DUATHLON TRAINING
EASY TIPS FOR A FASTER DUATHLON
By Josh Wolf
You’ve spent more hours on the bike than your mother-in-law watched “American Idol” this year, and your idea of happy hour is 10 400s at the local track. Indeed, everything looks on par to put down a PR at the local duathlon and even place in your age group. But there may be a component missing in your speed arsenal, one that always translates into free speed – transitions. Follow these simple tips to have your best transition, and thus best race yet!
HAVE A PLAN, AND PLAN TO FOLLOW IT
Whatever you do, you must plan your transition area. Where are you going to go when you come in off the bike? How are you going to get from the dismount line to the bike? Where are you going to put your shoes? Where is your helmet? How do you plan to hydrate from run 1 to bike to run 2?
KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOUR TRANSITION AREA IS LOCATED
You have seen the athletes standing around in the middle of the transition area, befuddled and frustrated because they can’t find their bike or running shoes. This is certainly a poor way to spend your time! You can avoid getting disoriented in the transition area by walking to and from the mount/ dismount line before the race starts. Map out the quickest route, count the number of rows of bike racks or even draw a symbol in front of your bike with a piece of chalk.
THE MOUNT
The fastest way to transition is to leave your bike shoes clipped on the bike. To do this, warm up before the race and practice your dismount (see below) by leaving your shoes on the bike. Rack your bike and be sure that your pedals are positioned so you can easily jump on the bike. Also, leave the Velcro straps undone. When you get back from run 1 you can slip out of your shoes (pay attention to where you put them), take out the bike and jump onto one side of the bike after you cross the mount line. Simply pedal for 30 seconds unti l you can coast. Most multi sport cycling shoes have a small strap in the back of the shoe. Grab this strap with your hand and slip your foot into the shoe. Fasten the Velcro, pedal a few strokes and repeat on the other side. Poof! You’re off and saved yourself 20 seconds!
HELMET FASTENING
Here is another great ti me-saver. Practice strapping your helmet quickly onto your head the day before a race. Put your bike off to the side of a road and orientate it exactly how it will be on race day. Put your helmet upside down either on the ground or over your handlebars, with the back of the helmet facing away from you. Open up the straps and put your sunglasses either inside the helmet, off to the side or on the bike. Then practice running up to your bike, putting on your helmet or glasses (if not on the bike) and running to the dismount line. Although it sounds silly, practicing this process creates a neural pathway that will make you quicker and more efficient with this process on race day!
THE DISMOUNT
There are a variety of ways to dismount. The quickest is reversing the process of the mount. As you approach the transition area, you will hear all the nice volunteers begging you to slow down. Heed their cries but as you do so, slip your feet out of your shoes and pedal with your feet on top of the shoes for 30 seconds or so. As you get close to the transition area, swing one of your legs back behind the bike so that you have both feet on one side of the bike. Keep your hand on the break and steer yourself to the transition. Right before the line, jump off your bike and start running into the transition area. Again, this will take practice and a bit of finesse but it can give you a few seconds on your less prepared competitors.
TRANSITION SHOES
Allowing you to skip the hassle of changing out run to bike/bike to run shoes, transition shoes can save you around 20-30 seconds. They come at a price – weight. Thus, give them a shot if the du is a 5k/30k/5k event or shorter. Otherwise, the added weight might put too much stress on the hip flexors, causing you to slow down. These are just some of the pointers that can help you have a speedy transition. Remember: whatever you do, have a plan. Practice your plan, and you are on your way to a great race the next time you do a du!
Josh Wolf, NSCA & ACE-CPT, is a USAT Level I Coach and the owner of Endurance Management Group. Visit his website at
emgkc.com or email him at
josh@emgkc.com.
USATRIATHLON.ORG USA TRIATHLON 43
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