So I have a race this weekend and it is about 10 miles away. I currently don't have a car, and don't want to take a taxi to a race... So would biking this distance be a detriment to my performance? I was thinking of leaving early enough such that I could bike pretty slowly (probably around 8-10 mph), and it is pretty flat the whole way. A taxi here would cost probably about 45$ each way including the tip (they rip you off here...). So is it worth it to just bike to it?
Biking is ridiculously efficient, so if you take it slow on flat ground like you said, you shouldn't tire your legs any noticeable amount. Only thing is, if you have to go 10mph for it to be very easy, you're going to be sitting on that bike seat for an hour which might not be ideal before a race. Now if you have a decent bike and ride it with any sort of regularity, you should be able to ride considerably faster than 10 mph while still hardly working, and you should be used to sitting on that seat.
Summary: If you never ride that bike, it might affect your performance a bit. If you do have riding experience, it will affect it less. Either way, unless this is a very important race the small time penalty probably isn't worth $90 to avoid(it wouldn't be for me).
For sure ride to the race, run it, then no matter what claim that (a la Dean K) you won the 'duathalon' category.
Treat it as part of your warm up
The only thing that will suffer is the Ride Home.
racing this weekend wrote:
So I have a race this weekend and it is about 10 miles away. I currently don't have a car, and don't want to take a taxi to a race... So would biking this distance be a detriment to my performance? I was thinking of leaving early enough such that I could bike pretty slowly (probably around 8-10 mph), and it is pretty flat the whole way. A taxi here would cost probably about 45$ each way including the tip (they rip you off here...). So is it worth it to just bike to it?
8-10 mph is way too slow, you can probably ride at 15-17 mph unless it's a strong headwind, and it will feel as easy as walking.
My thoughts exactly. You could practically coast 8-10 mph on a road bike. You aren't on a Huffy with pegs, are you?
8 - 10 mph is perfect, put your bike in a very easy gear and spin over there. I will bet that if you do not do this on a routine basis then your legs will feel a bit flat or unusual during the race. Use a terribly easy gear and spin, spin, spin.
Sorry, I really had no idea what a normal bike pace is... I bike occasionally, but mostly to the store and really have no idea how fast I am going. And I'm on a mountain bike, but I don't think that makes too much of a difference?
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