Killer Duathlon Workout at the Track

Thursday evening, Marie and I met at the track for Kevin O'Connor's duathlon workout (which both Marie and I learned about at the Gear West Bike duathlon clinic). I was ready for it to hurt.

I got home from work and loaded everything up. I figured I'd just bike to the track with my bike trainer over my shoulder. But with ALL THIS CRAP, it was VERY hard to bike:

I ended up taking the flywheel off my trainer and throwing it in the bag. I weighed the bag after the workout: it was over 20 lbs. And the trainer was another 12 lbs. So that was about another 35 pounds that I was lugging (uncomfortably and unbalanced) to the track.

No wonder I wiped out as I was trying to get on my bike in front of my house. Yeah. Smooth. Right in front of all the neighbors. Great.

I got to the track, and Marie had found a great spot where she was already set up. I set up next to her, and we started our warm-up. Here's a shot that every woman loves: a photo from behind. We had our bikes set up right in front of a steeplechase hurdle just to the inside of the track at the 250 meter point:

Oh, and notice our very high-tech timing device leaning against my blue bag in front of Marie. I don't own a clock with a second hand, so I stole borrowed one from the faculty office at one of the schools where I teach:

Before.           *yoink*           After.

Here we are still warming-up:

Self-timer shot on the steeplechase hurdle


Getting ready to start

Click here for the notes on Kevin's duathlon workout.

Marie said she'd probably do the warm-up and then 2 intervals just to "test" the workout. I told her I wanted to try to pace myself so I could do the warm-up with all 3 intervals. But I didn't know what would happen, because this was a VERY different workout than I was used to, and I wanted to push it a little.

Here we go!!

Spinning (warm-up): 10:15. We spun. We chatted the whole time, and I said "this might be one of those workouts where we don't get to talk much once we get started." We were both ready to go.

Transition: 0:17. Kevin told us to keep our transitions under 0:10. Kevin can go suck an egg.

1 Mile Run (warm-up at 90%): 2:51 / 2:56 = 5:47. My legs felt heavy at first, but glancing at my watch after 400 meters showed me I was still moving OK.

Transition: 0:22. Shut it, Kevin.

Spinning: 9:37. (10x 0:30 on / 0:30 off, skipping the last "off.") It wasn't TOO hard to go hard on the bike just after running. I was thinking that I should have brought more than 2 water bottles....

Transition: 0:14. That's the closest I got to Kevin's crazy thought of "keep it under 0:10."

1 Mile Run: 3:02 / 2:59 = 6:01. Starting this one HURT. I really had wanted to keep all my miles under 6, but I realized that wasn't going to happen. (And it's not that I went out too hard in my first mile - that first mile was just after spinning easy. It was easy to run after that. But after pushing hard on the bike, running got MUCH tougher. But I guess that's the point of the workout...)

Transition: 0:21.

Spinning: 9:38. (10x 0:30 on / 0:30 off, skipping the last "off.") Marie and I were getting more spread out. She was still running for about the first 6-7 minutes while I was on the bike. But that was a good thing, because all of this intense pushing was doing a number on my stomach. I had gas. I'd make sure Marie WASN'T about to run by, and I'd let one fly. Sweet, sweet release. By the time Marie hit her bike next to me, I was out of poo-gas, so we could still be friends.

Transition: 0:15. Again, not BAD, but not good enough for Kevin.

1 Mile Run: 3:06 / 2:59 = 6:05. Oww. That's tough. I felt like I just wasn't moving at all. My times weren't too bad, but I just felt sluggish and slow. Good burn.

Transition: 0:21. Don't even say it, Kevin.

Spinning: 9:29. (10x 0:30 on / 0:30 off, skipping the last "off.") I was SOOO happy Marie was there. This is one of those workouts where you just want to quit, but having someone else there makes you keep going. Marie and I thanked each other for being there a bunch of times! Thanks AGAIN, Marie!! Marie was not planning on doing this final round, but she hopped on her bike and did a few more intervals. Nice going!!

Transition: 0:29. I was tired. "Under 10 seconds," my ass.

1 Mile Run: 3:06 / 2:51 = 5:57. Good. Under 6. My first 400 was SLOW, so then I really picked it up from 400-1200. Then I just tried to hold on. I didn't finish "all out," but I finished STRONG.

1:05:18 total time.

When Marie hopped off her bike after a few last 30-second intervals, she picked up my camera. She got a shot of me going by, but at this point the sun was setting, so the photo was a little blurry:

After the first (slow) 400 of my final mile

Marie put the camera down and busted out a final 800 meters. So instead of doing only 2 intervals like she wanted, she actually did 2.5! Nice work!

I finished and grabbed my camera to get a shot of how we'd destroyed the area where we were doing our intervals:

That's water. I'm not THAT sweaty.

And here's a shot of Marie working REAL hard as she finished her last run:

She kept ALL of her miles under 8!! (Marie's a great runner - she finished Ironman WI last year with a 4:32 marathon!) Check out her blog here.

We loaded up all our crap....

.... and we walked back through campus towards Marie's car. I didn't even hop back on my bike on the way home. I just walked my bike and all my stuff up the hill to avoid wiping out again. What a GREAT workout!! Marie and I want to do this again!! (Maybe not for 2 weeks...) And big thanks to Kevin from Gear West Bike for sharing this killer workout! Thanks Kevin! Sorry I told you to "go suck an egg!" ;)

Make sure to check out Thursday's post, which was the "Fashion-Forward Your Fabulous Fool" Contest!! Find (or take) a photo that fits with the contest guidelines, and send it to me for your chance at a COMPLETE gear make-over! (There are $1,300 in prizes being given out to the top 3 winners!)