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!

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. 

Nice work.  I have a pair of Standard (10k/40k/5k) duathlons the first week of June.  I need to get out and practice transition but I got snowed on during my long run this morning.  So, I haven't been able to get my bike out yet.  I am still doing all my bike workouts on the indoor trainer.

So...I did my first or two duathlons on Saturday. 

I just put my bike shoes on the ground in Transition like I would my run shoes.  When I got to the transition I slipped my run shoes off and slipped the bike shoes on and was on my way.  It was NOT my best transition.  I had done it that way before and had shoes changed in under 5 seconds.  I was at least double that on Saturday. 

Running and jumping on the bike and clipping in with my shoes on my feet is pretty easy/fast for me.  I am on the bike and on my faster with the shoes on my feet that I am with the shoes on the bike.  

Coming off the bike I just unclipped and run into transition in my bike shoes.  That means I have to take them off in transition which cost me a few seconds.  I have taken my feet out of the shoes and ran into transition with my shoes on the bike before.  I prefer that in triathlons but in duathlons I wear socks and I don't like running through transition in socks.  So T1 and T2 were around 1:15 and the fast people in Transition were 15-20 seconds faster than that.   

I lost 30-40 seconds to the leaders over the two transitions over where I could have been with quicker shoe transitions.  I think I can cut that in half with a little practice in transitions.  I was sloppy and slow.  

I did my second of two two duathlons last month at the Multisport National Event in Omaha. 

I had to be there a day before my event for package pick up so I stuck around after I got my bib and watched the Super Sprint TTT triathlon.  I didn't see vary many smooth mounts onto the bike.  A lot of people would actually bring their bike to stand still just past the mount line, climb on the bike, plant both feet on the ground, spin the pedals around to get their feet where they wanted them, clip one foot in, push off, then clip the second foot in.  I watch at least a hundred bike mounts and only saw 2-3 that looked practiced and smooth.  I did see one guy with the Pyro Pedals.  I was impressed with that.  His mount was not super fast but it did look like he has practiced and it was in the top ten of bike mounts that I saw.

I caught up with a guy after the race who said that he finished 2nd place in his AG by 1-2 seconds.  I picked his brain about transitions at that race location.  The Transition was grass with a relatively long run into T2 and a moderate run out of T1.  I decided to put my shoes on at the bike and run out in them and to clip out of my shoes and run into T2 with the shoes one.  In triathlons I leave the shoes on the bike and run in bare foot but for duathlons I wear socks and I didn't want to get mud or briars on my socks coming in and have to deal with that on the closing run.  I put the shoes on at the bike for the same reason.  Again in triathlons I have ran through T1 barefoot and mounted the bike with the shoes already on the bike.  It works fine most of the time.  I have to watch the shoes though so they don't drag on the ground and come off the bike as I am running it.  That isn't a problem coming out of T1 since the shoes are help up with a rubber band, but it always in a problem coming back into T2 and I have had shoes pop off a half dozen times.  

Note:  At the super sprint TT triathlon I saw a lot of people running through T1 with their shoes on the bike, but they were not held up with rubber bands, and they still stopped the bike completely over the mount line planted both feet, spun the pedals around, pit one foot in their shoe, pushed off, etc.  

Note:  I also saw one lady running through T1 bare foot with her bike shoes in her hands.  She then stopped before she got to the mount line to put her shoes on, then crossed the mount line, stopped again, to climb on the bike do the two foot on the ground plant, etc.

So...most didn't put a lot of thought into how they were mounting their bike.  They just grabbed their equipment and going.  

I personally had a terrible T1 where I lost about 1 minute.  I ran past my bike as I came into transition then searched up and down the row for a long time to find it.  Then I followed the guy next to me out the wrong exit even though I had practiced multiple times going out the correct exit before the race.  T2 was much better.  I was at the bike for less than 10 seconds to rack the bike, drop the helmet, take off bike shoes, but on run shoes, and grab my run belt with the race bib.  :-)