Friday, June 1, 2007

A "hump"-less brick!

I recently learned my friend Lenna occasionally stops by to read. I'm sure that title will make her a little cautious to continue. It's exercise related, so don't worry! :-)

Last night I finally had a wonderful thing happen: no big "hump" to overcome after my transition from bike to run during a brick workout. (Make sense now, Lenna?) For those that haven't ever done a bike/run brick, the feeling of heavy legs, almost like they are made of wood, is a very odd feeling. It can cause you to stumble, and absolutely can foster injury if you try to over stride right out of the gate. The only way to reduce the feeling? Repetition! And last night I finally had a brick run that really didn't have any appreciable hump in it. I kept looking for it, and adjusted my stride/cadence for it, but nope. Just a smooth transition. Sweet! Here's the stats:

14.69m bike in 41:58 @ 21mph average
:54 transition
2.4m run in 16:48 @ 7:00/mile

Nice average on the bike, and good feeling run even if it wasn't a PR. It was also about 90 degrees out! I'll take it.

I didn't get around to blogging my swim on Wednesday. I went for some distance again, and it felt very comfortable. Again I had to quit only because of time, not physical limitation of endurance. Hooray! Well, that's a half victory: apparently that means I need to do some pool speed work. Drat! Here's the stats:

2000yds in 34:46 @ 1:44/100yds
1st 500yd: 8:34
2nd 500yd: 8:47
3rd 500yd: 8:56
4th 500yd: 8:28

Ah, Friday. Sadly, this means I will have to spend 2 days away from the office. 2 days without addressing IT audit requirements, excessively loud conference calls on speaker phone, meetings with the "what does this have to do with me" people, and of course private toilet experiences without any of the issues detailed on Tuesday. Gonna fire up the grill over the weekend, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to another raceless weekend, though I'm sure I have a bunch of chores to do, which is okay. They need to get done by someone, right? Mendy and I are also trying to figure out our weekend exercise schedule, so it may come down to a best-of-three pea knuckle match, or maybe a rock/paper/scissors showdown. If one of us doesn't blog next week, you know who won.

I wish for great results and (most of all) fun races for Robin, Marcy, and Jason. Go out there and have a blast, guys! And everyone else be safe and train hard.

5 comments:

Mendy said...

So great you're not feeling that crazy leg syndrome from bike to run. Repetition is key. The more you push yourself through it, the easier it becomes. Now, it's just going to get easier each time you do it, which means you'll be faster right out of the gate!

Gotta Run..... said...

Now you have arrived!! I never reached the limit of transitioning and not feeling the cement legs for at least the first mile.

How great that must have felt!!

Thanks for the well wishes for the race. It will be a blast no matter what!

Marcy said...

Thanks for the props homeslice :P I appreciate it! :)

Reason #26789 why I could never do a triathlon. " For those that haven't ever done a bike/run brick, the feeling of heavy legs, almost like they are made of wood" I hate it when they just feel like jello, don't think I'd want to try the "wood" feeling LOL GREAT JOB with the workout, I'm hoping that if I read your blog long enough some of that motivation and drive will rub off on me!!

On a sidenote, I have a VERY hard time believing that the closest you'll ever get to eating any foods off Mendy LOL

Wes said...

I pretty much plan to run after my bike from now on, even if its just 10 minutes or so... I am SO ready for life to slow down a bit so I can get to my "chores" around the house. But.... I'm off to Columbus for the State Cup tournament this weekend. Just when I thought it was all over :-)

Unknown said...

Great job with the brick. That is definitely the "sweet spot" we are all looking for in that transition to the run.

Oh, and always opt for "rock."