Duathlon Clinic at Gear West. Photo: Steve Stenzel.
This weekend, Gear West Bike hosted a free duathlon Clinic that was presented by Kevin O'Connor (the 2009 USAT Duathlete of the Year) and Jason Digman (a Triathlon and Duathlon coach). I attended the event, and I have some training thoughts from both Jason and Kevin, as well as a slide show of images from the event at the bottom.
Here were some of the points that Jason and Kevin discussed:
• "Triathletes" who show up to race a duathlon should not be surprised when they don't perform as well as they hope. They're trained to be triathletes. They need do work in some specific duathlon training.
• Jason had 3 keys to training and racing well. 1: Know you can go the distance (easiest step). 2: Get better at doing the "parts" quickly (be a good runner and be a good biker). 3: Be trained for "duathlon" performance (get better at doing run/bike/run back-to-back).
• Racing nearly EVERY WEEK is a good way to have a strong performance at a race. You have to race often to begin to race well. This includes doing open 5Ks and 10Ks, as well as time trial bike races.
• Jason recommends at least 3 duathlon specific workouts before a race. Ideally, it'd be great to get in 5 duathlon specific workouts. He recommends starting them 4-6 weeks before your first duathlon, and ideally you should do 1 / week.
• Both Jason and Kevin emphasized that you need to pace yourself for the entire race. Kevin shared many stories of starting out on the first run of a duathlon and being left near the back of the pack. But near the end of that first run, he's up near the front. And then he has more left for the second run as well.
• Jason said the fastest way to run a 10K is with perfectly even splits. And in a duathlon (using an example of a duathlon with an equal 5K first and second run), Jason said that the first run should be faster than the second run by NO MORE than 30 seconds. Kevin said that he shoots for no more than a minute faster. Anything more "unbalanced" is an unwise usage of your fitness.
• Kevin thinks that open races are great tests of fitness, and good to do quite often to feel what it's like to push that hard.
Continue on to page 2 of this story (with 2 great duathlon workouts and the "final word") >
To get my reaction to some of these thoughts, along with a little more info on the day, click here to be taken to my blog post about this clinic.
(page 1 of 2)
And check out the slideshow at the bottom of the page.
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