Mark: Now, we talk a lot here on the channel about triathlon, but what about their
sibling the duathlon. The format of run-bike-run can be quite appealing to cyclists and runners.
Maybe just wanting to try their hand at something multi-sport, even to swimmers maybe just wanting
to do something completely different. To triathletes, perhaps just wanting a little bit of focus
over the off season or the winter. Whatever your reason is today, I'm here to help you
with some advice on how to prepare for a duathlon. [music]
"Why do duathlon," I hear you say? It's not race if it doesn't start with a swim or contain
three different disciplines, et cetera, et cetera. Well, even if your main focus is triathlons,
duathlon can be a great and a fun way of mixing your training up, particularly over the off
season, when perhaps there aren't so many triathlons going on because perhaps it's too
cold to do the open water part of the triathlon, in which case duathlon servers are a very
good and quite nice way to get that competitive outlet, gives you a bit of focus and also
allows you to practice some of your tactics and strategies ahead of the triathlon season.
Then, also, if you're beginner maybe wanting to progress to triathlons then duathlons can
be a really nice introduction. Obviously, two disciplines is a lot less scary than three
disciplines and, therefore, conserves a very nice introduction to this world of multi-sport.
Then, there's nothing wrong If you just don't like swimming. Duathlon does not contain swimming.
Therefore, if you just want to do duathlons and that's your end goal, that's absolutely
fine. You may be tempted to think that duathlon
is completely different to triathlon, and therefore, it requires a very different training
regime. Well, in reality, it's really not the case. You can actually perform very well
off a normal ordinary triathlon training program. That being said, there may be a few things
or tweaks you might want to add and change to your training, just to make sure that you
don't get caught out. The first of which being preparing to run before the bike.
I know that might sound odd, but as triathletes, we quite often practice running off the bike
in what we call "brick sessions," but there's something quite unique about doing a hard
run and then a bike with tired legs, and then expecting our legs to work again on that final
run. We're expecting quite a lot of our legs. My suggestion to you would be set your bike
up on an indoor trainer, finding a little loop outside that you can run on.
Starting off with that run route, jumping straight in onto the indoor trainer, and then
heading back out onto the run. You can repeat that through multiple times to really get
that sensation and feeling. If you're really lucky, you can do it all outside if you've
got a nice quiet loop or it's good weather, or all inside if you've got a treadmill. That
should really get used to that feeling of doing a hard run into a bike and running off.
Most of that is actually dealing with the fatigue in your legs and learning how to run
off with that fatigue, all of which will be beneficial and transfer over into triathlon
too. Secondly, duathlons are quite often used as a bit of an alternative to triathlons,
particularly during the off season, as I mentioned before. If you're really looking to for a
while in these duathlons, then you want to be including some race specific training to
prepare yourself better for the events. Now in the off season, if we're focusing on
triathlons, then we quite often end up doing base training at that time of the year, that
can end up feeling and being quite monotonous. Actually, including some of this race specific
training in at this time of year, it's not only going to prepare us better for the duathlons,
It's also just going to mix things up for us.
Finally, you definitely, definitely want to be practicing your transitions, whatever strategy
or technique you go for, it's really important that you at least do one session where you
just go through it over and over again and go through the motions that you're really
well prepared. I saw many good triathletes out there that don't do this and they mess
up quite catastrophically. Now, in duathlons, we obviously run first
and then run at the end. That may mean that using the same pair of shoes for both the
first run and that final run. That needs some practice. We'll go into that a little bit
later on. Finally, given that duathlons quite often
take place over the wintry months, they can be in less than ideal conditions, quite cold
and nippy. You may want to go with some warmer gear for before, maybe even during and after
the event, because there is nothing worse than being borderline hypothermic at the start
of a duathlon and then not really warming up until about a hundred meters before the
finish and then getting cold again. You can wear things like base layers if you're
triathlete, I've done that a lot before. You can wear gloves, maybe even a hat. You can
take few things actually off If you get too hot during the race, you can drop them off
in T1 or T2. Regardless of the result, whether it does help you improve your performance
or not, it's going to make it a lot more enjoyable. What pro tips have I got for you? Well, one
rather important detail that I've touched on a bit, I haven't really gone into yet,
and I really do need to, is your running shoes. A lot of people wear the same set of running
shoes for the first run and the second run. That's fine. The idea being that you take
off the running shoes in T1, place them down carefully, and, hopefully, they'll be able
to slip them on quite quickly in T2. If you really want to kick your duathlon season
off with a bang, why not go ready with two sets of running shoes, one set for the first
run, and then the second set set up perfectly in T2, so you can slip on nice and quickly.
There's no issues with getting a tongue hooked under or anything like that. Then, we've got
your socks. Now, hear me out on this one, I know it sounds quite odd, in triathlon we
often don't wear socks other than maybe for some long distance events and as we go onto
the run. In duathlon, I really would actually recommend you wear socks. It just gives you
that extra layer of protection on your feet as you're jumping on and off of the bike.
If you're doing flying mounts and dismounts, something that can provide the spectators
with quite a lot of amusement, is your socks sticking to the Velcro on your bike shoes
or triathlon shoes. I'm talking from experience here. All I do is recommend you go out and
just practice doing your transitions with the socks that you're hoping to wear. If you
do run into issues, maybe try out some different socks or another method. Then, finally moving
on from that, there's the option of actually doing the whole race in your running shoes.
I don't see this so often, actually it's quite hard to come by the pedals that you'd need
for, they're called Pyro pedals. It's a solid platform. When you come off that first run,
you can quickly jump onto your bike, place your feet onto these solid platforms and they
hook them in and then jump off the bike and run straight off. I'll be honest this is really
for the pointy end of racing for saving those one or two seconds through transition.
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