Our friends at WTRL who brought us the wildly successful Zwift Racing League have just announced their next partnership with Zwift: the Zwift Duathlon League!
Director of WTRL Martin Carew says, “This is exciting. It is the first time cycling and running is distance-focused. This event is different, with the objective being to go ‘as hard as you can, for as long as you can with the aim to go as far as you can.’”
How the Races Work
The concept is simple: Zwifters will ride as far as they can in 35 minutes, then run as far as they can in 15 minutes, with a 10-minute transition from cycling to running.
The bike races are mass-start, with no drafting, so you will need to select your best Time Trial bike and be prepared to go full gas! (See below for help choosing your fastest TT setup.)
A transition time of 10 minutes allows you to change your shoes and power up the treadmill.
The run event is simple: just run as far as you can in 15 minutes.
How Scoring Works
A simple scoring system will determine your league position:
- For every complete 5 meters cycled you will earn 1 point.
- For every meter that you run, you will earn 1 point.
Scores are then added together to form a league table by age group.
Routes & Schedule
The Zwift Duathlon League will take place weekly starting on Wednesday February 17, and consist of 6 total races.
Each week’s race has 6 Wednesday timeslots to choose from (or Thursday depending on your timezone):
- 3:00 AM & 3:45 AM PST // 6:00 AM & 6:45 AM EST // 11:00 AM & 11:45 AM GMT
- 7:00 AM & 7:45 AM PST // 10:00 AM & 10:45 AM EST // 3:00 PM & 3:45 PM GMT
- 11:00 AM & 11:45 AM PST // 2:00 PM & 2:45 PM EST // 7:00 PM & 7:45 PM GMT
- 3:00 PM & 3:45 PM PST // 6:00 PM & 6:45 PM EST // 11:00 PM & 11:45 PM GMT
- 7:00 PM & 7:45 PM PST // 10:00 PM & 10:45 PM EST // 3:00 AM & 3:45 AM GMT
- 11:00 PM & 11:45 PM PST // 2:00 AM & 2:45 AM EST // 7:00 AM & 7:45 AM GMT
Each week, the Time Trial course and Running course will vary. Here is the schedule of routes:
- February 17, 2021 – Bike: Tick Tock // Run: Richmond UCI Worlds Reverse
- February 24, 2021 – Bike: Libby Hill After Party // Run: Big Foot Hills
- March 3, 2021 – Bike: Watopia’s Waistband // Run: Innsbruck KOM After Party
- March 10, 2021 – Bike: Greatest London Flat // Run: Tick Tock
- March 17, 2021 – Bike: The Magnificent 8 // Run: Everything Bagel
- March 24, 2021 – Bike: R.G.V. // Run: Whole Lotta Lava
Registration
You must create an account with WTRL in order to register for the series. Event details (private signup links) will be furnished via email.
Picking a TT Rig
The cycling routes for this series are quite flat, so you’ll want the most aero TT rig possible. Here are some helpful links:
More Info
For more details including rules, routes, Visit WTRL’s Zwift Duathlon League page for more info on this series.
Pro Events – Z Pro Tri Race Series
If duathlons are your passion, then you may be interesting watching the Z Pro Tri Race Series. Watch the Pros battle it out! Races are weekly and can be viewed at zwift.com/video/zprotri-live.
Do the runs have to be on a treadmill? I have a neurological disease called dystonia and cant balance on the mill but am pretty strong on the road.
Hi Lisa, this is ideally done on a treadmill but I have looked to see how you could do this outside and see this post
https://forums.zwift.com/t/zwift-running-outdoors/450496/2
You have to basically run with phone and the Zwift app open and lots of things connected like foot pods. It is doable but a lot of effort. If you do manage to figure out the best solution, please let us know.
Good luck!
Thanks Tim! I’ve done this with my iPhone paired to my $15 milestone pod (Zwift acquired, stuck a Z on it and now charges $30) when it first came out. At first it was finicky to pair, but now works well! Or if you already have an apple watch, that now pairs instead of the foot pod. Just make sure your phone has a near full charge and you turn down the brightness because you have to leave the screen on during the run. If you don’t leave it on it won’t record your steps. Tip: also point your screen away from your body unless you want to run the risk of it accidentally touching your screen. I learned this the hard way after a run that wasn’t recorded. I assume my body touched the screen somehow and exited Zwift. Luckily it was only a 5K! BTW even though I don’t have dystonia, I don’t like the impact treadmills have on my knees that doesn’t seem to occur while running outside! Good Luck!
Brilliant Joel, I might now try and get a foot pod and give it a try as I don’t have a treadmill and like running outside.
I plan on doing the runs outside, weather permitting, as much as possible too. I don’t have any physical reasons, I just don’t like running fast outside.
Best of luck to you.
It’s too bad they didn’t switch up the start times every other week, I would have loved to do one or some of these but cannot make any of the scheduled times as I can only train at 6am MST weekdays before work. Oh well.
It would be great to have some times mentioned by location. That’s easier to convert.
Signed up for this yesterday. I’m just now getting back into shape after an injury so looking forward to having a reason to push once a week instead of just base building.
This is going to be fun (and Hard) 🙂
Will there be a makeup date if someone misses one of the events?