To Clipless or not for Short Distance Duathlon

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Triathlon Talk » To Clipless or not for Short Distance Duathlon

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scoobychau

2024-04-10 12:37 AM

Subject: To Clipless or not for Short Distance Duathlon

I have a question for you fellow members here. I am going to have a Run/bike/run event 600m/5km/1200m .

The 5KM bike involved a 5 laps close circuit with a single up/down Slope. The bike circuit involve down hill right out of transition and up hill before transition. I am able to do flying mount and dismount on flat. This mean that for the half of the first lap as well as half of my final lap... i would be riding on top of my bike shoes ( not in them).

In other word, the benefit of bike shoes is only a little over 4km (4 out of the 5 laps).

Would it be more efficient to just skip the bike shoes and transition and use Running shoes thru out the whole race?

Thank you for taking your time reading my question.

jmhpsu93

2024-04-10 8:26 AM

in reply to: 0

Expert

4637

Middle River, Maryland

Silver member

Subject: RE: To Clipless or not for Short Distance Duathlon

I'd use my running shoes in cages if you have those pedals available. You'll lose some power transfer during the "clipped-in" part of your race but trying to pedal uphill on top of clipped-in shoes sounds awful.

ETA: that sounds like a really fun race!

Edited by jmhpsu93 2024-04-10 8:27 AM

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McFuzz

2024-04-10 10:14 PM

in reply to: scoobychau

Champion

7547

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Bronze member

Subject: RE: To Clipless or not for Short Distance Duathlon

What would be your expected times to:

A. Run 600m ride 5km and run 1200 meters all in running shoes?
B. Run 600m, switch shoes, ride 5km in bike shoes, switch shoes, and run 1200m?

Rough numbers, assuming 30 km/hr, you’re looking at 10 minutes on the bike and at 15 seconds to get out of your running shoes and 30 seconds to get back in them, you’ve got to make up 45 seconds just to break even. Add a few more seconds on each end for riding slower as you get in and out of your bike shoes and now you’re trying to make up a full minute in the 8 minutes where bike shoes help. Do you think bike shoe will get that critical part of the ride from 8 minutes to 7? That’s a 12.5% improvement due to shoes or getting your 30 km/hr up to 34 km/hr.