FEATURES

"...as long as I can."

Thursday, 03 November 2016 23:10

Interview with elite masters duathlete, James Hannon.

By Brad Mitchell (obsessive.tripulsive.weebly.com)

What is your athletic background and when did you begin endurance sports?
 
I was a runner in high school. I was planning to go out for football in ninth grade but I joined cross-country instead. I ran cross-country and track at St. Paul Highland Park Senior High for 4 years. Actually, I wasn’t allowed to officially run varsity track in ninth grade because the St. Paul City Council voted it down. As a freshman, I did run the mile in 4:37 and the two mile in 9:55 in nonconference meets. My best times for the mile and two mile were 4:22 and 9:26. I was recruited to run cross-country and track at Columbia University in New York. My senior year, we won the Ivy League cross-country championship (HEPS) for the 1st time in 40 years. My best track times in college were 3:55 for 1500m, 4:10 for the mile, and...

14:13 for 5000m. I continued to run road races early in med school and some of my best times were 23:58 for 8k, 1:07 for the half marathon, and 2:20:52 for the marathon. It’s been all downhill since then.
 
Equipment. Name one underrated multi-sport gear item and one overrated item that you have come across over the years.
 
I think the bike might be the most underrated piece of equipment. I used a 12 speed Raleigh in my first triathlon (in the 90s) and later in my first duathlon in 2006. It was immediately obvious my equipment was not up to par and the bike leg was affecting my overall placing. After that, I bought a used Cervelo P3 to get more aero and my speed went up by about 2 mph. Later, when I competed at bigger events, I could see my bike leg was still too slow. It was way slower than guys my age who didn’t even have top tier equipment. That’s when I realized I probably needed to spend more time riding hard in practice. So I would also say the bike can be the most overrated item too.
 
On average, how many hours per week do you train during the season and has this changed over the years?
 
I slowly became more serious about duathlon over the past 10 years or so. At first I was a runner who crossed over to try duathlon. So my weekly hours were what I spent running (about 30-40 miles) plus about two rides (40-50 miles) per week. I got better by riding more over the years even as my running was slowing down. So I have spent progressively more time riding and maybe a little less time running, which works out to more time per week. In a typical week, during the main season, I run about 20-25 miles and ride about 100 miles.  On average I end up spending about 7-8 hrs per week consistently.  READ MORE