I would usually spend my Easter weekend with my family, enjoying chocolate-fuelled long runs/rides in the countryside. However, due to the current situation I am in London lockdown instead. Nonetheless, the Powells always find ways to make the most of difficult situations and my mum forwarded me some info about a virtual duathlon event hosted by the infamous Castle Series. 10k run, 40km indoor bike, 5km run - split over 3 days, no physical competitors, just you and the clock! This was certainly a duathlon with a difference!

After European Champs, a cold and the news that most of my summer racing being cancelled, my training had not at all been a race build. I had been smashing out some good turbo sessions but runs had just been my favourite routes at an enjoyable pace. I tried to think of inventive ways to make the virtual race ‘easter fun’ but the roads and new restrictions in London of where and when runners could go were going to make it tricky - it would appear that I may just have to try and properly race it and see what happened!

Good Friday- 10km run, 41:53. I have not done a 10km flat race in a long time and I had forgotten how hard they were! I convinced my partner Hugh to come and run with me and I’m so glad he did or I definitely would have bailed! We left early to avoid the 24 degree sunshine and too many other walkers/pedestrians so we could get a clear route to speed along whilst maintaining safe distance from others. After about 2km my legs and lungs were not too keen to run at my target pace and so I dropped my expectation and pushed through to just finishing it! Leg 1, complete.

Saturday- 40km indoor bike, 1:00:40. Wowzers! I’m not a fan of Zwift or other virtual cycling games - I did this 40km with just my fan and my favourite music playlist. I had never done such a long constant effort on the turbo before so was completely unsure how to pace it. This was as much a psychological effort as a physical one. I did the first 20km feeling pretty comfortable, HR was in threshold territory but legs felt good and I had a good rhythm going. I decided if I still felt good in the last 15mins I would push it as much as I could to the finish, and I did! I had a lot of power left in the legs and was quite pleased to finish with negative splits! I was amazed by my 24-25mph average. I had not used the speed function of my turbo before but I ensured to calibrate it, compared it with my power meter and heart rate numbers in my warm up and decided it actually would probably be about right for a completely straight and flat TT course with no wind or obstacles (wouldn’t that be the dream!).

Easter Sunday- 5km run, 19:45. My legs were definitely feeling it by Sunday. Having a day between each leg meant your body had time to process the effort that you had done and give you the adequate ache response whilst it recovered- much easier when you just do it all in one day! I decided to incorporate the 5km into my usual long weekend run. I managed to convince Hugh to come along with me again and we ran to my favourite 5k race course in Battersea Park. We left quite early but the park was BUSY! Safe to say the racing line was not taken… a lot of zigzagging to remain a safe distance away from others meant the oxygen deprived 5k brain had to try and think harder than usual! It would also appear that the usual 5k race course was short according to my watch (and we needed the complete distance to upload our results) and so my sprint finish was extended somewhat! However, we did it as well as we could and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air, my first virtual duathlon complete!

There was a leaderboard of results updated throughout the weekend. I was sitting quite comfortably in first female position but I still had the drive to do as well as I could the following day! In the end, I was 1st female (out of 81) and 10th person overall (out of 205).

Winning was great, however the process of racing solo and knowing that I could still push myself without external physical competition was better! I am feeling considerably more motivated to train and have identified some areas in training to work on. I loved that my mum and I could still race in the same event despite being in different parts of the country, keeping our Easter tradition going! The support from the Catenary Coaching athletes was great! Helene and I were both racing and it was fab to have the others rooting for us virtually! Both of us podiuming was a bonus. #teamcatenarydomination

Megan Powell

Castle Triathlon Easter Virtual Duathlon (Standard Distance), 10-12 Apr 2020

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