pre-duathlon training

Since the PD Triathlon last Saturday, I hadn't been exercising at all - my heart and head wants to but somehow my lazyness just took precedence. But I know I have to train for this coming Saturday for the UM Malakoff Duathlon or I might not be able to complete the race.



This one is going to be a 3.5km run, followed by a 14km cycle and then another 3.5km run. So, as lazy as I may be, today about an hour after having dinner (which I shouldn't have had before training) I jumped onto my bicycle and did 18km and then ran 3.5km.

My cycling time was 51 minutes while my run was 29 minutes (improved timing... see "ps" section for details). Total calories burned was 1641 kcal.

Apart from cramping in the stomach several times during cycling because of having that dinner, I noticed that both my calves started cramping on the first 10 minutes of my run, which also happened in the PD triathlon. It seems that for me, transitioning from cycling to running will cramp my calves... probably because more blood was being sent and concentrated in my thighs, which is used more for cycling. When the switch goes to running, maybe insufficient blood was sent to my calves. But after that 10 minutes, I was able to run without cramps. I'm guessing with enough training, this 'cramp time' can be reduced or even eliminated.

So Telal and Ruslan, I would encourage you to train your transition so that your muscle's memory would get used to the changing discipline. Plus, you will also feel abit funny/weird immediately after cycling to running because your legs still want to cycle. Larian kengkang for me. Heh.

Anyway, wish me and all participants the best for this coming duathlon, 26 July 2008.

ps - training at night can be 'scary'. Somehow I smelled a very sweet flowery scent during my run, at that time it was about 11.40pm. Immediately the image of a pontianak appeared in my head and I started to look up in the trees and also behind, just in case. Nevertheless, this helped improve my run time... gabra jugak! Hehehe. I use to clock about 31 minutes for a 3.5km run when I run in the mornings and that is without 18km of cycling prior to it.