I’m planning to step up to a long course (HIM distances, 1.2 mile run as first leg) duathlon in late August. I have a copy of Gale Bernhardt’s training plans for multisport and wonder if I can use the 27 week HIM training and drop the swim workouts. I was planning to either substitute in a run or bike workout on swim days in the plan or an extra rest day if my soon to be 45 year old body requires. I’d appreciate anyone’s thoughts about this or suggestions to a long course duathlon training program.
FWIW, I raced a few sprint du’s last year and ran a half marathon in October. I’m a MOP racer returning after several years away due to family constraints.
That should set you up pretty well. The last HIM Du I raced, I was regularly doing 90-130km rides and runs in the 15-21km ball park. The big thing is to do some transition runs after the long rides (even if it’s only 15-20min). In the race itself, you can’t win on the first run, so don’t burn it, just stay comfortable.
I would think that would be a decent starting point but I encourage people to think of duathlon as its own sport. While the first run for the event you mentioned is quite short, you’re still trying to insert training for 2 sports into a plan designed for 3. There are not a whole lot of duathlon plans in books on online out there so you may just want to create one for yourself or enlist the help of someone who has experience in duathlon training.
Thanks, I’ll definitely add runs after rides, the plan I have only calls for a few bricks.
I see you’re from Ottawa. That’s were the race will be held. Is it as pancake flat as I’ve been told?
I agree that du is different from tri, but I think this format is probably less different than most with the short first run. When I first looked at the plan, I thought there would be more open (swim only) days, but there is only 1 day every 3 or 4 weeks that would be swim only. It seems rational to me that the bike and run training should be appropriate given the lengths. My main uncertainty is what, if any, difference it will make not having the additional training hours that would be spent swimming?
If you are referring to the Canadian Half Du in Ottawa - yes it is a mostly flat course (small rise from downtown toward the turnaround on each bike loop). I did the race last year. The bike leg is multiple out and backs: 7.5km out and back x 6. It sounds kind of boring, but there are a lot of spectators, and most importantly you know exactly where your competition is!!
I wouldn’t get overly technical about the training plan for this. The most important things are making sure you do a lot of 100 - 120km rides, and running after those rides for 30 to 40 minutes (build up to that). Also, make sure you do at least a couple of 25km runs standalone. Fill the rest of the days in with shorter more intense stuff and you should be fine.
I did the race with only 6 weeks of running under my belt after being injured for 5 months and survived on the run ok. The 21k run was actually the longest run I’d done that year. I don’t recommend this plan, but I had a pretty solid year of cycling which enabled me get to the run with enough juice. My point is: having the bike fitness is critical for this distance.
200 cycling/40 running, minimum of 2 bricks per week is my magic zone. If I can get 2-3 months around those levels I am as fast as I’ve ever been. Any more and I can’t fit enough rest into my overall life equation and things start breaking down… Any less and I can’t seem to be simultaneously fast at BOTH running and cycling. In that case I usually default to running…meaning I get my 40 in, but let cycling fall where it may.
Oh…and I usually try to get my long run done during the week so that I’ve only got one long workout on the weekend. The other weekend day is a shorty, maybe even recovery or other activity. Long rides are ALWAYS a brick, minimum 3 miles.
These are good numbers posted by TriBriGuy for long course Du - 200miles on the bike and 40 miles on the run. This equates to around a 13-15 hour training week.
i’d be a bit wary of jacking up the intensity/volume of your running too quickly. swimming is a good swimming workout, but it’s also a nice recovery from riding and especially from running!
If you’re on a tighter time schedule or your body does not handle the bricks that well in the beginning, then there’s an alternative that has worked for me in the past.
Try combining two hard workouts close to each other (say same day or night vs next morning), the first being a really hard bike and the next a gradually increasing hard run (start at warm up pace, then every 5 to ten 10 minutes jack it up). Admittedly, it’s not the same as a brick but it’s really good in simulating a hard run on empty legs.