I think your strategy makes sense, especially for your first Du. At the pointy end, that first run tends to be paced pretty hot, like close to open 10K hot, minus a finishing kick. If you do that you'll feel it in your legs on the bike, so may have to temper expectations there. Likewise the second run, the first kilometre or two will feel terrible but the legs will come around, but again, don't expect to be able to hit your goal paces, just do what you can.

Duathlons are much harder than the equivalent distance Triathlon.

Your plan looks good.

However the tank will feel like it is already empty before you reach the last run. If you feel good starting the last run, you haven't done it properly.

And 'build to redline in the last mile' isn't going to happen (unless you have cruised the race up to this point). Most of the last run is survival. All effort is on trying to hold your technique and maintain a reasonable pace.

I commend your daring in trying the 10/40/5 distance. It will not be like anything you have done before now because the second run will make you question your sanity. I think your plan has some merit but don't ever be a slave to the plan if you feel great/poor when you are actually out there moving.
Most folks I observed overcook the 10K then go too hard early on in the 40K and suffer over the last 10K of the bike and the 5K run. I raced duathlon nationals three straight years in my 30s and here are some comparisons between the first run and the second.
05 35:30 10K (so about 5:43) 18:15 5K (about 5:52)
06 35:08 (around 5:41) 18:0? (so about 5:49)
07 35:40 (around 5:44) 18:30 (around 5:57)

So you will note that my second run pace was always slower than my first, and that was with me pacing conservatively on the bike. I always passed a lot of people late on the bike and early in the second run. It was not uncommon to see guys who outran me by 30-40 seconds on the first 10K, lose 3-4 minutes on the 5K. In all those years, I was never passed by anyone after about the halfway point of the bike and generally passed quite a few people (other than one guy I passed, who then repassed me).
My most successful pacing strategy on the bike was to ride the first 10 minutes completely by feel and then dial that back about 10 watts. I adopted that after I raced Powerman NC in 2005 and was WAY too conservative early on in the first run and the bike. I realized late in the ride that I was on a really good day and hammered about 10K of the bike and the entire (shortened) 8K run. It was not enough and I left a lot in the tank because my second run was like a top 5 run split and close to the pros but my overall time was 15 minutes behind because I was so conservative early on. My buddy beat me by like 8 seconds and teased me about it forever. (I'm talking about you Fancher)

I never drank much in any of my races because my stomach just won't tolerate calories at all during hard exercise, so at most I probably took in 15-20 ounces on the bike. If it is humid/warm and you can do it, you may want to drink during the 10K and then get in a bottle or two during the ride.

Last note that I eluded to earlier; you need to be mentally prepared for the effort/pain/ whatever you call it on the second run. It will crush you and leave you crying if you are not ready. Even if you are it will be really hard. My 07 year that 18:30 was like a top 3-5 run and I thought I was dying and barely managed six minute miles. I only passed one guy on that run and he was cramping and walking, but my pathetic shuffle was better than that.
Good luck and have fun.

Good luck

If you want the full du experience you need to go faster on the first run. Even if the du was a 13.1/60k/10k du the entire front end of the field would start it like it's a 10k.

You should start conservatively then negative split the run by at least :10 mile. The bike, well, if you don't want to cry when you get to T2 it was probably too easy.

It's a lot harder to bike fast after running than it is to do it after swimming.

Good strategy for the last run.

You know why more triathletes don't do duathlon? Bc they want to do something easy, like an IM (i mean lets go exercise all day in zone 1 or 2), not a 10k/40k/5k duathlon which will leave you equally as drained, if not more drained than a 70.3 tri.

For the life of me I used to say I can't understand why duathlons aren't more popular especially since triathletes typically hate swimming. Then I realized they'd rather have a near drowning experience then race a du <- it's true.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
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What desert dude said.
Ive been racing du's for 35 years and at the pointy end its a race from the gun, very little holding back. 40k bike is pretty much full gas then its survival on that last run. The second run is what makes a duathlon. I know on the bike Im at 1 to 2 mph slower than I would if I did a tri.
Good luck and have fun! Du's are awesome.

Just for fun here are the elite mens results from worlds last year.
https://www.triathlon.org/...championships/337390

Thanks everyone! This has me super excited. I do endurance sports because I relish the suffering — looking into the void, crossing into the abyss.

So sounds like the new plan is to do the first run closer to my open 10K pace, maybe 10-15 sec off. For the bike I’ll basically go as hard as I can without too many power spikes, which was around 85% of FTP last time I did an open 40K TT (but it was raining, so I was braking early and taking turns more conservatively). Then just hang on for the run, but good to know I shouldn’t expect to be going faster as I initially planned.

We’ll see how it goes! Weather forecast calls for 65 degrees, 12 mph winds, and rain.

I'd even say to negative split the bike as well. Those that ran the first run too fast will come back to you and you'll be building into a stronger second-half of the race.

Perfect duathlon weather! ;)

Desert Dude and Chad (cdw) have it wired. But there’s one thing that keeps eluding crossover multi-sport racers regarding Duathlon. Other than some overlap in the training, the racing for International Distance Duathlon is nothing like racing Olympic Distance Triathlon. In Duathlon, you race an all-out/survival/empty-the-tank 5K run only about an hour after already having RACED a 90% 10K run. Now, if you merely did a post-10K easy shakeout walk or an easy bike spin or even stretched and laid down in the shade with your legs up for an hour after that first run and then raced a 5K run, you’d still be asking your legs to fight the eccentric muscle response from racing that first run. And yet, Duathlon requires an immediate, 90% TT effort for the bike, which has absolutely zero recuperative effects on your legs. In fact, the Duathlon bike segment feels nothing like the Triathlon bike segment following a swim. What you have to prepare yourself for in Duathlon is that even the bike segment will feel pretty bad for the majority of the ride. And then comes that final run, which is as much mental as it is forcing the physical.

That’s for racing the 10K-40K-5K International Distance Duathlon. That said, I’ve always found that racing the longer, (70.3 or Half-Iron equivalent) distance Duathlons with an opening 13.1 or 10M, half-marathon paced run can be a great challenge without feeling so crippling. And I think it has something to do with one’s own running form that differs IN RACING between the longer and the shorter running segments.

What he said :) Duathlon is an entirely different beast than triathlon. You legs get smoked on the first run, further smoked on the bike then absolutely toasted on the second run.
I love sprint distance du's the best. You can go full gas for an hour and as it does hurt it isn't a crippling affair and you can pretty much race one every weekend without too many ill effects.

Like a triathlon I would just do a mini run through beforehand.

I've done a few but shorter distances and its really hard to hold back in a race situation.

With some practice you can transition down to a minute.

That bike course looks tricky enough to ride ahead of the race.

Will probably be much harder to pace on your own than in a race so even more reason for a dry run of some kind.

Does anyone remember the Desert Princess biathlon?

Grit. Ever-windy bike. (That's why there're a thousand wind turbines). And sand.

The early, authentic introduction of aerobars to multisport.

John Howard vs. Frank Shorter

Kenny Souza

And more sand.

Curious why a loop course (though that sounds fun) why not an out and back?
Also, are you opting for a tri bike or a road bike with clip-ons? Always wondered what would be best for loop courses with multiple turns.

Wicked hard race

Loop course because it’s a tiny Island. The road around it’s perimeter is 3.72 miles. I’d much prefer an out and back.

I considered riding it on my road bike, and it might be faster. But I view as good bike handling practice doing it on my TT rig especially in the wet.

So I just did my first OlyDu race yesterday and boy am I sore! I have two more scheduled this summer (I committed a while back not knowing if pools would be open) and would love some feedback on strategy.

All of my races go 5K/40K/10K. I thought I went out conservatively, but I definitely over biked as I cramped at the end of miles 1 and 2 on the 10K. I was able stretch and continue, thankfully, and even ran the last two miles at goal pace.

Anyway, any race strategy insights given the 5K is first? I certainly learned the importance of not pushing the bike. I wonder if I need to pump up the strength training, too.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

I tend to treat duathlons as more of a competition than triathlons for a few reasons (see my username) and for the whole thing it is pretty much pedal to the metal. As I am often in the hunt for a good placing, my strategy is to go as hard as needed to stay in contact with the front of the race... for the entire thing. It's not really "pacing" it is just surviving. If you can't keep up with the folks on the bike, maybe it is a training thing, not a pacing thing. If you are out to set a PB you can likely take a more measured approach. Others?

Here's a take on duathlon from my recent article

4 Reasons we aren't all duathletes ... and why we should be - Triathlon Magazine Canada

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Big question - is your duathlon draft-legal?

Like others have said, people will go crazy fast from the gun, and you'll be tempted to join them. But is it a rational decision? If the race is draft-legal, overpacing the first run could work. You (i) want to make the group on the bike, (ii) will be able to recover in the group from that first run. If the race is not draft legal, it could be smarter just to let them go - you are more likely to catch people on the bike, and you want to save your legs for the bike and the run.

I only did one duathlon, a non-draft sprint tri, after talking to the national elite champion. He said if the entire race was around an hour long, I should target threshold intensity on the first run and on the bike, especially in my debut. The race being small (24 people in my AG) and mostly consisting of runners with no significant experience in multisport, I was gunning for an age group podium, meaning a top 5-10 open finish out of about 100 people.

Sure enough, I stuck to my pace, soon lost the lead group, and the larger chase group, but we saw each other again on the bike. I passed a guy who I knew was a stronger triathlete than me at the end of the bike, and held him off on the second run. Ended up 7th overall, 3rd in M30. I had a 19th first run overall, 4th bike, and 7th second run. In retrospect, I would've changed nothing (except worked on my transitions).

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

As Hydrosloth says, there's two ways to look at it. You can TT it by pacing to get your fastest overall finish line, or you can just go til you blow. The latter one is pretty much what you do at the pointy end of sprint Du racing, maybe a little less so for Oly.

Racing duathlons at the pointy end, I'll say that in general it's a mix of the two. While you don't want to overcook things trying to keep pace with faster runners/bikers, you shouldn't really be "conservative" with your pacing. It's hard and aggressive - right at the limit without going over.

Cramping at the start of run #2 is just a thing that happens in duathlon. It's happened to me, I've seen it happen to competitors. I don't really have an answer for you in terms of avoiding beyond the obvious ones of ensuring you've been taking in electrolytes and make sure you've done bricks in practice so your body has some sense of how to transition from bike legs to run legs. Run #2 is terrible. It's never not terrible. If you feel strong to start that second run you've been racing wrong up to that point. You just do the best you can and the legs will eventually come around.

Long time duathlete here. A 5k/40k/10k is no joke if raced right and some soreness is to be expected. Starting off with a hard run sets a different tone than starting with a swim, youre getting on the bike with semi hammered legs already. The 10k at the end is always going to hurt.
Pacing for something like this at the pointy end is minimal, youre going almost full gas the entire time. Take it to where it starts to hurt and maybe back off just a smidge.

The duas have all left Chicagoland as far as I can tell.

My favorite was one that was so old it called itself a biathlon as it was named before the term dua was created. 2 mile - 11 mile - 2 mile. I can't imagine an oly version.

Run as fast as possible, hyperventilate for the first couple of miles on the bike, push the rest of the bike, and get off the bike and realize you have to basically sprint again, but this time with no one around you as natural spacing occurred.

It was a rare race I could be competitive.

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Swim - Bike - Run the rest is just clothing changes.

As a crappy swimmer, I wish there were more duathlons. I did Du nationals in 2019 and it was one of my favorite experiences. I actually used the stryd pod and ran my power based on that distance, which meant if it was a 10k to start, it was 10k power.

The first day was draft legal and I couldn't bridge to the second pack where 1st place was in my age group. It didn't matter, dude ran some insane pace and was about a minute ahead of me. Second day was the standard distance. He took off, but I caught up to him on the bike with about 7 miles to go. I realized at that moment I had a shot to beat him and put everything I had into the last seven miles. Sadly, he caught me with about 300 yards to go. But man that was a fun time. I wish there were more.