The 2011 Atomic Man duathlon race report

Sunday was supposed to be my day off of training, but I raced in the Atomic Man duathlon instead. As a matter of a fact the last three Sunday were supposed to be recovery days, but I raced instead!

The 2011 Atomic Man duathlon was my 71st multisport race & my 17th duathlon..

Like I posted before, this is my favorite race of all time! The RD's go all out to make sure everyone has a fantastic time. They had a ton of stuff in the race packet bags from performance t-shirts, chap stick, gels, bars, water bottles, coupons, honey, wet suit bags, & those re-usable shopping bags! They have the most comfortable timing chip straps I've ever seen at a race! They also had more swag than I've ever seen in a non-Iron distance race! Ruby helmets, Ruby sunglasses, gift certificates to tri sports, gift certificates to a local bike shop. they had free coffee, organic meat, organic veggies, organic bread, fruit, many other things. The only thing they didn't have this year was photographers taking pictures that they had given out on the net for free on previous years.

I had a hard time racing today. I was low on motivation. I just wanted to sleep. Thank goodness this race decided to have a late 9:30 AM start time. I really needed the extra sleep on race morning! If it was a traditional 8 AM start time I doubt I'd of shown up. I've been trying my best to function on 4 hours sleep 5 days a week since my wife started up this semester in school. I'm SO TIRED! I feel like I could lay down & sleep for a year only waking to eat, which I haven't done much of for the last 4 months either! My legs felt dead on race morning. Part of the reason was lack of sleep, part is having been on a calories restricted diet since January 1st, I've lost 42 pounds since then, part was from not having a day off from training since April 24th, & partly because I'm putting my body through a new workout routine that it's ENTIRELY unaccustomed to. I have done nothing but high intensity short course training since late 2008, & I just started a training plan for Ironman Arizona that has a ton of long grueling workouts. My body is in complete shock from all this long distance training! My legs have been sore for 3 weeks straight. The thing I missed most about training for Irons is the amazing sleep! I fall asleep immediately & get the deepest sleep I've ever had when I train for Ironman- or perhaps it's because I'm not sleeping much & my body is overly tired.

Anyway, back to the race report. The Atomic Man duathlon is a seriously hilly course!!! I posted the terrain in with the pictures above.

I ran the 1st 4K in 19 minutes 15 seconds, which averaged out to a 7 minute 28 second pace. Not bad for someone who is chronically fatigued & racing on exhausted legs.

I felt great on the bike & I ended up much faster on the bike than I thought I'd be. I finished the 15K bike in 28 minutes 20 seconds keeping a 19.7 MPH average! For that course I felt I'd had a fantastic performance!

I thought for sure I'd fall apart on the 2nd run. I was hurting & my legs had began to feel flat. I couldn't hit that 5th gear to save my life! Turns out a kid all of 4' tall passed me about half way through the run, after the race I found out he was 13 years old! I wasn't going to let a young child spank me, so my competitive juices got all fired up & I dug deep & ran extremely hard the last half! I was shocked to find out I ran the 2nd 4K in 20 minutes 20 seconds keeping a 7 minutes 45 second pace!! BTW, the 13 year old kid still beat me by 20 seconds! That kid could race!!!!

My finishing time was 1 hour 8 minutes 48 seconds. Not to shabby on a sleep deprived, calories restricted, & overtrained body, but still 2 minutes 20 seconds behind my PR I set last year racing with the stomach flue.

I finished 2nd place in the 35-39 AG behind Marty Moriarty.

I race this Sunday May 8th at the Jay Benson triathlon. By the Jay Benson triathlon I will have trained hard everyday for 28 consecutive days, so I'm not expecting much out of my body. I'll be happy with just finishing!! Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!