Garmin has a duathlon mode but somehow I messed it up
Tell you what, it was a bit of a Bologna tonight and I’m lying here now with the room spinning and my legs protesting.
Everyone went hard from the gun, I went full gas to try to keep up. 3m31 pace for run #1, but this was only good for 7th. My legs literally won’t move any faster than that. The fastest guy ran 3m05 pace . He was a new guy racing for the Irish team looking very Italian and called Valentino, doesn’t sound very Irish to me the racing snake, but checked the rules and don’t think it specifies anywhere that you have to be called Paddy or Rhioghan.
It was warm, windy and dark on the bike. I tried my hardest to turtle down and man up for just under 31 minutes of P2 torture, and managed to move up to 4th with 38.7kmh at 242W.
In T2 Got cramp in some muscle in the top of my right leg putting right shoe on, had to keep hopping around and tried about 3 times before finally managed it, which was not the highlight of my evening. But after that felt good, 3m40 pace for the 2nd run and just managed to catch the 3rd place guy before the end. Who was as predicted the massive Dutch powerhouse, he only managed 40.1kmh on the bike though tonight, the fastest split. Slower than usual I guess because of the wind, and his run was down at around 4m10 pace. So not a night for the bigger gentlemen. Valentino won and his other Irish buddy Vladimir came 2nd (Ok, made that name up, he’s actually called Barry from Limerick so will allow that one)
Scored some points for team Dugong, will report back on placings after the official count. The Irish team are super strong but we have had a decent showing in the middle of the table , so it’s all to play for at this stage.
(Just to add a point of detail, those runs are really short- Garmin has them at 1.8km. Digging in at suicide pace for 6 and a half minutes is just about possible, but I certainly couldn’t hold that sort of pace for anything longer & suspect may have taken a few more years off my life this evening one way or another )
Mine was a bit different where our tri club is allocated x amount of spaces. I had been given a space by the club but hadn’t paid for it - I imagine you can’t transfer once you’ve paid.
Thinking back on this now, I’m so pleased I ducked out.
Just entered the local mountain rescue survival event, not entirely as bad as it sounds. It’s ~40k on the moors, you get the start location about a week before the race and I’m not sure if it includes a basic route or where the checkpoints are. You then have to navigate between them all using your brain, local knowledge, maps, or just follow someone that knows the route and is going at the same pace. There is a walking option as well.
I’m figuring that the worst that can happen is that I’ll end up in Pickering, Helmsley, Whitby or Guisborough
It was only £30 so if I change my mind I’ll consider it a donation to them.
Also had my eye on a run the week after from Guisborough but not sure what’s happened, the 40k route says closed with very few entries and the 20k is a trail\fell route I run sometimes anyway.
Then one last option is ~37k from Ripon, this would be a decent last run before the trail race in America so will probably enter that soon.
Ooo can you share some links for those? Particularly the Guisborough one. I’ve just tried to Google and found a 4tops event for 2024? Is that the same group?
Cleveland Survival is on the mountain rescue website and entries via sientries
This is from Guisborough
The races in the Dales are punkpanther, usually one per month and entries also on sientries
Finally, check Esk Valley fell club as I’m fairly sure the Guisborough moors race is soon, and if you’re nearby there’s Blakey and Bilsdale fairly soon which are tough events.
Finally got round to entering our club 70.3, the Steelman, it’s the weekend after the Cotswold race so a double weekend to see how close I can get to sub-5
Edit: also renewed my membership with Triathlon England or whatever they’re called this year.
Having not pinned a number on for a mono-race in the last 18mths I did 2 over the weekend.
Saturday was the Llantysilio Fell Race (10km/700m). Absolutely spot-on Spring conditions, dry, cool, calm with great visibility. The visibility was completely wasted on me as all I saw was my feet or the arse of the person in front of me. Disappointing race for me as I shot my bolt getting into a good place for the first narrow climb & things went downhill thereafter…except they didn’t, there was still 4 or 5 more climbs & I was beyond saving.
Sunday was a local 5 mile club road league race. It’s a great league with 400+ people taking part & back in the day (20yrs ) I was a solid top 10 finisher with a couple of 2nd places but hadn’t done one in 7yrs. Legs were in bits from the Saturday race so I took a gentle, scenic 90min cycle to it before a rudimentary warm up.
Didn’t really know where to place myself at the start but found a couple of old faces to have a quick reminisce - & injury update - with. Within a few hundred metres I found myself with some training muckers & settled in. Had the familiar ebb & flow as I caught & was caught by people & finished in 30:51…didn’t even count in my club’s veteran team, was in position 107 & 2nd in AG.
Obviously it’s shit getting older & slower but I was really satisfied with the Sunday result & chuffed at holding close to 3:45/km for all but kilometre 7.
Got a bit of flak from my old club of 15+yrs but there were many small reasons that added up to a change being best for me.
. He was a new guy racing for the Irish team looking very Italian and called Valentino, doesn’t sound very Irish to me the racing snake, but checked the rules and don’t think it specifies anywhere that you have to be called Paddy or Rhioghan.
)
