Brick

So in the Triathlon world a "brick" workout is one where you bike and then run immediately after. My trainer been trying to get me to come out to a brick workout in a local park. The first 2 weeks I had excuses (husband was away, plans with work friends) but on Monday I told him that I was out of excuses.

So at work today I get an voicemail from trainer reminding me about the brick. I think "Thats nice, maybe I should go". So I call up Hazel. Nope, Hazel can't go. I call up other friend Michelle, voicemail. Hmmm... Do I really want to go to this without backup? Hmmm... not really. Get home. Oh look, another voicemail from trainer. Guess I'd better go. Husband kicks me out the door and a way I go.

We started with an 8K ride on the pathway. That is a tad bit weird because I am used to riding on the shoulder of big open road with no obstacles to worry about. At one point I end up on the grass avoiding some roller bladers. Whoops! I remind myself that I am not on my mountain bike and that Road Bike + Grass = Not a good idea. At least it was not gravel.

There was a crazy wind but the 8K on the pathway was pretty easy away from the wind, and then really hard into the wind. I got to meet D who I have been hearing about and she is really nice. She is doing Ironman this year and is older than me. One more person to derive inspiration from. Anyways, I could not keep up to her and you know what? That was great! It kind of kicked me in the butt and made me want to try harder and drop these 20 something pounds so that I can go faster too.

Anyways... part 2 of the bike workout was up this ridiculously long and steep hill. The hill kicked my ass. It took me 6 minutes and 26 seconds to get up it. I was breathing like there was no tomorrow but I did it! Lots of burning lactic acid in the legs, then Oh Joy! we did it again. Thankfully it was only 2 times. However, I really wished I had my Mountain Bike at that point because it has easier gears.

After all that we did a 4K (well apparently 3.94k run) and I did it in 24:31. Wait! That means that when I try I am not super slow? What the heck? Maybe there is hope for me after all! Apparently I just need people to chase and keep up with.

Thanks for you comments on my previous posts. Both Fatinah and Hazel made points about my heart rate. I am going to aim to monitor my heart rate during my run and keep it in the 160s. That is a decent effort for me. To heck with worrying about what my speed is.

Seabreeze: Thanks for the kick. You are right. I can still do a half marathon. I was being a wuss. I am only in week 2 and the long runs are only 7K. There is no reason that I can't do that!