RoboCheme

I'm doing my first duathlon in April and I was looking at last year's results and I had some questions.

1. Are the split times generally based on the entrance to the transition zones or the exits?

2. What is an average time for making the transition? I'm talking about the time it takes from reaching the bike to riding off (T1) or riding off to running away (T2). I will be changing socks, shoes, gloves, helmet.

3. Any tips on reducing the transition time? I figure that I need to organize the layout and practice a few times. What do you do?

Thanks,

Cliff

Psydotek

The time spent in transition is usually lumped with your cycling split. You'll cross the timing mat when you enter T1 and you cross it again when you exit T2.

Depending on how much stuff you have to swap, transition can take 20 seconds to a minute. Ideally, all you'll need to do is throw on a helmet and change shoes for T1 then remove helmet and change shoes again for T2.

And yes, practice your transitions at home afew times before going out. Lay out your transition area in the order you'll be grabbing stuff.

rplong

Cliff,
Lay your stuff out at the race in a manner that will be most efficient to change. I usually have my sunglasses latched onto a cable on my bike, and set my helmet on my seat or handle bars so I won't forget it. The only other thing I put on for T1 is my shoes, which are setting close to my bike. When I come back, I have taken off my glasses and put them back on the cable. Take off helmet and shoes and put on running shoes and race number, which I set on top of my shoes. My transition times last year ranged from 1:45 to 0:34. If they were longer times, it was because the mat was placed at the lakeside instead of in front of the transition area. It doesn't matter about that because everyone has to run the same distance. Just how much time spending doing the essential stuff. I would say ditch the socks and gloves. Just set an extra towel down on the ground and wipe your feet as you put on your helmet and put some baby powder in your shoes to keep them dry. If the race is your first I assume that it will be sprint to olympic distance and those things aren't really going to matter. Just practice your transition and running/biking w/o the socks a couple of times before your big day and you will feel like a pro! Good Luck.

SaabFan

Check the results from prior years of the events you're entering to get a feel for what people are doing in transitions. If you can, visit the race's location and get familiar with the area so you have an idea of what to expect on race day.

Woden2003

Cliff,

I raced duathlons for a few years before I started getting into tri's, and here are some of the suggestions I can offer.

1) Given that you're not getting out of the water, socks are fine, cuz you'll be wearing them on the first run anyway, but don't change socks, that's just wasting time :-)

2) If you can get speed-laces for your running shoes, that will make getting them off and on MUCH faster, vs. having to actually untie your shoes at T1 and retie them at T2

3) If you are MUCH more comfortable cycling with gloves on, would you consider running with them on? Yeah, you might look funny, but who cares if you beat the person next to you out of transition by 10 - 15 seconds. You could also run with them in your jersey pocket (as long as it doesn't bounce around too much) and practice putting them on / taking them off while running.

4) Last thing, and this is probably the hardest part, is if you get really serious about it, you should consider flying mounts / dismounts. This is where you start with your shoes already clipped into your bike, and you hop on, pedal on top of your shoes, and then slip your feet in once you're already going, and you do the reverse at the dismount, you take your feet out of your shoes while you are still riding, and then hit the dismount line running with your bike (its really cool to do if you can get it down).

Anyhow, GOOD LUCK and remember, ENJOY your race!

^*^BATMAN^*^

If you want more on this, myself and a few others have explained in detail how to do it. Just do search.

I would say that a 20 second T1 is FAST!! Well maby for me because we have to use wetsuits here...well dont have too, but hypothermia is a bit silly to want to get...My fastest T1 is 46 seconds..

Around here they have seperate transition splits. Like there are timing mats on the entrance and exit to transition. So you can see exactly how slow, or fast, you are there.

Things to do to speed up transition;
1.speed laces on running shoes
2.tri specific bike shoes(morph this one into the flying dismounts/mounts talked about above)
3.practice it at home during your brick training(i do swim to bike bricks, not to many people do it, but that is how I have gotten fast in that part of the race)
4.run in transition(though be careful if in bike shoes...cleats are slippery on pavement)
5.get half out of your wetsuit when you are running to transition out of the water.
6.learn to get out of your wetsuit fast(lots of time is spent screwing around with this)
7.run to the transition from the water(this normaly affects your swim split, but still, its a race, run)

Thats all I can think of right now...i have to get to work.