US National Masters Duathlon

I previewed the course today, and it's a tough one. Like the 30K, we
face a lot of small climbs and no rest. Maybe more climbing in this
race. It's going to be tough to pace ourselves well. I expect that
lot's of us are going to burn out at 10-12K. Hope it's not me!

Erik Brooks

(Erik Brooks) wrote in message . com...
I previewed the course today, and it's a tough one. Like the 30K, we
face a lot of small climbs and no rest. Maybe more climbing in this
race. It's going to be tough to pace ourselves well. I expect that
lot's of us are going to burn out at 10-12K. Hope it's not me!

Erik Brooks



This was a difficult but satisfying race for me. 5K of nice striding
terrain followed by a transition zone where we could change into
skating gear, and then 7.5K of difficult freestyle terrain, with many
relentless small hills, many of them steep. There were very few
places to catch your breath!

Temps were cold, somewhere around 5F, I think. Grip waxing was easy,
and the gliding was OK at best, as you'd expect in such cold temps.
It was definitely colder than during the 30K, but I chose to wear less
clothing, and that was a good choice. I didn't overheat this time.

We warmed up and then arranged our skating gear in a defined area.
There was a
clear place to take off the classic skis and then run to your ski bag
and swap gear, and then run to another line where you could put gear
back on. Total running length was about 100 feet. Some racers were
speculating that it might be wiser to do the required run but keep the
classic gear and stride those tough hills. Some did so, and did very
well with it. Chris Ransom told me that he decided to do this just as
he arrived at the transition, and he won our class. Saturday he skied
with only one pole because of the cast on his right arm, but today he
used two poles.

We started in waves by age group, with 3 minutes between waves. My
wave had about 12 racers. We double-poled for a short ways and then
the striding began. In talking with others, I knew that it would be
important to not burn out early - there was really tough terrain on
the second half. But again after the first 15 seconds or so I found
myself in 3rd and the pace didn't seem too fast so I hung with the
leaders for the first 2K or so and then the first 2 pulled away. From
then on I raced with two guys all the way to the finish. I know that
lots of others could relax a bit on the skating hills but we three
were right together till about 2K from the end.
I'll be one sore puppy tomorrow, even after using all the tricks I
know to stave
off the soreness. I was in 5th with 2K to go when the guy in third
throttled back a bit and the 4th place guy got past. It took me a
little more time to get past and I couldn't close the gap on 3rd. But
it was tremendously satisfying to feel that I did everything right..

Erik Brooks, Seattle

Congrats on putting together a good strategic success, Erik! I imagine it woulda been WAY EASY to fumble this
one and find yourself gone-under in those hills in the middle of the tough skate loop!!!

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
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Thanks Jeff. You're doing the 15K classic, right? I hope to meet
you then. I'll be the only guy wearing a visually understated suit,
sometimes with a Snoqualmie Nordic jacket on top.

BTW, they anounced after todays tough course that they are going to
mellow out the 15K classic course some - it was supposed to include 2
laps of the part that was the toughest today, but now we will do a
smaller loop of that twice and also go twice around the loop that we
strided today, which was really nice for classic.

Erik


Jeff Potter wrote in message ...
Congrats on putting together a good strategic success, Erik! I imagine it woulda been WAY EASY to fumble this
one and find yourself gone-under in those hills in the middle of the tough skate loop!!!

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of outdoor/indoor do-it-yourself culture...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies...
...rare books on ski, bike, boat culture, plus a Gulf Coast thriller
about smalltown smuggling ... radical novels coming up!
...original downloadable music ... and articles galore!
plus national travel forums! HOLY SMOKES! 800-763-6923