She's a Brick

On Saturday, Bike Mom and I, got up early (like still dark, no sun, 5:30 early) and did a brick workout. For those of you who don't know, a brick workout is not a Commodores song.

(I really want one of these outfits)

No a brick workout is when you do 1 workout and then immediately do another. Usually its a Bike-Run workout but could also be a Swim-Bike. Its really important to get your body used to going from bike to run. 2 years ago, when I did the Murray Tri, I hadn't done any brick workouts. I had visualized every transition before my race. I would bike to the dismount line, jump off, run my bike back to my rack, drop my bike gear into my bucket, and run out of transition. When I actually jumped off the bike and into transition, I could barely walk let alone run. I had Jelly Legs, BAD! Now I know the importance of brick workouts!

Back to Saturday! Bike Mom and I got up absurdly early and headed off on our bikes (her lovely road bike and my old mountain bike). We had decided to go to the catch basin, a little over 8 miles there and back with my detour back to my house for my head phones. Its a steady climb of about 266 ft all into a head wind. It took us about 40 minutes to make the climb. I will tell you, that it was mostly my fault. I was hating it. The worst part way as I was climbing the last 30 feet (Bike Mom was already at the top), 2 mega bikers came flying up and passed me, so discouraging. I wanted to stop and I wanted to go a different (flatter) way but Bike Mom motivated me and I am happy to say that I made it the whole way. The trip back was lots quicker and a lot more fun! We made it back in only 17 minutes. We were flying! 

I tried to get Bike Mom to just do a little bike route and then run (you know, build our way up) but we did the long route and man were we feeling it (there may have been a few tears of pain)! Decided to run around our block (about 1 mile) but only ran about half before we had to take a short walk (only about a block). It was hard but we were feeling good after and finished off with a .5 mile walk. We did the 1.6 miles in 22 minutes. Not what I hoping for my race time but I've got a month to work on it! 

I'm so glad I have a good friend like Bike Mom to push me on the bike (I really do greatly dislike the bike) and I'm pretty sure she's happy to have me push her on the run!