"Hill Numbers" from Duathlon Nationals (yes, the race back in JUNE)

I've had most of this post written up for over 2 months, but I forgot about it. Here are some final numbers from Duathlon Nationals in June.

Me, sister-in-law Annie, and her boy-toy Matt after Du Nationals.

If you remember, in the sprint race, we had to bike a loop 2 times that started with a MAJOR climb just 70 second into the ride (the "standard" distance did it 3 times). In my race report, I noted that most everyone I talked to about riding up Ohio Hill said that the first time was rough, and then it didn't feel as bad. And those were my sentiments too: Ohio felt faster YET easier the 2nd time up. Well, the time spent on the hill confirms that. They had a "King of the Hill" challenge, so they had a timing mat at the bottom and (near) the top of the hill. Here were my splits and my crew's:

• Steve: 2:24 first lap, 2:21 second lap
• Annie: 3:36 first lap, 3:39 second lap
• Matt: 3:12 first lap, 3:04 second lap, 3:13 third lap

Also, my bike Garmin data shows my *slightly* faster second loop. Here's my overall bike speed:

Up Ohio early on, enjoying some speed around mile 2.5, down the steep hill
to the Yacht Club at mile 4, then some flat riding along the river back to start the 2nd loop.

I took the 2 loops on the bike and laid them on top of each other to see where they differed. The 2nd loop is in red. They are pretty similar (1st loop being faster in spots and the 2nd loop being faster in other spots), but the biggest difference is that I appeared to be carrying more speed at the end of the 2nd loop (back to transition) than I did at the end of the first loop:

And then in the spirit of overlaying Garmin speed data, I put my 2 runs on top of each other. This shows what I figured it would: a much more "constant" feeing first run (in blue), and a much more "jumpy" and sporadic 2nd run (in red) as I was awaiting the sweet release of death:

Here are some links to "Duathlon National" posts back in June:

- The first part of my race report (mainly Matt's race as Annie and I got ready to go)
- My full race report
- Lots more awesome photos of me racing from a friend