Duathlon
When you slowly pile up the milestones in running, you get to ask yourself what’s next? Will I run longer or go the ultra route or will I try multisports? I somehow ended up choosing multisports and I am at the start of doing duathlons having my first one last March. It was a long drawn decision as it does take a bit of financial investment to start up with a good bike. Once you get used to your bike or cross your first finish line, it gets quite addictive. Cycling is fun but it does take a deal of hard work as my 3 times a week run training has now become 6 times a week to incorporate the bike part. To this date, I’m still trying to learn how to balance the increased training mileage but so far I’ve been finding ways. I still have a long way to go in duathlon but I’m really enjoying the process and part of that is attending duathlon clinics.
Discovering Duathlons
Coach Andy Leuterio of Alpha Training Systems conducted a discovering duathlon clinic at Bonifacio High Street powered by Newton, Fitness First, Runr, Specialized and others. Since Total Fitness was an event partner, Team Total Fitness came in full force for the event which also served as the team’s group training session for the week. The event was packed with all registration slots taken. Toby Claudio of Toby’s and Runnr opened the event and Coach Andy provided a brief introduction about duathlons as well as conducted the whole session. It also includes a talk about bike by Specialized, bike fitting and some words from Mark Ellis of Fitness First. Then it was time to bring in the Suffferfest.
The Sufferfest
Not to be a glutton for punishment but it’s how far you push yourself in sport that makes you a better athlete. Sufferfest is a series of cycling videos designed to simulate actual bike workout which is a better alternative than just spinning. It brings you to sprints, to mountains and to actual race situations wherein you apply different approaches in your speed, resistance and cadence. It does help you build up speed, power and endurance even when you are indoors. Sufferfest was the video all throughout the workout.
Bike – Run – Bike – Run – Bike
The duathlon clinic had an approach of doing a bike simulation for the first 10 minutes and then run a full lap at high street then another 18 to 20 minutes bike simulations and run another lap at high street before going for a final sprint and cool down in the bike leg. Above anything else, the workout helps you experiencing the transition phase wherein you shift from bike to run and run to bike. I did learn some valuable lessons in approaching the transition phase. It was not easy to run from biking as you’re legs are a bit wobbly but basically I used the run splits to find the right stride that can endure despite fatigue in the quads. It was a series of hits and misses but I did learn a lot from the duathlon clinic.
Duathlon Discovered
This also serves as a training for the upcoming duathlon come May 27 and by the amount of participants it seems that more people have discovered duathlons. It was also a good experience for those who have yet to own a bike as Fitness First lent some spin bikes to be used by the participants. Event participants had a series of freebies which includes a Newton Singlet and Specialized water bottle among others. There was also a raffle to cap the event. Another good news from this event was that there will be more sessions like this in the future. So be on the look out for another chance to discover duathlon.
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