Duathlon. Part 2

I did my event at the weekend... I was pleased that I'd got through it, but a couple of things niggled me:

1. The warden misdirected me (and about half the field!) so I didn't run over the electronic sensors at the first interchange, and didn't get a split time for my first run or bike... I just know that those first 2 legs took 1:09. I think the 4k run was about 24 mins, which means the 13k cycle must have been about 45. I do know the last 2k run took me just over 14mins which means someone walking briskly could've kept pace with me!! (But at least I achieved my pre-race goal of not stopping to walk, and not getting off the bike to push). However...

2. I had woefully under-prepared for the cycle leg. I'd convinced myself that the course would be flat and that I could rest on the bike if I was tired from running... nope! there were a couple of challenging hills to climb, and at one point (I kid you not) I was going so slowly at the top of a hill just levelling out onto the flat, that a young girl with a pretty basket on the front of her bike came zooming past me!!! (Well she had just pushed her bike up the hill, you see)

3. I didn't win a spot-prize.

All up, though, it was a good experience, and having taken Monday off to rest, yesterday I started training for the next one; about 8 weeks away in Mission Bay, there's an event. I think the short-course is 20k cycle + 5k run, so I need to train hard. Well at least that one *will* be flat... 

Duathlon.

Without ever consciously deciding to set New Year's Resolutions, a couple of months ago, I found myself just a little bit too large around the middle, and for the first time I actually cared.

With some gentle prods from home (The Wife) and work (Gareth, The super-fit Project Manager who just did a half-iron man!) I joined a gym and at around the same time, I caught up with my mate Jules who told me he was training for a duathlon in March.

Buoyed with a new-found lust for life (and a couple of Steinlager Pure's) I heard myself saying 'ooh I'll do that - it'll be a larf'.

So now I'm a couple of weeks away from actually competing and starting to wonder what I've let myself in for... The 'open' age group is 17-39 and I was tempted to enter the 'vets' and pass myself off as 40...

The event itself is a 'short course'. My perspective on short distances with regards to running/cycling is rapidly changing, but 4km run + 12km cycle + 2km run doesn't SEEM short to me...

Incidentally, I'm not doing the 400m swim on account of how I do not wish to drown.

Training is going OK-ish (although I have no frame of reference...) although I feel I should be doing more *real* running/cycling. I keep finding good excuses for staying in the gym: I can set the pace on the treadmill; I can stay out the sun (pasty-white-Englishman-Syndrome); it's too hilly round where I live... but with only a couple of weeks to go, I guess I'm going to have to harden up and put a couple of training runs in before the real event creeps up on me!

Maybe I'll slap some sunny on tomorrow and see if Gareth wants a gentle trot round Takapuna lake...