thinking about doing a duathalon - how long to prepare?

seena511

so i may have found the answer to my desire to both run and cycle distance - duathlons! but how do i even go about starting to prepare? i'm riding a century (my first) on June 8th, and i'm looking at signing up for a duathlon on June 26th. my husband thinks that's not nearly enough time to prepare. i'm also worried about what it would mean for my strength training - i'm currently down to 2 days a week, and i'm not sure if i'm willing to do less.

does anyone here do duathlons? how long would i have to prepare for my first, assuming i'm in pretty good shape (i can run for about an hour at 4.5 mph...not super fast, but i figure if i dedicate more time to it then i will eventually get faster)? how much did YOU prepare for your first?

Sycoholic

Like you I'm looking to do duathlon. I can cycle pretty good with my current mountain bike and I can run 8 miles non-stop, maybe more if I try. I'm not looking to be competitive, just to enjoy the event and hopefully not finish last. I think I'm ready. If you're about to cycle a century and can run that long then you should be fine to start. It would be wrong for any athlete to expect to go out in their debut and score a good placement. Expect to be last in your class and anything better than that will be awesome. For example, I went from bmx racing to xcountry mountain biking. I didn't do as well as I hoped my first race, but didn't finish last. That went in the 'win' column. Even if you think you're ready and can take the podium you may be in for a rude awakening (as I was).

Oh, runners don't usually track by mph. They track by 'minute mile'. For example, I don't say I run at 6mph, I say I run a 10 minute mile. (.....I'm faster than that.) Sprints (fartleks, speedplay) will help with your running speed and endurance. I recently got an elevation training mask and found it seems to help me up my intensity.