4/21/13: The Training Continues

Yesterday I did another bike/run brick.  This time I rode 24 miles (last time I only rode 21 miles) and ran 5 miles.  A 24 mile bike and 5 mile run are the official bike/ride distances in our tri this summer.  Now I only need to add the 1500 meter swim and I know I will be able to do this thing.  I will do my next brick in two weeks (weather permitting) and I will add the swim.

This time the brick was easier in some respects and harder in others.  First, it was harder to talk myself into starting it, because I knew how hard it was going to be after doing it the first time.  All morning I was dreading that bike-to-run transition.  Also, it was a little cooler than it was supposed to be yesterday and I was cold all morning.  I was not looking forward to biking in the cool weather.

Well, the sun finally came out and it warmed up a little.  I put on wool socks, leg warmers, and two jackets, and decided that I would be warm enough on my bike.  This week I chose a bike route that started at the house, took surface streets to the bike path, and looped around back to the house on streets, again.  The result was that about half of the ride was on the road and half was on the path.  The advantage of being on the road is I can get into the biggest ring on my bike and go faster.  The disadvantage is the stop lights.  Another advantage (or disadvantage - depending on your perspective) of the road is that it is hilly.  There are several decent uphill pulls on this route.  As much as I don't like hill climbing, it is really beneficial training.  The path is flat.  The advantage of the path is that there is no stopping, but because of the curves, pedestrians, dogs, kids, and other cyclists, I can never get into my biggest ring and my top speed is about 16mph when I am on the path.  I'm still working hard, but I can't crank it up and just go.  Between the path and the road, my ride time yesterday for 24 miles was 1 hour and 47 minutes.  I know I will be able to improve that when I am on the open road with no stop lights or traffic, but I don't know by how much.  One of these days I will do my bike/run brick out in the country and see what that does for my time.

I also did my run on the road, using my normal 5 mile route.  The good news is that the bike-to-run transition was much easier this time.  I don't know if it was because I knew what to expect or if it was really easier, but it didn't hit me like a ton of bricks like it did the first time I did it.  The not so good news is that the hills were killer!!  I have a couple of pretty decent hills on this route in the second mile.  When I did my brick the first time, the first mile was nearly impossible as I transitioned from my bike, but by the time I got into the second mile I was hitting my stride and feeling OK.  Yesterday I hit those hills about halfway through my second mile and they almost stopped me dead in my tracks.  Man they were hard.  But by the time I got to the third mile and had most of the hills behind me, I knew I would be able to finish the route.  My run time was 53 minutes.  I feel pretty good about that considering I had to wait at 4 stop lights.  I am sure I spent at least three minutes waiting for red lights to turn green, which means I am averaging about 10 minute miles.  I think that's great, considering a year ago it took me an hour to go 4 miles.  I've improved from 15 minute miles to 10 minute miles in a year!!

It felt good to do the brick and be able to run the entire 5 miles after riding for 24 miles, but I didn't get quite as pumped up as I did after my first big brick.  It is hard for me to believe I can do this, though.  It feels like a real achievement to be able to ride my bike, hard, for 24 miles, and then run for 5.  We'll see how the swim/bike/run brick goes in two weeks!