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Du strategy
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So it looks like my swim portion of this weekends tri could be canceled due to horrific weather. Thus I assume they will change it to a duathlon.

I've never run one of these bad boys, so I'm thinking about strategy. In fact, I've never run a run/bike/run in my life.

For those of you that have... how do you pace your first run?
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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If it's a 5K, 99% of an open 5K but without the finishing kick. You've got the whole bike leg to rest your running legs while you gut your biking legs...Without doubt the worst my legs ever feel is at the start of the 2nd run. They potentially start to feel better after .5 miles or so, in theory, although maybe I just get used to it. (Really looking forward to the 3rd run leg at AmZof.)n't
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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What are the distances?

If it's shorter (5k or less), it's just a tad less than what a full effort would be for that distance. I really don't hold anything back on the first run.



-Andrew
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Re: Du strategy [AMT04] [ In reply to ]
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I'm assuming 5k. Its an OLY race.
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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Be ready for your legs to feel trashed. Duathlons always beat me up more than tris of the same length duration.

Formerly DrD
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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My opinion is that you take the first run hard - you can recover at 20+ mph over the first few minutes of the bike. I was a member of a tri club where we did weekly run-bike-run workouts, my fastest times were always running hard at the start ... if I went out conservatively I didn't seem to run any better on the third leg and never got any of that lost time back. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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I did my first ever Du this past weekend. It was a short violent effort - 2mR/15mB/2mR. I went mostly all out on the 1st run and felt that it didn't hurt my bike at all (in fact I it was my lack of bike fitness that hurt my bike split). My hamstrings felt a bit odd for the first few hundred meters of the bike but that was all. As other's have mentioned though my legs were completely trashed for the first 1200 meters or so of the 2nd run. The other thing that you should be prepared for is possibly biking with a higher than normal heart rate. I got onto the bike with a higher heart rate than I would normally come out of the swim with and I was never able to get it down. My heart rate was over 170 for the duration of the race.
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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I would agree with the others. Hard on the first run, do the bike thing and do your best on the second run (whatever is left). I personally try to hang with the fastest runners for the shorter first run as my bike is much stronger and I can often make up a little time there.

Ian
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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Oly is a bit longer, so I'd shoot for tempo (1 hour race pace) pace for first run. Most people can fake a 5K after 30 minutes of biking, but the hourish bike/10k requires a bit more pacing.

Edit: I'm doing a du this weekend that has a 3 mile first run, 1.8 mile second run. Much more civilized than having to run the whole 3 miles on the 2nd lap....
Last edited by: kdw: Apr 13, 11 9:52
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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%FTP wrote:
I'm assuming 5k. Its an OLY race.


Interesting.. our Oly here in AZ got the swim cancelled last weekend and was turned into a DU. 5K, 25mi bike, 10K. It was my first duathlon as well. I was a little frustrated at first, but it ended up being one of my favorite races ever.

According to my coach, the best method is to add up the total running distance, then aim for a pace as if you were racing that distance. For example, 9.3mi of total running for this DU, so somewhere between 10K and 1/2 marathon pace overall. I consistently run 7:00/mi for 10K, and 7:30 for 1/2M.

I ran 7:12/mi for the first 5K and 7:30 for the final 10K. Mind you, I actually paced the first 5K on purpose. I let it rip in the final 10K and it happened to fall into a 7:30 overall pace. Still able to have the bike split I was aiming for and I was toast at the end of the event. Meaning, legs were giving out with about 1mi to go. As DrD said, my legs are trashed.. on Wednesday. IMO, aim for a 9-10mi running race pace overall, as my coach suggested.

Looking back, I think there is some benefit to holding back a little in that first 5K. I was about 1min slower in the DU than a standalone 5K. It took less than a mile to recover on the bike, and it left me with *barely* enough to run a strong (for me) 10K. I feel that if I had gone much harder in that first 5K, I would have broken apart towards the end in the final run and lost several minutes. Not saying I paced it perfectly, but I left enough in the tank to put in a hard run at the end, and luckily, run out of steam just near the end of the race.
Last edited by: phoenixR34: Apr 13, 11 12:00
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Re: Du strategy [%FTP] [ In reply to ]
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you're in for a treat! i think that pound for ounce dus are actually more painful than tris. generally i let it hang about 90% out on the first run - as the others have said, with a 40k bike ahead you've got time to get your legs back.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/
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Re: Du strategy [phoenixR34] [ In reply to ]
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phoenixR34 wrote:
%FTP wrote:
I'm assuming 5k. Its an OLY race.


Interesting.. our Oly here in AZ got the swim cancelled last weekend and was turned into a DU. 5K, 25mi bike, 10K. It was my first duathlon as well.

That's what I usually see. Oly = either 10k/40k/5k or 5k/40k/10k. I'd much prefer the 10k out front ;)
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Re: Du strategy [kdw] [ In reply to ]
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kdw wrote:
If it's a 5K, 99% of an open 5K but without the finishing kick. You've got the whole bike leg to rest your running legs while you gut your biking legs...Without doubt the worst my legs ever feel is at the start of the 2nd run. They potentially start to feel better after .5 miles or so, in theory, although maybe I just get used to it. (Really looking forward to the 3rd run leg at AmZof.)n't

+1 My first run is usually ~20sec. off my open 5k time. The main differences are no surging, and no final sprint.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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