Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds

So the results for Hinckley are posted. I finished in 1:02:30.5, with a combined run/transition of 21:38. That works out to a 22 mph average speed on the bike for the 15 mile course, only slightly slower than my time trial time from the week before, and that was without a 5k run beforehand. So now I have a good benchmark, it's time to work on improving. One thing I noticed, courtesy of Rick's pictures, is that I toe-down waaaaaay too much in my pedalstroke. That, and I think I need to get fit to the bike a little better when I'm in my bars. That's going to be a project for me and Sean from Bike Authority perhaps after I get the Soloist in and set up, but the pedal stroke is something to work on now. Guess I have my focus for this week's training rides.

It Never Gets Easier, You Just Go Faster

I thought that the LeMond quote was appropriate, since this weekend's exploits didn't happen last year or the year before, and this weekend's races didn't seem any less painful.

The good couple weeks kept getting better today. I bolted on the aero bars for the Hinckley Buzzard Duathlon/Biathlon/5k Run today, opting for the biathlon since running isn't so much my thing. For those who don't know, a biathlon is a run, followed by a bike ride (as opposed to the duathlon which is run/bike/run).

The run went well, and I found myself riding out of the transition area at 21:30. I neglected to mark my transition on my watch, but I would guess that it was about two minutes, yielding a 5k of 19:30 or so. The bike section went even better; I passed an awful lot of black bib numbers (the duathlon participants were wearing red numbers), and cruised into the finish chute with the clock reading 1:02 and change. When I got to the end of the chute, they handed me a Men's Biathlon 2nd Place Overall trophy! The overall winner of the Men's Biathlon was Mike Vanucci, with a winning time of something just under one hour; Mike is way stronger than I'll probably ever be, at least on a bike, and he says he passed me about halfway through the last lap. NCN should have the official results up later today or early tomorrow. Check their site if you're interested.

I, of course, was not alone in SBR blue and orange for the day. Eric, Matt T., Ian H., Angie, and several others were there as well. Rick and Gary were there taking pictures, (Rick's can be found on his Flickr site), and Dan B. was going to race, but the crank on his bike was trashed and he couldn't get a new one in time. Instead, he and the family came out to watch the festivities and cheer on SBR. The team did quite well, and most (if not all?) of the participants got at least a medal in their respective age group.

Overall, a great weekend.