1st Brick of the Year

This evening I did my first "brick" workout of the year. The plan was to run about 2 miles then transition to the bike, bike whatever I could get in around the neighborhood, then run 2 miles again.

This was actually a fun workout. I got the bike off the rack and had it leaned and ready. Had my helmet laid out with my bike shoes on the floor next to it, just like it would be in a duathlon. I didn't really have a designated route, I was just messing around and figured I'd try to get 2 miles on the garmin doing some type of out and back. The traffic around my neighborhood is so bad in the evenings that its really difficult to have a good run or bike because your always having to wait on cars or dodge cars.

First mile on the run was a 9:40. I actually didn't quite make 2 miles total but I was at 1.97 with lap two an average pace of 9:43. I grabbed the garage door opener and opened the garage door, ran in the house real quick for a fast drink of water then came back out and started changing into
my bike shoes and helmet. I was pretty slow on the transition with T1 time being 2:26.

I took off on the bike, not sure how many miles I would get but just riding and making a route as I went. I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what the heck I was doing. The traffic slowed me down some but I quit the bike after 34:40 and 8.98 miles. I had a 15.5 mph average and that was with several stop signs and weaving in and out of the neighborhoods.

T2 was better. I had a time of 1:56 switching back over to the run. I was pretty hot at this point and ran in the house, grabbed me a small bottle of water and took off running down the block. I tried to get a drink as I was running. By this time I was really getting strange looks from the neighbors.

I actually walked a couple times on this leg of my workout just to get a drink. At least the sun was going down and it was shady in a lot of places. First mile was a 10:10 and again, I missed the two mile mark only ending up with 1.77. Lap two was a 9:59 average. Not too bad considering this was my first brick of the year. Average heart rate was 159 and I burnt a total of 1393 calories.

Yesterday I rode with an advanced group of guys from the Cruisers. It was the perfect afternoon for a bike ride. We ended up with 20.5 miles and right at a 16 mph average. I never really pushed the pace on this ride. It was very relaxed to me other than we had a few pretty tough hills. I think all my running is really going to help my biking this summer.

I have asked Coach Dennis to help put me together a running schedule for the summer. Right now I have no plan. I really like having a training plan so at least I know what I need to do in miles. I have a 5k race on the 17th and a duathlon on the 26th that I am training for. After marathon training these shorter distances don't seem like much. I can't wait to do the duathlon though. It is a fun race!