Duathlon - anyone got any experience?

[drzeus]

I quite fancy giving this a go. Love running and love cycling (hate swimming - so a triathlon is totally out of the question!). Anyone do them? Got any tips for a complete novice?

There is one local to me at the end of January, small entry of 150 so I wonder if it will be diehards and I'll look like a prat!

New years resolution is to give it a go in 2011!

I like running and cycle to work so I did the London Duathalon about 2 years ago. It was hard but fun - I had proper butterflies before the race! All standard from the elite to the, erm, less so. It's a pricy but well organised race with lots of people, set off at carefully timed intervals.

The toughest bit was balancing the training for me - the course I did was hilly and my route to work and normal runs are flat. I found it particularly hard to do training which was running followed by cycling, though I managed a few the other way round.

Didn't change clothes or even shoes - I don't normally wear cycling shorts and don't have clip on shoes. I used my inexpensive beaten up old commuting bike, and just got some cages put on the pedals as a bit of a token effort. It makes transition more straightforward! As I am in the not-elite category , I just kept well to the left when riding and let the speed merchants over-take me with room to spare.

Going from the first run to the cycle was nice, actually, to give my muscles a change. The second run after that was murderous, but I'd been warned to expect that, so at least it wasn't a shock.

If I don't get a place in the Royal Parks Half this year, I think I'll do the London Duathalon again.

Let us know how you get on, won't you?

I've done a couple and would say that a small one is a perfect starting point.

I race in tri kit but there's no reason why you can't race in whatever you find comfortable for both running and cycling. Definately wear something that can be used for both disciplines as you don't want to change any clothes in transition (it wastes time) Make sure you've done some training in your race kit.

If you cycle with clipless pedals you need to make a decision about using them in the race. It does take time to change shoes but they can make you faster on the bike. If you are going to change shoes, practise so you can do it as quickly as possible.

Finally.... enjoy it

and get some swimming lessons so you can join the triathletes next year

Duathlon is typically a winter sport, so you will probably find that events dry up around the end of April when triathlon takes over.

I entered my first sprint tri last year after not really doing any swimming since I left school. Alternated lengths of crawl and breaststroke so I didn't -drown- get too tired and found it wasn't too bad after all.

Shouldn't worry about looking a prat, these things tend to attract all levels. Though I was slightly surprised by the number of people overtaking me on their knackered old commuting bikes.

The bike to run transition is an interesting feeling.