Eynsham Duathlon
I completed my first duathlon today (run-bike-run) with the Eynsham Road Runners. The email described the run as 'about 1 mile', so when I discovered it was 3 miles the first time round then 1.5 miles the second time I was a bit worried. But actually it went reasonably well, and I wasn't last (not even the last male!) My run training over the past few weeks has obviously paid off a bit, and the work I've been doing to improve my TT performance might also be helping.
The run route was 2 laps of Eynsham, then a flat 12 mile route out to Stanton Harcourt on the bike, then another lap of Eynsham. It was a perfect day for it with the sun out and little or no breeze.
The new bike felt good and I managed to pass many of the people that had gone dashing off on the run, and thankfully stayed ahead of most of them on the second run. Robin (the chap I'm doing the research study with) suggested when I did the initial 10 mile test with him that I change gear too often and that I should stick it on the big front chainring at the start, pick a reasonable gear at the back and then just aim to keep the cadence at about 85rpm. I tried that today and it felt right, giving me a good speed and a reasonable heart rate. I need to work on it a bit more though, as I ended the bike wondering whether I could have hammered it a bit harder.
Even though my bike legs felt good after 12 miles, my run legs suggested I had done quite enough already thankyou very much. It was really tough to get them moving and I felt as though I was barely plodding around the last mile of the course. It only lasted 10 minutes but it was bloody painful, and I can now see why Duathletes claim that their sport is harder than Triathlon.
The whole thing took 1:07:30 (ish - times to be confirmed...), which was 3 minutes slower than Dan, but he's a stronger runner than me so I'm quite happy with that. All in all a great new experience and a very fun day. A lovely cooked breakfast and some 'rehydration water' afterwards quickly flushed away any pain, too.
Oh, and I finally signed up as a member of the running club, so now I really have no excuses in future.
The run route was 2 laps of Eynsham, then a flat 12 mile route out to Stanton Harcourt on the bike, then another lap of Eynsham. It was a perfect day for it with the sun out and little or no breeze.
The new bike felt good and I managed to pass many of the people that had gone dashing off on the run, and thankfully stayed ahead of most of them on the second run. Robin (the chap I'm doing the research study with) suggested when I did the initial 10 mile test with him that I change gear too often and that I should stick it on the big front chainring at the start, pick a reasonable gear at the back and then just aim to keep the cadence at about 85rpm. I tried that today and it felt right, giving me a good speed and a reasonable heart rate. I need to work on it a bit more though, as I ended the bike wondering whether I could have hammered it a bit harder.
Even though my bike legs felt good after 12 miles, my run legs suggested I had done quite enough already thankyou very much. It was really tough to get them moving and I felt as though I was barely plodding around the last mile of the course. It only lasted 10 minutes but it was bloody painful, and I can now see why Duathletes claim that their sport is harder than Triathlon.
The whole thing took 1:07:30 (ish - times to be confirmed...), which was 3 minutes slower than Dan, but he's a stronger runner than me so I'm quite happy with that. All in all a great new experience and a very fun day. A lovely cooked breakfast and some 'rehydration water' afterwards quickly flushed away any pain, too.
Oh, and I finally signed up as a member of the running club, so now I really have no excuses in future.
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