Yesterday was my very first brick workout of the season - a combo bike and run workout. These workouts are called "bricks" because, after a bike ride, your legs feel like bricks. That's no joke!
There were three options for the bike ride: an intro to riding/shifting low distance, a middle distance/constant pace, and the performance option that involved time trials and intervals. Oh yeah, you already know which one I did!
We rode a leisurely 4ish miles down Canada road over rolling hills (leisurely even though I hit 29mph, oops) to warm up, then turned around and did the same distance back but as hard as we could go. We were sent off every 20 seconds by speed, slowest first, self-seeded, with two goals: 1) catch the person in front of you, and 2) don't get caught by the person behind you. I have no idea how fast I ride, so I went a little early in the heat. Of course, I went out too hard, which meant I passed people early, but then had a hard time hanging on. It's hard for me to judge how hard I should be riding, but I guess with more practice I'll get better at it. I did get caught by a few of the much faster riders, but I also passed a good number of people - I felt good about my ride. We turned around again and rode the same 4 miles back, then rode in groups of two, changing up who "pulled," or rode in front, allowing the person in the back to draft. It is amazing how much of a difference drafting makes - so much easier to ride behind and get pulled along by the other person! Anyway, this is supposedly a faster way to ride, and indeed, even though I had to slow down a bit to keep my partner with me, and even though it didn't feel like as much of an effort as the first ride, we rolled in about 20 seconds faster than the first solo leg.
I wore my GPS/HR monitor, and my HR only got up to 171 - I wonder if I wasn't working hard enough? I had it in the back of my mind that we had a 3 mile run after the ride, so I was trying not to blow my legs out too early. My max speed was 29.1 mph, which was on the warm-up - oops. The warm-up was more downhill though, and our speed work had us riding hard on the way back uphill, where I got up to 28.3mph, so I don't feel too badly about that.
The run was a simple out-and-back along a trail that had rolling hills and was pretty rocky and muddy. Pretty exciting - I nearly rolled ankles multiple times, but managed to save myself. No sprained ankles please! I felt surprisingly good on the first part of the run, but that was mostly downhill. Actually, my GPS tells me that on the first half I lost about 130 feet of elevation, which doesn't sound like much but even a little downhill makes a big difference for me. My pace for the first 1.5 miles was a speedy 10:29 per mile - fast for me! After I turned around and started back, my legs felt like they were going to fall off. However, I've been trying to focus on running a bit harder than I usually do. My usual running is just plodding along and not focusing on speed, so I'm working on keeping my cadence up and my stride longer. It seems to be working so far. Anyway, on the second leg I was considerably slower, only clocking 12:07 minute miles, but my total time was 33 minutes for 3 miles even - an average pace of 11:18 per mile. That's not bad for me I think. And I'm getting better.
I was supposed to go running today but haven't managed it yet - might wait until tomorrow and do a double day - a run in the morning and a swim in the evening. We'll see!
I start work on Tuesday - that's going to be ab adventure for sure. Lots of commuting, but mostly by train so I'll have time to read or work or whatever. I'm about to get really, really busy... I worry about my training most of all...
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