Du or Du Not, There Is No Tri

"Du, or du not.  There is no tri."

If you haven't read the recap from last weekend's 5k, go check it out.  It was a huge jump in performance for both Julian and I.  PR's were smashed and confidence is high but our biggest challenge is coming up Sunday - the Fast & Furious Duathlon.  The last time we tackled a duathlon was as a relay team at Texas Motor Speedway.  This time we are on our own.

The short course is a 2mi run, 11mi bike, and 2mi run.  I know the distances aren't much for all you experienced triathletes out there but I have no doubt this will be a grueling test.  The shortness of the course lends itself to a high intensity approach and it'll be interesting to see if I can find the balance that allows for a strong bike split while having enough legs for the final run.  For Julian, this should trump anything he's done before.  I'm not sure he fully grasps how tough it'll be.  He's used to his athletic efforts lasting less than 30 minutes.  Sure he's done much longer workouts with me before but race pace is a different matter.

I've done the best I can to prepare Julian for what is to come.  We've discussed the basic performance plan stuff like pacing and hydration, plus some possible scenarios like how to handle mechanical issues such as a dropped chain.  I also contacted Jack of Ironhead Race Productions and he informed me he would be out at the course on Saturday.  We were already considering going out there for an easy scouting ride and now that's a definite.  Jack told me to give him a heads-up call and he'd be glad to take Julian on a cart to check out the run course and transition areas.  That combined with a bike ride across the dam should help him feel more comfortable the next day.  Trying to absorb all that info in a 10 minute long pre-race meeting would've been too much to ask.

For me, I'm in fine tuning mode.  Add lace-locks to the running shoes, figure out the exact nutrition approach, things like that.  As a certain soda commercial says ..... it's time to "Do the Dew Du"!