Beccah Wassner Reports on First Race of Season & Podium Finish!

The 2009 season got off to a great start: a podium finish at the Desert Duathlon, outside of Scottsdale, Arizona. I finished second in my first official duathlon. I'm not ready to become a duathlete, but a run-bike-run is definitely a good workout. This race is a particularly good workout because it is almost all hills--my kind of race! I'd recommend the Desert Du to anyone training near Arizona. The runs are short and are mostly on desert trails. Twisty, hilly singletrack, one misstep and you're face to face with a cactus (I found that out the hard way). Coming from the east coast, it was hard to believe that so many people were racing and in top shape in February.

I'm not exactly in top shape yet, but it felt good to push myself again after months of not racing. I lost the lead in the second half of the bike, but felt strong the whole way. Kim Loeffler, a long distance triathlete training for next month's Ironman China, won the race. We've been doing some training together over the last few weeks in Tucson.

It's back to hard training now, we're trying to make the most of our last days in the warm sunshine. Today we did a 5k swim, right into an hour run. After a short nap we went up Mt. Lemmon to mile 14. Now we get to relax by the pool!

Pro Triathlete Rebeccah Wassner Spring Training in AZ

Posted by: Rebeccah Wassner, Cadence pro triathlete

As much as we love New York, the cold weather has forced us into some warm weather training. The location is Tucson, Arizona - where lots of pro cyclists and pro triathletes are training for the upcoming season. We're here with 2 other Cadence members for 3 weeks of hard workouts.

We've been starting each day with a 5k swim at an outdoor, heated pool. Today we did 26 x 100, coming in at 1:05 for each 100. That's about 1500 meter race pace for us and the pace we'll need to swim to make the first pack in a World Cup race. After swimming each day, we usually rest for an hour or so and then go out for a bike ride. Today we rode up Mt. Lemmon, the big climb in Tucson that is 26 miles long. We rode to Mile 10, saw the snow on the ground and then turned around. That was 1 hour of straight climbing. Laurel averaged 175 watts and I don't have a power meter, so I don't know my average, but I did manage to hold off a pro cyclist! All of those Cadence computrainer rides must be paying off!

After the run, we headed over to the desert trails for a 40 minute run. It wasn't easy to get the legs going after all that climbing on the bike, but the setting sun and perfect temperatures actually made the run very enjoyable. We've signed up for the Desert Duathlon in Scottsdale this weekend. This is a pre-season race for us, but the pro field should be a good one. Looking forward to getting back out on the race course!