Thursday, October 1, 2015

Race Review: Bike King Duathlon


GOOD:


  1. Challenging race course
  2. Sufficient hydration stations
  3. Sufficient marshals
  4. SCTEX babyyyy!

BAD:
  1. Bike leg measured 57km only against the published 60km (bitin!)

MY RACE:

I met my objective for this race which was simply to finish. I was not in PR-beating shape as I lacked the physical and mental conditioning leading up to this race which I only find myself to blame. Garmin time as below:

Run1 - 0:40:28 for 6km
Bike - 2:18:56 for 57km
Run2 - 0:29:12 for 4km

Finish time (chip time) - 3:35:54 (my PR is at 3:29 from last year)

What's disappointing was that I was even hoping, minutes before gun start, that I could surprise the racing gods by digging deep for a PR. This was obviously not the case as I found myself run-walking the last 2km of Run2 again. Further, the whole race distance was shorter this year than 2014 so my finish time could've been worse.

Before I move on I have to pick up the (hard) lessons from this one:

  1. Lack of long rides at proper training zones. I bonked after about 75% of the bike leg. I had my gel eating schedule on time but my conditioning for the 60km length and at race pace was lacking.
  2. Be more disciplined in doing my workouts. Although family and work needs to be prioritized, I have to stop being lazy and do my workouts when I have the time. 
  3. More hill sprints/intervals. I lacked the conditioning to run the whole of Run2, knowing that I will suffer in the last 2km hard uphill based on last year's performance. I should've done more. 
  4. Bring my weight down. A lighter bike this year vs 2014 obviously didn't work as I am heavier this year. Tsk, I need to lose 10 or 15lbs....starting now.

All in all, I'm happy to finish this one but I'm just disappointed at myself for not preparing, i.e. babying my training for this race. Tsk tsk....

59th out of 82 in my age group. Ugh!!!