John Hirsch: This One’s for You
A little over a year ago, good friend John Hirsch interviewed me for his blog.
You can read the entry here.
One of the things John has mentioned numerous time to me either via his writing, email correspondence, or in person is his desire to see me enter the dark evil world of triathlon.
I had long been considering becoming a duathlon specialist since I apparently can run faster than most cyclists and ride faster than most runners. I am not entirely that gifted in either arena - I mean, I am never gonna make it as a full time pro cyclist and my running is not good enough for anything other than winning local road races when the Kenyan, Ethiopian, and BAA athletes decide not to show up because there’s a better race somewhere else with prize money.
In my brief multisport career to date, I have entered and completed a whopping total of 3 duathlons. My first venture into the sport was in May of 2005 and I was second in my duathlon debut, barely a minute behind the first place woman who was an elite triathlete. I did not race any duathlons in 2006 because my road racing schedule was pretty packed that year. In 2007 I managed to fit two in - I was first woman in both of them, and 6th overall among men in one and 2nd in the other.
So you can see why I wanted to become a duathlon person. I was actually good at these things.
Last summer I started coaching Becky, one of my former track runners turned trigeek. I trained Becky to balance her tri training through indoor and outdoor track season. I did her brick workouts with her. It started out with me helping her get in her bike/run bricks but somehow I found myself at Ellacoya at 6am many days of the week doing her open water swims with her. I decided the water wasn’t too bad.
In September I actually started formal swim training.
I still suck at swimming because I never do it enough - I got better at it back in January and February when I was injured, but once I was cleared to train again I was back on the bike and running. Hey, I have a contract with a pro cycling team, I know where my priorities lie. Swimming took a backseat to that.
Which leads me to where I am now.
Yesterday I entered my first triathlon. It was not a big deal or anything - I deliberately picked one that had a short pool swim, since I really am not a strong swimmer. I had to seed myself for the 250yd distance. I decided 5:30 was a reasonable time for me. Then I went to the pool on Saturday and swam 3×250 yrds just to make sure I could do it in 5:30. Three sets yielded me a 5:34, 5:26 and 5:24. Good.
Sunday was race day. The race was a mere 9miles from home in Tyngsboro, MA.
They lined us up according to seed time and we got in the pool in 20second intervals. I was way at the back..not too many people are swimming a 5:30 for 250yrds and calling themselves a triathlete.
Hey, I had an excuse - this was my first one.
The swim went well, I exited the water in exactly 5:30 and my HR was feeling good and in control. I ran into transition outside, got the bike gear ready, did my world famous Flying Litka cross remount and heard bang. Hmm..ignore it.
Riding along, something did not feel right. I reached back and felt the rear tire - it was not flat. I opened the rear brake - still not feeling right. I rode the entire 10mile bike section with the bike rarely going over 35kph - WTF? Something was definitely wrong with the bike but I feared that if I stopped to see what it was I would not be happy with the diagnosis and my race might end, so I decided to continue on with the strange noises and slow speed.
Into T2 I discovered the rear wheel was loose in the drop out and that the rim was slammed into the right brake pad the entire time. Oh. So that explains the noise and the slow speed. Dammit…
The run was 3miles and there was a hill in it about halfway in - a long one. I felt much better on this run than I do on the second run of duathlons. The second run in a duathlon just plain hurts. This was not so bad -I actually felt like I had control over my speed - not that I had much speed since I think I ran twice since April. I was not sure how fast I was going but I was catching lots of people.
It turns out I ran 6:30s for 3miles - which is about as fast as I ever run off the bike in duathlons when I actually train properly for these things. With my fitness about two months behind where it typically is for May, I had not done a single brick workout this year.
My end result was 2nd female overall. Not bad considering I had a mechanical on the bike and had not been swimming or running much in two months.
So, John Hirsch -I took your advice. This one’s for you.
