Oh How Running Hurts the Legs

Last weekend saw my first foray into the world of multisports events, with the Maidstone Duathlon. I had been contemplating of how to approach the race and I finally saw sense with how to race it. I had done a training run in the week at the sort of pace I thought I would be able to manage, though this seemed tough and I wondered if I was being too optimistic, well I guess you can always go faster when racing. The bike was just going to be as hard as I could and see what happened.

The morning of the race I felt in good shape, though extremely nervous. I hadn't been as nervous as this at a race for a fair few years now, talking with a few people helped settle the nerves. One thing I hadn't really thought much about was warming up, now I know what to do on the bike, but for running, well normally I start off slow and then ease into the effort. This couldn't really be done in a race, so I just sort of followed others by running gently up and down the road to get loosened up.

8am and the hooter goes, off I go at the front and running at a pace that I knew full well that I couldn't sustain for long, luckily the first couple of km's was downhill. I soon settled in behind another runner at a pace that I thought I might be able to sustain. As the run progressed the faster runners drifted away, but I didn't panic, I knew I was going faster than I had in training, and it was going to be tough finishing the first run at that pace as the last few km's were all uphill.

I got into T1 in about 13th position and about 5 mins down on the first runner, T1 went very well and my transition time was up there with the fastest guys. On the bike I started off at a reasonable effort  whilst being distracted by a rubbing noise, it took a while to realise it was the paper number rubbing on my thighs, another new experience LOL. Once on the main road, I just tried to get into a groove and keep at a reasonable effort. I wasn't expecting to be able to put out my normal 25 mile TT power, but was a little bit surprised at how even a lower effort felt so tough.

I was soon passing the faster runners and I got into the lead around the 10 mile mark, from here it wasn't long before the first run started showing with me getting cramps in both my calves everytime I upped the effort, not a usual experience for me in such a short TT. I pushed on as hard as I could with the aim of just trying to build as big a gap as I could with full knowledge that the final 3.5km run wasn't going to be fast and I needed as much time as possible. I was managing the cramps quite well, and at the final turn I was able to gauge that I was about 2-3 mins in front of the 2nd place rider. The last few miles I tried to go as fast for as little energy expenditure as I could, not a normal scenario for me, where I normally try and get everything out.

I arrived in T2 in a good state, and with another decent transition I was away for the 2nd run. I have done brick sessions in training, but in all honesty the feeling of racing hard and then trying to run hard is not one you experience unless racing. The first km was a real weird feeling with my legs feeling that they didn't want to work, and that along with a real sore quad meant the final run was not going to be a pleasant experience at all. The first 1.5 km was uphill as well, again not the best feeling. I just concentrated on getting up the hilly bits as quick as I could, as I knew a lot of the run was downhill.

As I reached the top of the hilly part, I looked at my pace, all seemed fairly good, and the with the downhill section it increased. The left quad was quite painful now and it was just a case of trying to manage the pain whilst going as fast as I could. I dare not look behind me as I didn't want to see the faster runners bearing down on me. As soon as I turned back towards the HQ and the finish line I knew I was going to cross the line first. It was sort of surreal really, as I am so used to just doing a solo effort and awaiting the finish times, there was no celebrating or anything, just an immense sense of satisfaction that I managed to win my first ever multisport event.

I have done a fair amount of TT's of all different distances, but this is the first time my legs have felt as though they had been hit with a sledgehammer, I guess that is the sort of damage done by running hard. It was a good experience, though I can't say the most pleasant one. It certainly impacted my training for a few days afterwards, again something I am not used to for a relatively short event. Will I be back for more duathlons, well no doubt I will, but for now it is the CTT TT Series to concentrate on followed by triathlons (including 2 ironman distance triathlons), lets hope these go as well. It was great to get racing off to a great start for the Tri Spirit Team, lets hope for many more successes.

Provisonal Results

Big thanks to Mike and the Team at Velocity Events, and to Zipp Wheels, SRAM, Tacx, Quarq and Torq Fitness for all your help, it is much appreciated.