Dan's Triathlon Blog

First of all, I have a question – how do people find the time to blog everyday? I’ve been trying to post at least once a week, but it seems that I have two problems:

1. Lack of material.
   Some days I just don’t have anything all that interesting to write.
2. Lack of time.
   There’s only so many hours in a day. I’ve finally got going again on Podium Fitness Solutions. I’m in the process of designing my first product. I’m hoping to have the first release ready by the fall. I’ve also started trying to get myself back into shape, and have been working out more frequently.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, on to my real post. I’m finally going to take my own advice, and have decided to enter the Peterborough Sprint Duathlon in two weeks. Now, I still haven’t actually signed up, but I promise to do that by the end of this week! I’ll be sure to post when I do!

For those of you who don’t know, a duathlon is similar to a triathlon, but without the swimming part. Typically, a duathlon race consists of a short run, followed by a good bike ride, then another run, a little longer than the first one. I’m entering the “Sprint” duathlon, which is much shorter than the “1/2 Ironman Duathlon” that is also being run in Peterborough. Here’s how the distances break down for my race:

• Run #1: 2km
• Bike: 20km
• Run #2: 5km

This will be my first duathlon, and I’m not really sure of what I should be doing to train. I think that the biggest mistake I made in my half-marathon preparation last year was not getting in enough distance. I did a lot of short, quick runs, but didn’t have the endurance to get through 21km. I never actually tried running 21km before the race, and consequently, hit the wall about 15km in. So, this year, I’m trying to increase the length of my training runs/rides (you can read about my 83km bike ride here), to make sure I can handle the distance.

Since I only made up my mind to race last week, I’m a little short on time to really get ready. I’ve been running and riding off and on, but now only have two more weeks to get into “race shape”. From what I’ve read, triathlon training involves a lot of “brick” workouts. A “brick” workout is where you do two exercises back to back, similar to a race. So I might swim then bike (when I start training for a tri), or bike then run.

The “brick” workouts help with what I’ve heard is the hardest part of a duathlon – finding your running legs after the bike ride. So it’s definitely important that I practice running after biking. I did my first brick workout on Thursday last week – 15km on the bike, immediately followed by 10 laps around the track (4km). The first 1km of the run is tough – it really is a very strange feeling to immediately start running after over half an hour of pedaling!

Because my race is now less than two weeks away, I’m going to try to get in at least five good hard training sessions this week, then ease off next week so I’m fresh come race day. I did a 5km run last night. Man, was it hot outside! You know when you open the oven door and get blasted by heat? Well, I felt like I was running into that heat blast the whole time!

I followed up last night’s relatively short run with another brick workout tonight. 19km on the bike followed by a 5km run. I ran the same route that I did last night, and was about two and a half minutes slower. That was about what I expected, but I’m hoping that I’ll be a little faster come race day. At least that was very close to the race distance. I’m going to take tomorrow off to rest (maybe I’ll get into the gym for some weights, but I’m doubtful), then try another brick workout on Thursday. I’m going to try to do some running speed work on Friday, take Saturday off, and get in another good long brick workout on Sunday. Then I’ll ease off a little next week. Hopefully I’ll be ready come July 10th!

I’m going to set some goals for myself for this race. I’ll post them in the next couple days, so if you’re interested, check back soon!

P.S. – If anyone out there has any triathlon/duathlon training tips for me, I’d love to hear them, so post a comment!!