Heel and Crank

From the website: "The Heel & Crank Duathlon raises money and awareness for ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease). This charity was chosen because of the late Darin Kruse, one of our local triathletes and friend, who recently lost a 3-year battle with ALS."

The race benefits ALS and Team Rocket Tri-club did a great job with it. It will be on my list for next summer.

It was a good race and I am pleased with my finish. It was a great day for a race and not real hot at race time. It did bring out a glaring weakness in my triathlon racing. I lost ground on the bike. Because of the bike weakness I missed 1st place in my age group by 1:33 seconds and the podium by 32 seconds.
Finished 5th in my age group and 27th overall. Finished 1st in age group on both running legs, but finished 8th in my age group on the bike.

By the numbers:
1st 2.5 miles 16:34 (average pace 6:38), 2nd 2.5 miles 17:22 (average pace 6:57)
10 mile bike ride at 30:23 averaging 19.7 mph
1st transition 1:10 and :41 for the 2nd transition
Overall finishing time was 1:06:09

I felt good during the first running segment. I kind of got boxed in at the start and this probably kept me from going out to fast. Finishing the run I got the bike and strolled through the transition. My friend Joann yelled at me to run with the bike. (1:10 transition)

The bike course was pretty flat some rolling and some steady grades. Mile 8 has a steep downhill followed by going right back up the hill. After the hill it is just a pretty flat run toward the finish. I lost my pace around mile 8 and 9, but managed to pick up the pace for mile 9.5 to the finish averaging 21.1 mph. This was the fastest average mile. Not a bad ride for a 500.00 dollar bike with flat handlebars, .28 tires, and no clips on the pedals. (30:23 averaging 19.7 mph) Yep I guess I prefer a more upright old school ride. It is kinder to my back. The final transition went pretty quick. (:41 second)

The last 2.5 mile run went pretty good. I managed to pass some people and feel pretty strong at the end. I drank nothing during the race just used the water to pour over my head and cool off some.

I am really happy with where I am now. Back in April I decided to lose weight 7 to 8 pounds. My weight now is under 150 lb. I have a maintained a sub 150 weekly weight for the last 3 and half weeks. I also wanted to push my pace. I have managed sub 7 minute pace tempos and sub 8 minute paces for my long runs. I have also become more diligent on my core exercises and it seems to be helping also. I maintained these paces for 8 weeks so hopefully it has stuck.

My goal is to maintain my speed through the heat and humidity of summer and set a PR on some 5Ks and a sub 90 minute half marathon this fall.

Hot Hot Hot

I am a early morning runner and the heat is not my friend. I tend to slow down during the first warm weeks of summer. Your body has to do double duty in the heat. It not only powers your body, but also has to move fluids to cool you. At least that is my theory.

One of my favorite heat beaters is a wet wrist band. I wet the band and carry it in my hand. It needs to be wet before you start. The water helps to dilute the sweat and it cools your head. It is like rubbing a cool rag across your brow.

I used it this AM (9:00 to 10:00 am) with the temperature in the mid to upper 80s. The only problem was the sunscreen I used was burning my eyes. I had a pretty good run (8.5 miles at a 7:30 pace). I hope to be acclimatized to the heat in a few weeks.