Desert Classic Duathlon

Time is flying by and the race season is getting underway (blogging is still lagging behind). Two weekends ago I headed up to the 2nd MBAA race of the series at Estrella Mountain Regional Park where there is a competitive MTB course built right in behind the Phoenix International Raceway. Thankfully I had pre-ridden the course beforehand as it was a really fun technical course and I knew exactly what I was dropping into, lots of great rocky descents and climbs. Sadly the women's field was really small and very quickly it ended up myself and Kenda Pro-rider Zephanie Blasi. The race was 2 loops of the longer outside loop and 1 of the inside technical loop. We rode together through the first loop, then Zephanie put a gap on me through one of the technical sections and I was chasing hard 30sec down going into the 3rd lap. Unfortunately she flatted mid way through the lap and ended up running her bike in. Overall a great race, taking the win for Team Colleen. I didn't think that I really dug all that deep for the race, but at 2hr20mins it was one of the longer MTB races I have done and the first race effort of the year and training the next week was miserable. The body gradually got itself sorted out and I got back to some great training sessions this week. Mel McQuaid also rolled into Tucson this week and I have enjoyed getting some pool sessions in with her even though we end up chatting way too much and inevitably missing send-offs. She is focusing on the high stakes Abu Dhabi Triathlon in a couple weeks so I have passed on joining her on her marathon bike rides. Up this weekend is the Desert Classic Duathlon, now in its 14th year. Other than being a duathlon and therefore lacking the most important thing - a swim - this is a great race I raced numerous times years ago while I was living in Tempe. Held out in Fountain Hills at the McDowell Mountain Regional Park, it is a 3.5mile trail run, 21mile bike, 3mile trail run and usually attracts a great group of local triathletes and a solid group of pro's.

I was really hoping to race on my brand new Fuji D-6, but due to some technical sizing difficulties I will have to wait until the next race to show it off. Big thanks to Bruce at Fairwheel for all his time getting me set-up on another bike for the race. I haven't been on a true TT bike in many years and have been only riding my road and MTB for the past two months so I am a little apprehensive about the bike leg and how the body is going to respond to the completely different riding position but overall really looking forward to getting out and hammering and hopefully mixing it up with the "roadie triathletes" :))