Duathlon pacing

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2008-08-12 4:30 AM

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Zürich, Switzerland
Subject: Duathlon pacing

Last week end I went for a short duathlon and I never did any "sandwich" training in my triathlons preparations.

I have to admit that it was very though, more than a short triathlon or even an oly. The distance was 4.8/18.9/4.7 km. After the first run at all out, I jumped on my bike and I felt like I have my legs totally burned. The cycling started with a though hill and I was thinking to stop! I needed few km to switch on my legs again.

What is your strategy on run pacing the first run leg in duathlons? I thought: lets's sum 4.8+4.7=9.5km and then let's assume a 10k pacing on both. Is this reasonable? But it is very difficult to keep 10k pacing in such short course where everybody start all out like on a track...

2008-08-12 8:19 AM
in reply to: #1596285

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Subject: RE: Duathlon pacing
I use heart rate as an indicator, and run my first run at just around lactate threshold. This is generally about 10-15secs per mile slower than a stand alone 5k race pace (for race distances ranging from 3k-6k). You should finish the first run feeling like you really could have gone faster, but not feeling like it was easy.

I find that this is a great warmup for the bike - most of my best TTs came in duathlons.

The second run definitely hurts worse than any triathlon run. It is mentally tougher because your legs feel heavy from the bike, and then you have an almost instant comparison with your running speed in the first part of the race, so you are running and feel sooooo slow. I typically run the second 5k in a duathlon about 25s per mile slower than the first one - not by choice, that just seems to be the result all the time.

2008-08-12 2:07 PM
in reply to: #1596285

Subject: RE: Duathlon pacing

Hello

I ran my first one on Aug 3.  My distance was 2m/16m/4.4m.  The first distance is in question as it was listed two ways, but .2 is nothing to worry about.

I just took off on my first lap and kept going untill my HRM started beeping.  Then I ran a little more.  I had to pee so bad, even though I went twice before the race started.  I hit the porta johns outisde T!.  I was going to pee down my leg on the bike, but once the porta johns was a better choice.  The only reason I mention this is because I still ran a fast split, for me, faster then I practice.

Then on the Bike I just hammered, I kept my HRM beeping the whole time.  I was 7 minutes faster on the 10 mile mark then I was in my first TRI in June.  Then came the last run.  I started out like duck and picked up after a half mile.  I was really having fun, my HRM stopped beeping, so I ran harder. 

Then with about 1.5 miles to go my knee just stopped working.  No more running.  I had to walk, I stopped and did some deep bends and something popped, I could run a litle but down hill I had to lean backwards and baby my knee.  I ran across the finsh and grab some ice and sat next to a tree with ice on my knee.

 So I have signed up for my next Du and am looking forward to it.  I asked the same question a few weeks back and one of the Du pros on here said  remember the pain goes away on the bike, I took her advice and said screw pacing just ran as fast as I could.

Joe

2008-08-12 2:19 PM
in reply to: #1596285

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Subject: RE: Duathlon pacing
I consider my self pretty good at duathlons.

I usually do a 2/12/2 twice a year.

I like to hit the first 2 at about my 6k pace, then hit the bike pretty hard and if I'm in good running shape my 2nd run is about the same as the first. You just got to let people go in the start, I may be 10th at the 600m mark but by 1200m I'm 5th and I usually come in 3rd or 4th off the first run around here. Then I may slide back a spot or two while a couple of cyclists catch me, then I do a similar effort on the 2nd run and catch those guys back.. typically.

If it was a 5k/18mi/5k (we use to have one like this here) I'd look to hit the first 5k 30-45 seconds off my open pace.

You can put people in a bad spot on the first run, by going out hard and easing it up. Then you stretch the field out a bit on the bike and usually have a good idea what's possible placing by mid bike. But the race is still won on the 2nd run. If you're a strong runner you may want to only run that first one 20-30 seconds off your open time to make people work to keep you in range. Hopefully they work more than you without realising it and then they blow up on the 2nd.
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