Championship Weekend

This weekend is the USAT Duathlon National Championships in Tucson, AZ and me and several friends will try to qualify for Team USA and represent the USA at the World Championships in Nancy, France later this year. I have to admit that I have never been so hyped/nervous/anxious as I have the past couple weeks. I know I’m not the first athlete that has invested huge amounts of time and preparation for a big event, but this race is my early season Super Bowl and I want to have a good showing. 

My coach, Francois Modave, has done miracles with my training and I know that I am at my absolute best right now. Obviously, as I train throughout the year I will get better, but I know right now I’m in the best possible shape I can be in at this point in the season.

So what concerns do I have? Well, first and foremost is going out to fast during the first run. I need to tell myself that it is “ok” to let the other runners sprint away at the start of the race and focus on my own pace for the first 5k. But what is “my” pace? Good question! I’m really going to try to fall somewhere between the 6:30-6:40 range for the first 5k. I know I can run faster, but I need to have something left for the final run.

The bike is 35k and going to be a real mystery for me. It consist of two loops, so at least I will have an idea of what I need to do on the second loop based on my first loop time. I’m shooting for the hour mark on the bike portion.

The final run will be gut check time. Coming off the bike the legs will feel like cement, but I need to remember that it is now or never. Ideally, I would like to have a similar run time as the first 5k, but I will be happy with anything around 7:00 minute miles. If I don’t spend too much time in transition and I can hit my times, I should be able to finish somewhere around the edge of qualifying. This assumes everything goes perfect and as most of you know things rarely go perfect in competition.

Hope to have a race report up by Sunday. Good luck to everyone racing this weekend and especially the Mighty Mujer triathletes competing in El Paso.