Bill with Suunto has been kind enough to provide us Zentri geeks with letters from Mikael Hanson, who is representing Team USA in Hungary at the Duathlon World Championships. The following is an amazing account of Mikael's adventures racing against the best and shows us how the best get it done.
Mikael is the owner of Cadence Cycling and Multi-sport Centers in NYC and you can find out more at www.cadencecycling.com. You can also find the lead-ups to this post at www.triscoop.com. Enjoy!
Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 07:21:23 EDT
Subject: Du Worlds
Duathlon Worlds, Gyor Hungary - POST #3 - RACE DAY IS HERE!
Well all of he waiting is over and race day has finally arrived! I did get some interesting news late Saturday regarding my start time that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Due to the enormous size of the waves, they moved us 40-44 year olds into the earlier wave which had an 8:30am start verses our previous 9:45am start. This would be a huge advantage for a couple reasons. First of all, it was going to be a scorcher of a day and in that hour plus the temps would go from about 70 to the mid-80s with plenty of humidity to boot. Turns out my finishing time would have been in the top 20 for the later wave (assuming I could still have gone as fast with the hotter temps), but my wave would be a different ball game all together as I was racing with the 20+ year olds, meaning the pace would likely be a tad faster.
Before I share the details, let's roll back to last night. After my staple pasta dinner, I headed back to my room and occupied my evening hours by watching the age old war classic Kelly's Heroes on my lap top (PS - Hungarian TV offers very little in English save CNN, BBC and MTV!). Fearing I would not fall asleep (a pre-race curse), I made an executive decision and used a mild prescription sleep aid and it did the trick. I closed my eyes around midnight and woke to the sound of chirping birds at 5am, refreshed and ready to rock and roll. I spent the better part of Saturday seeking out the only pre-race meal I do - a banana, half of a danish and half a bagel with peanut butter on it. The hotel was kind enough to open the restaurant at 6am so we could all get a strong cup of coffee be our event.
Around 7am I slowly made my way to the start line. We had to drop off our bikes last night in the nearly 1/4mi long transition area (meaning I had to memorize the name of the cross street my bike was parked near). I dropped off my helmet and cycling shoes and then headed to do a warm-up run and finish my pre-race prep, as I was still missing one vital element of the routine. I found a small side street and did some easy running mixed with striders and around 8am was able to complete the final part of my warm-up. You see, along with my set pre-race breakfast (which has not changed in over 20 years), I have one more thing I do before large events such as regional, national, and now world championships - I throw up! Call it a severe case of nerves, but for me it is a sign that my adrenaline is pumping. That out of the way, I headed to the start line and found my place among the 350+ others (I think I am going to be sick again). The group was very fidgety at first, but with about 30 seconds to gun time an eerie calm washed over the pack and for a moment there was nothing but silence. Then without warning - BANG! The gun went off and we were away!
Before every race I write down my performance expectations. For each leg of a race I write down an A scenario (I am firing on all cylinders), a B case (a good day), and a C case (should have stayed in bed). Prior to arriving in Hungary, my A scenario was for a 2:06 total time, my B was 2:09, and C was 2:12. After previewing the course, it became clear that the first run was closer to 9.2K (than 10K) and the bike was 39K (vs 40K). I adjusted all of scenarios lower by 6 minutes - so my A was now 2:00 flat. The first run was in a word - FAST. No, I take that back - VERY FAST! On top of that, it was extremely humbling. At the 3K mark we headed up a small hill and all I could see ahead of me was a sea of bodies strung out over a 1/4mi long - I wasn't even in the top 1/3 of this group. My goal on the first run was to keep my Heart Rate below my Lactate Threshold level of around 175 and I did sort of do that. My first 4.6K split was 16:40 or roughly an 18:15 5K (ya, that would have been a PR - nice pacing Mike!) My legs felt fine and my next 4.6K split was 16:30 (about an 18:05 5K). I jumped on the bike and began the task of reeling as many people in as I could. This course was flat, but very technical, requiring many high speed corners and U-turns - perfect for a former bike racer like myself. I began moving up through the sea of riders and near the top end of lap 1, dove my Cyfac tri-bike into the S-curve only to see the rider in front of me hit a pot hole and go down hard. I had about 1 second to decide on diving right or left and thanks to the bike gods, I choose left and missed him by about 2 inches (of course I didn't see any of it as I closed my eyes and prayed I would clear his spinning bike!) I was averaging well over 28mpg on the 2 long straight-aways and was clicking off lap times near 18:10 for each of the 13K laps (roughly 55:00 for the 39K). The 2nd run was a legit 5K and in a word, it HURT! My stomach was cramping as the temperature was soaring and we had little or no wind to cool us off. On top of that, I felt a blister on my left foot that was painful, but I could ignore it for another 18-19mins.
While I won't know how I placed overall or even in my age group until later tonight, that is always secondary to how I did relative to my own time goals. My 'A' scenario called for 2:00 flat and I can proudly say that my final time was 1:50:49. I had a good day, regardless where I end up! What an experience! I guess wearing that red, white and blue was worth a few extra miles per hour on the bike and some critical speed on the run! If anyone ever gets a chance to represent USA in an ITU event such as this - do not pass it up! For those aspiring duathletes - know that the long course Duathlon Worlds take place this October in Virginia! There are 2 more qualifying races left - the Blackwater Duathlon in MD this July and PowerMan Ohio this September! Why not give it a shot, you never know!
A final thought. The nest part of this trip was all of the great people I met, especially those on Team USA. One of the neatest people I was fortunate enough to meet on this trip was one of our female athletes - Marge Stahl, who is 77 years young and is on something like her 15th Team USA. What an inspiration to everyone!
Monday, May 21, 2007 at 10:21PM 
Join me and the raceAthlete crew as we hit 
