USAT Duathlon Nationals in Richmond, VA

Well there is not much to tell. I did not finish. My first DNF. I see it happed to pros and age groupers alike. I now understand what that feels like. Its funny because I was noticing athlete after athlete walking their bike back with a flat. And I was like "I'm glad thats not me". Before I get into what happened, I'll start from the START. The race was a 5k-38k-5k format. The first 5k went good. I don't know exacts yet, but I think it was around 17 minutes. I let myself fly on the down hills and sucked it up on the uphills. I hammered the bike. The coarse was pretty technical and had hills. And a ton of jaring BUMPS. At mile 18 I was holding a very solid average pace and making up time on the leaders. But that is where my journy ends. I hit a bump coming around a turn and my cleat clipped out.. or I should say my shoe broke out of my cleat while the cleat stayed clipped in the pedal. Remember that post I had where I talked about the cheap plastic warping on my cleat, well I replaced them with new ones. I still completely ripped the shoe from the new plastic. I'm going to a bike shop tomorrow to iron out this issue. Good news is my new aero wheels and cassette felt amazing. I was without question cycling faster with the same effort.

When it happened I was angry, sad, dissapointed.. I only had 5 more miles to go! I tried to bike with my bare foot, but it was useless. What's done is done. There was nothing I could do about it at the time. Things like this happen to everyone. It made me feel better that there were so many other DNFs due to flats and what not. And its not like I specifically trained for this race or was going to travel to Scottland to race in World Championships.

I understand the event organizers go to a lot trouble to make this race happen, but I have to say the bike coarse was shitty. Pot holes, bridge connections, bumps, tight turns, manholes everywhere. I know this is the last time DU Nationals will be in held in Richmond, but they really need to cover those bridge connections with matting.

I drove back home from Richmond and immediately jumped on my bike and took my anger and frustration out on a 30 mile ride and a 5k sprint. I am looking forward to my Triathlon Sprint race next weekend.

Im really using todays race and next weekends race as preparation for Kinetic Half Ironman.

These are the new Zoot Ultra Speed. There is very little support and very little padding.. oh and no laces or tie string. They force natural running. I will be using them for all my races with a 10K and under run. I would not suggest these shoes for over a 10K. After a couple track sessions and a 5k race in them I've found they will go as fast as your body can go... if that makes sense. It took me a week to get used to them as they really work your calves.

Heres the new bike setup. Additions include an 82mm front and 101mm rear tubular wheels and an 11-23 cassette. This upgrade has increased my speed pretty considerably.. I would say maybe 1.5-2 mph faster.