I did the Norski Duathlon, which is held in a small town just to the north of here in DeForest, Wisconsin. This small town is only 10 minutes to the north of Madison. I have lived here for 15 years and had never been there.
A duathlon, for those who don't know, is two events, biking and running. This particular race was a 5K run, followed up by a 15.5 mile bike ride, followed up by a 2 mile run.
There is a transition area where you remove your running shoes and put your biking shoes and helmet on. This same area is utilized for the reverse after you are done with the bike ride. The clock keeps running during these transitions so it is important to keep moving.
As we started the first run, I felt pretty good and really motored the first mile. Then my left hamstring cramped. This was quite painful, but I managed to keep running. I finished the first run with miles just over 7 minutes. I could have been well under 7 without the cramps. I am not quite sure what the deal was with that. I didn't really do anything I have never done before the day before a big race or ride. I had my usual protein/carb dinner. I can only figure that something, somehow I ate the day before didn't agree with my hamstrings.
I entered the transition area after the first run and hustled to get my biking gear on. I did it in around a minute, but then as I got on the bike I realized that I had somehow had thrown the chain. Dammit! That cost me 30 seconds to get it back on.
I was relived to get on the bike as I could use different muscle groups than my hamstring to ride for a while, and give my hammy a massage. I averaged 17.5 mph on the ride. I thought I hammered it pretty well for a hilly ride.
When transitioning from running to biking my muscles really didn't have any adverse affects. But the reverse was not true. When I was done biking I put my running shoes back on, or tried to. In my haste to transition to the bike I left my right running shoe in a knot and burned 30 seconds fixing that mess. When I started running, both of my hamstrings were aching from cramps, and my quads were a bit trashed too from the biking.
I powered through all of the pain, and ran the last two miles averaging 7 minutes 50 seconds per mile. I did that time even though I had a shoe come untied.
So overall I finished in the top third of all competitors. I really can't complain about that at all.
So many mistakes:
- nightmare cramping of hamstrings
- lost chain at beginning of bike ride
- left shoe in a knot at transition from bike to run
- shoe came untied in final run
Who knows, but I am guessing I could have shaved five minutes off of my final time if all of these things were done correctly.
Oh well, it was a good learning experience. I had a lot of fun and I know a lot for the next time.
I really have to figure out why I cramped. Frankly I am pretty happy that I pushed through all of that pain to register a pretty good time.
Today is a day of rest, and tomorrow is a nightmarishly long Muay Thai test to advance to the next level. I hope I got all the cramping out of my system before that thing starts. I will be sure to pound some bananas and hydrate a lot today. The last thing I need is to cramp during sparring or something like that.
0 comments:
Post a Comment