Sometime over Christmas in a slightly inebriated state I entered a duathlon in Llandegla on the 12th February! Seeing as I’ve only got a month to get in shape (not run for about 5 months prior to this week!)can anyone tell me how hilly it is compared to say Cwmcarn so I can figure out how much hill running to get in. Also if anyone’s run around there are normal running shoes ok or do I need something with a little more grip!

Finally are rocket rons an ok choice of tyre to get me around the course quickly?

Cheers!

depends on the route of the duathalon, I bet it wont run the course of the red route

very hilly would be my guess, theres some sharp, steep pulls up out of the valley

Its a 6.4km run then a loop of the MTB track (18k apparently, but never been there so no idea if more than one route!) then a 4km run to finish off. From the video on the website looks like the running is a combination of fire roads and single track.

link thing

I’m doing it and its quite hilly and the ground will be rough, trails for the biking are usually a mix of the normal trails and some off piste bits, I’m still trying to get running but can’t motivate myself in this weather 😀 biking bit should be fine 😯

Yeah I’m not too worried about the riding, jsut the running bit! Although not sure how my legs are going to function after a hilly run! Just done some more digging on the web-site and found this which has the routes of each section in it.

routes at the bottom

Its a duathlon at Llandegla for the masses. Piece of pie 🙂

Lol, in that case, I don’t know what I’m worried about, although never done one before!

I did my first one last year first run is fine then you get on your bike, legs feel weird to begin with then sort themselves out, second run my legs where screaming at me and the last km I had to run walk , but I am a fat old guy and really enjoyed myself, you just race yourself, the top guys who win are amazing so I’m happy to just do a good time for me.

Yeah saw that the winners last year did it in 1:35! Seems pretty mad to me! I think I’m going to aim sub 2 hours but no idea if this is realistic or not! Going to try running around some of Cwmcarn then riding it to see how I get on, looking forward to it though, just hope the weather doesn’t suddenly realise its winter!

I’m local to LLandegla it can snow right upto May 😀 ,

It will be fine in the trees its the open parts that can be bleak,

its 3 days before my 50th B’day so I will cellebrate afterwards 😀

Heyup Cardiff… its a proper giggle mate… triathletes make bad road riders…you wanna see them off road 😆

last yrs was brilliant fun, best advice is get some proper off road trainers (technical description!) first run was fairly lumpy with some slippery/rooty bits connecting fire roads.

it was a lap of the red last yr…ok generally but difficult to pass people in places without being “assertive”… great payback watching the runners struggle on mtbs though

peice de resistance was the last run…right boggy laugh round the lake and up and down a near vertical bank..needed to pull yourself up using trees!

Jeffus is right it was cold/sleety last yr, hills shorter than Cwmcarn (from memory) more up then down rather than long climbs, think I did 1.50 ish and I’m no runner…see you there!

ps rocket rons should be fine, aspens for me!

I entered yesterday 🙂

I did the Bristol Off-road Duathlon in October last year – it was quite tough. I was 29th out of 31 in my age group after run #1, but had loads of fun climbing back up the field in an “assertive” manner once back on the bike. As whytetrash suggests “they” aren’t very good on MTB’s.

See you there.

Whytetrash/ Badlydrawnbiker

All sounds good then! I may need to do some searching for some new off road trainers! Think not taking it too seriously is the way forward then and hoping I can make a bit of time up on the ride, before everyone overtakes me on the final run! Might be nice to actualy find some people slower than me on a bike!!

1 month to get on it!

Adidas Kanadia’s are a good budget option, but they’re narrow so you may need to go up a half / full size larger than usual.

The race I did last year passed most of the field on the bike on the big down hill 32lb Orange 5 then they all passed me on the big climb on their 19lb carbon what nots, was quite funny, watching lots of jiggling and wobbling hardtails ,DH was pretty much a ploughed field, then the roar of them all catching and passing me on a big climb 😀 I was super slow on the runs but had a great time 😀

I just bought some Asics from sports direct, had a pretty good choice TBH, I checked results and did 1.57 16th in 40-44 age group… with no running practice so hope to do a bit better this yr… there was one sharp kick up last yr I rode and people were three abreast walking it…got “assertive” telling them to get out of the way as I was riding it when some guy told me I shouldn’t be 😆