One last tune up race

this weekend was the Great Clermont Triathlon - a race that has been around for over 25 years and used to draw thousands of people for an early season tune up before St Anthony's. Over the years the race has decreased in sized but it still serves as a good tune up for folks looking to find out if they have their racing legs.

I decided to use this race as a tune up for my upcoming Duathlon. Since I have only been in the water 3-4 times this year I decided to enlist the help of fellow Team Hendryx coach Steve Griggs to do the swimming. I would do the bike and run. Sean and I decided that I could go out for a hard effort run while Steve was swimming and then meet him in transition and I would go off on the bike then run. Making it a duathlon training race for me.

The plan was - 5 minutes before Steve's wave went off I went for a run. I decided to run 28 minutes and that would have me back in time to get in to transition and meet Steve. I ran in and around the town of Clermont getting in some good rollers and was able to run pretty hard - I ran about 4.2 miles in 28 minutes.

Once I got back to the transition area I waited for Steve who was there about 2 minutes after I was done running (not bad timing) and off on the bike I went. Steve went off to get his training done for the day. The plan was to make this a hard training day and give a very good effort.

The bike went well. The course consists of mostly rollers the whole way with a couple climbs that a short but steep and you need to get out of the saddle to get to the top. I tried to catch as many people as I could on the bike and see if I could maintain a good steady pace. Over the 25 mile course I averaged about 20-21 mph and was able to keep my HR around 145-150 - so it was all good.

After the bike I transitioned as quickly as possible and went out for the run. Already having over 4 miles on my legs did not seem to be a problem - I went out fast and tried to maintain a HR around 170. The first lap of the run was 19:30, which is not too bad for a 5k. The next lap I seemed to struggle a tad - but still maintain form and tried to keep my HR consistent until the last mile. The second lap was 20:30 - one minute slower is not to encouraging. However, since it was a 2 lap course I could gage how I was running compared to the leads and to the folks chasing me - I seemed to be gaining ground on a lot of them so others were struggling a little too. Final 10k time was 40:00 about a 6:27 pace.

Overall, I was encouraged by the times for the race. I ran well before the bike and well after the bike. I still have some work to do over the next 2 weeks but think I can continue to improve and really be able to rip off a good race in Richmond in 3 weeks.

The race at the end of the month is a 10k, 40k, 5k - I think I can get my first run time to about 39:30 and the last 5k down to 19:00 but we will see.