Duathlon progress report – cycling no problem, what about running!

So as mentioned in my previous post I’m planning on trying my hand (or rather – legs) at some duathlons this year. My first one is already booked, it’s on 21st February at Dorney Lake in Eton. I’m doing the novice race which is just 2.5km / 12km / 2.5km (run / bike / run). But I feel it should get me started, and give me a feel of Duathlons. I intend to do one in July which is a bit longer and is at Silverstone race course – I’m sorry but the thought of racing my bike around Silverstone is too exciting to pass up!

Run forest, run!

So, over the last however many years my training has centred around cycling. But now I have all this running to catch up on. When I was a boy I did a fair amount of cross country running at school – mostly because it got me out of rugby! But then I pretty much stopped. I still play football every now and then and its not like I haven’t run at all, but certainly not competitively. With judgement day fast approaching I put on my running shoes and hit the road…

Get the right shoes

I came back from that run with hideous blisters that lasted for a good few days. One on each foot, both in the same place. In doesn’t take a genius to work out that my shoes weren’t right for my running style. So I did some research and ended up with some Nike Lunaracers. Wow, what a difference, these shoes fit me perfectly and I still can’t get over how ridiculously light they are! I can now easily run 10km without my feet hurting at all. I’m not saying that these shoes are right for everybody, I have a fairly neutral running style so lightweight racers are OK for me. I am surprised though that these bad boys offer so much cushioning whilst being so low to the ground. Amazing.

But running is so… boring!

I’m sorry to all you runners out there, but I find plodding along a little dull. Music helps a lot but not quite enough. However, for Christmas my good lady wife bought me a Nike Plus sportband thingy. This thing is great, at a basic level it monitors your pace, distance, calories burned and time taken. But when you get home, you just plug it into your USB port and it automatically uploads your run to the Nike Plus website where you can track your progress, compete in competitions and all sorts. It really livens things up a lot. I was so excited that I went running on Christmas day! I wasn’t disappointed. Nikes running website is really well made, it has a nice flash interface and you can even map out new runs.

You can connect to other users if you have there userID – mine is “myusernameistim” so feel free to join me or invite me or whatever, if you’re on NikePlus.

Anyway, the duathlon training is going pretty well. I’ve done a few ‘brick sessions’ in the gym where I go straight from a hard spinning class to the treadmill, which takes some getting used to.