Go Green Bay (and First Official Race Report)
Monday, May 07, 2007
This weekend I headed back up to Green Bay, mostly for work reasons; but I also managed to fit a really fun two days of working out in, too.
Saturday morning, I did another (somewhat) on-course training run organized by the local running club. I ran with my sister, and we did a nice, easy 12-miler (Side note: tapering is, quite possibly, the best thing ever invented. I'm ready for the 18 and 20 milers to be done for a long, long while). She and I used to run together quite a bit. We were in track together in high school (until she stopped running so she could "concentrate" on high jump), and ran the "Greenhouse" (three miles) and "Bellagamba" (four miles) routes near our parents' house together often to prepare for ski season, or just because. But I haven't run with her in a while, and it was nice. Except for the parts toward the end where she started singing, out loud, to the Bon Jovi and Shakira playing on her ipod. That almost put a damper on things.
That afternoon, after my work engagement ended, I headed to Appleton to pick up my registration stuff for the Paper Discovery Duathlon the next day. For a lunch/snack, we stopped at a new place that has opened near the mall -- P.B. Loco -- and it is now my opinion that everyone needs to try this. I'm actually craving it now, and already working on a way to stop by there on the way up to Iron Mountain next weekend, and/or get one of these babies to open up in Madison.
Sunday was the duathlon. I didn't know quite what to expect, and kept oscillating between thinking it was going to be easy (after all, it was only a 5k/22 mile bike/5k) and then being nervous that I wasn't prepared enough. Turns out, I was plenty prepared, but it wasn't at all easy.
For starters, since it is such a short race, the intensity of it is far different than what I've been training for -- more of a sprint versus endurance. Add to that the fact that the winds were predicted (and lived up to the prediction) to be 20-25 mph.
In any case, the first 5k went pretty well. I had a pace in mind and I stuck to it, easily. I averaged about 8:30 miles, which is pretty fast for me. I likely could have done it a little faster, but I wanted to leave something in the tank, and given the wind, I was a little apprehensive of the bike leg.
As I should have been.
The first eight or 10 miles out of town, the wind was mostly at my back and I "felt like Lance Armstrong" (exactly the wording of the race director's prediction when he gave the course talk the night before). But I could see the top men and a few of the women already coming toward me on their way back to start their third leg, and they were struggling with the wind. It whipped straight across farmers' fields and the expanse of the Outagamie County Airport, and you could see them wobble just a bit every time a gust came.
I knew it was going to be bad. And it was. I hit the wind, and kept going lower and lower in gear. It was like going up a hill. For more than 10 miles. Seriously. I couldn't glide, I couldn't stop pedaling, even to get a sip of water, because if I did the wind brought me almost to a standstill. Around mile 20, I was actually looking forward to "sprinting" through another 5k if only it meant I could get off my bike and stop pedaling. An hour and 29 minutes after I had taken off, I got to do just that.
I took longer than I needed to in transition to take my jacket off and strap my ipod on, and to rehydrate a little bit. This was a low-priority race for me, and I was treating it as an organized, timed training day. I just wanted to get out there and get my feet wet. I wasn't going for a top finish. So, three minutes after I ambled into the transition, I shuffled back out.
My legs felt odd. Not sore, or hurting. It was like they just weren't all that connected to my body. Like the wiring was a bit haywire. From doing some mini-bricks so far, I knew that this was to be expected. So I kept my stride at a shuffle to give them time to adjust. I had the Violent Femmes in my ears singing "Blister in the Sun" and my legs were moving, so life was good. I was surprised to look down at my Garmin and find that I was actually clipping along at about 8:30. Sweet!
"Blister in the Sun" was followed by a little Billy Idol ("Dancing With Myself"), which brought me to the first (easier) of two hills on the course. I just put my head down and went for it, dropping to a 9:30 in the process, but passing a handful of people who had whizzed by me on the bike. And that felt good.
But the next hill didn't. It comes after a brief (1/4 mile) jaunt down a wooded trail. You can't see it, but when you make a hard right turn, bam! there it is, looming above you. One of those short-ish, but really, really, really steep inclines that you feel all the way down your calves into your heels. I dropped to an 11:30 pace then. I might have well as walked (probably would've been faster), but I wouldn't let myself. After shuffling past the top, I used an old cross-country trick -- taking five sprint steps to get back up to speed. This worked a bit, but even at a slight decline, I could only muster between an 8:30 and 9:00 minute mile. Ugh.
Then, suddenly, there was less than a mile to go. I tried pushing my pace. I was just below 9:00 still, but when I looked down, I saw that I was maxed out on my heart rate (love, love, love my little Garmin and all the information it provides). So, I relaxed and just focused on finishing strong. I averaged a 9 minute mile for that leg. Not what I wanted, but I guess it's okay for this time of year and having not spent much time on speed work.
All in all, I was really happy with some aspects of the race, not so happy with others (my bike leg pace, for instance). But it was a really great, fun weekend. Thanks to Linds and Tommy for being such fantastic hosts. We'll be back again in just two weeks for the marathon!
Posted by Erin 1:39 PM
Great work at the duathlon. I wish there was a Garmin for everyday things too...like detecting people's moods, if a guys is cool etc.
Keep up the great work!
Kelly