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In an ideal world my long term goal i'd still really like to make the AG podium at a national duathlon race my current best is 5th.
Nice target! I scraped 10th at the National in 2013 but mainly off the back of marathon training. I'd need to put a lot more time and effort into getting my cycling closer to my running form. I'm 50 next year and thought some time ago I'd celebrate by having a proper go at a big AG duathlon race but I'm not sure I can see that happening.
As it is I decided the other day that my main target for 2022 is to "race" two marathons; one running, one indoor rowing. Just found out my next door neighbour is a keen rower and was part of an all-female crew that rowed the channel. Took longer than they'd planned because they had to fix a rudder half way across. Machine! My birthday's in June so I've got a while to build up the distance; longest I've rowed so far is a half marathon (1:24, hard but not flat-out), so I'm not worried about endurance generally but not sure whether blisters or arse-ache might become an issue. If I can keep it together, anything sub-3 would make for a decent age ranking. (I appreciate it's a pretty niche competition!)
Then there's London Marathon in October. I'm still dreaming about sub-2:30, but B target would be beating this year's time (2:34:59) which again should be worth a decent ranking.
And congrats on the new arrival! My little one's coming up to six months, and I have managed to squeeze out 2x sub-2:40 marathons since she got here. :-)
PhilPub-
Good work 💪 you still being able to do that with a baby is a reminder that I'm sure I'll need at times that it can all be done. Luckily like you i guess i was already fit when our little one arrived as i was building for a xc 10 miler at the beginning of December but couldn't make it as she arrived 8 weeks early. I'm the opposite of you for my duathlon strengths as I'm a strong cyclist and just a solid runner so i definitely need to work on my second run strength to do better in a big race. Just more run speed endurance i guess which is why i thought 25-30k at 6 min mile pace in the interim should set me up well for that. Because your such a strong runner especially over the longer distances have you looked at something like the power man races? They could suit you. Good luck with your training and goals for this year and i may see you at the AG champs but I'll be in the v40-45 cat Olympic distance i think unless i can find a middle distance equivalent both non drafting as i can make up time on the bike in a TT effort. I guess you did the draft legal OD?
Retro_Bastard
In an ideal world my long term goal i'd still really like to make the AG podium at a national duathlon race my current best is 5th. In the medium term I'd like to work up to 25 maybe 30k at the pace Joe Skipper just did that 50k i did a 10 miler at that pace last year so i reckon it's doable. In the short term just maintain some consistent ideal still 6 days a week training as we have a 7 week old baby and I've massively underestimated how time consuming she is. I rarely struggle for motivation but I'm going to have to be more organised than ever before to reach any of those goals without destroying myself or pushing my luck to much with my wife.