC race was going to be a tough nut with decent preparation, I just had to kill my tiny changes by not being patient enough.
On Wednesday I ran with JK an excellent hill workout followed by a steady run. Nice. This workout felt great and I started to feel opportunistic about Sunday. But then on Thursday I had a change to join sweetie and the group of the triathlon warriors in their bike-run -workout. And that was a clearly a bad bad mistake. Of course I didn't see that before the workout...
Workout comprised 6k fast bike followed by 1k fast run (and this was repeated four times). Beforehand I promised to run at easy pace (6.20s), but no, it just didn't happen. Bike legs were around 23 mph, and running pace varied from 5.35 to 5.15. And this combination just broke my legs. Totally. On the following Friday I could barely walk and on Saturday my easy run was just an awful experience.
Accordingly, Sunday's XC race was miserable imitation of running. Already during the WU I noticed that my legs and my guts are far from providing any changes for pushing my limits. So, in race I broke down already before the 1st kilometer and the rest of the way I wasn't even sure if I will finish that race. I did, but with low success. The days after the race have been miserable, too. Legs are in pain and the left thigh is partially out-of-order. So, I hope that I will make to the starting line on Sunday.
So next up XC nationals and then week after that Duathlon Nationals (10k-40k-5k; I'm in AG 40-44).
The night run was really nice experience. The course followed the river and the wind conditions were gentle. Before the race I promised to organize a elite car for a group of runners: they got they numbers from the car without standing in line and I offered them sports drink, energy gels and recovery drinks.
My race was decent if you forget what happened between 6-9k. I had pretty bad stomach cramp during which I didn't have any means to keep up the pace (5.30s). Because of that a long waited sub 35 did not happen. Thereafter, on Sunday evening I found myself drafting a way faster triathlete on our headwindish way back to home on a 3 hour long ride. Without him I would have taken a taxi instead of riding those last windy 20 miles.
Next up is XC race on Sunday (10.25k) and a week after that I will set my eyes on the starting line of the XC Nationals. It's been a while, but this time it is going to be a dark, dirty place for me... More importantly, if you sum up these two occasions, you'll realize that in Finland the XC season lasts almost one week.
We managed to our team from the start to the finish. What a success. No really, we were second among the sport club's category and fourth among all teams. Our finishing time, 2:44.49, was 8-10 minutes slower than our usual result. This year our team was lacking two Kenyans and four other runners (one of which run 10km NR for 40-44 AG). But no matter what yesterday was about fun in rain.
I had the priviledge to tackle with the legendary 6.3km leg which is known about comprising the only hills in the course (yes, half of the leg is uphill, but other legs have hills, too). The average pace (5.33) was slightly better than I expected.
Photo by kuvit telija
And then another, even greater news is that our women's team took their third consecutive win! This year they won by 6 minutes...
Next up will be an inaugural 10km which starts 10PM from the harbor of Turku.
I have been able to run twice this week after Sunday's incident. Today was so depressing day that I decided to skip any running.
Tomorrow is time for a legendary road relay called Karhu-viesti, a 56 km long trip, 7 legs. It's gonna be rainy, windy and fun.
Yes, I'm little bit scared.
Garbage bin in the middle of your way vs. you running at ez pace.
You lose.
Luckily I had a sudden day of fever and I had to have two days off last weekend. This partially eased the previous pain caused by stupidity. Last week, however, I managed to run only one workout (8x500m'200m, ~1.31) in addition to some ez runs embedded with some serious suffering.
This week I had a chance to kiss the treadmill goodbye since some of the road have lost their icy covering. On early Tuesday morning I ran 3x10min with accelerating pace. It was pretty cool to run faster outside for the first time since November. Only thing is that my legs haven't adjusted so much to running conditions with grip. No wonder that today's workout 5x1000m was exhausting. I actually quit after the first repeat and already started to change clothing. Only then I realized that there is no way that I could handle the obvious mental aftermath.... so I changed back and ran the rest of the workout with moderate effort.
I'm almost injured. I ran Sunday's LR (18 miles) only with my left leg since right one's usability was seriously hampered by some kind of nerve pain. As I don't give a rat's ass for being rational or indicating that 27 years on the road would bring some wisdom, I just enjoyed the sunny albeit icy conditions and thought that let's see what happens.
Pain happens.
I'm back at it tomorrow.
