Sunday, July 13, 2008

Race Report - Cabbage Head Duathlon

Cabbage Head Duathlon (3 mi run - 30k bike 3 mi run)
Date: Saturday, July 12
Time: 8:00am
Location: Wiggins, CO (farm/ranch/middle-of-nowhere Colorado)

As this was just a 'fun' race, I dragged my butt out of bed at 4am and started on the 130mile drive to Wiggins. I packed up my stuff and showered the night before so I had minimal stuff to do in the morning. At about 4:40am I was on the road. I hit Wiggins at about 7:00am with only toll stops on E-470 and a much needed bathroom stop.

The morning was cool and breezy, with a little bit of cloud cover. Long sleeves were much needed before the race started to keep warm. But by race time after a warm-up, the tri top and shorts worked just fine.

I was in wave 4 with all non-elite women and for some reason a token male.

Run 1: 22:42. My GPS had this really as 2.94 miles, but that works out to be about 7:45ish pace. I was thinking of going 8:00min/mile but the 7:45 felt good. Hard but not extreme. It probably helped that the course was pancake flat (50ish feet of elevation change between lowest and highest point) and at 4500 feet elevtation, which may be lower enough from where I train (my house is at 6800 feet) for me to gain some benefit (more oxygen!) Coming into T1 I felt ready for the bike.

T1: 0:57. Not much to report. Transition area is pretty small so swapped shoes and put on my bike helmet and went!

Bike: 56:58 (~19mph). Again, pancake flat course with less than 100feet difference between high and low points. The kicker on this course was wind! There was a pretty strong wind coming out of the east to south east so those with more aerodynamic bikes had an advantage. This bike leg felt much better than the one at the du I did in May. My quads didn't feel as taed at the beginning. The flat course compared to Boulder might have something to do with it, but it is also later in the season and my legs are in better biking shape. I passed a few people (several mountain bikes) and a few guys on road bikes. Got passed early on by 2-3 ladies who must have been right behind me on the run. Coming into T2 a couple ladies passed me, but it didn't take long for me to pass them back on the run. I do feel I have a substantial amount of improvement I can make in my biking fitness. I fueled well on this leg. I drank mostly my HEED and then with about 15 minutes left of the bike I took a gel from my 'gel-bot.' That thing is great - for short races where you only need 1-2 gels, I can store them right in the water bottle. One stop fueling and no need to mess with gel packets.

T2: 00:49. Pretty simple here. Popped off the bike shoes and helmet, slipped on the running shoes and grabbed my hat and ran.

Run 2: 22:55. Not bad to be that close to the first run pace! It was definitely a harder run, but here is where you find whatever you have left. After that first mile, the legs felt very capable of running (much better than the lake to lake tri!). I passed a few people (mainly the older men who started in an earlier wave) and a few of the ladies who passed me at the very end of the bike course. The second half of the run is ever so slightly downhill, which made the final push into the finish line pretty strong.

Overall: 1:44:18. 2/16 in my age group, 26/78 women finishers (that includes the 7 or so elites). My take home prize was a cool Cabbage Head pint glass.


Post race breakfast was egg/potato burritos, which is actually a pretty decent post race recovery meal. After I cooled down, ate my food and got my award, I headed the 130 miles back home.

Later that night...
Drums Along the Rockies!
My friend had an extra ticket to the DCI competition so I had to go (she drove, thank goodness!) So back up to Denver (Invesco Field at Mile High) I went to watch about 8 drum and bugle corps perform. Some were the classic top corps like the Madison Scouts, Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, Santa Clara Vanguard and the Blue Devils. My high school drum instructor was in the Blue Devils in the late 1980s. They are about a month out from the championships so though not perfect, the shows are coming along. It's been a long time since I've seen a marching band event and it brought back many fun memories. I didn't know that Denver had a corps (the Blue Knights) but they enjoyed their home territory. Even though it was a late night and a very long day, that was a fantastic evening. Almost all of the performing corps hit the entertainment button very well.

1 comment:

Terry Odell said...

Ok, I recognize the drum person, but who is this triathlon nut?

How's Juno handling Mars' infirmities?