Today I set out to do something I have never done before. The challenge I laid out before myself was to do a true brick workout, complete with realistic triathlon distances. I chose to use the sprint distance. For those of you who don't know, a sprint distance triathlon consists of a 750M swim, 20K bike, and 5K run. That converts to approximately a .5MI swim, 12.4MI bike, and 3.1MI run. Those all seem like pretty reasonable distances to strive for as a beginner.
Today's workout was to consist of a 12 mile bike ride followed directly by a 3.1 mile run. It was also to include a shoe change before embarking on the run portion. I have done workouts in the past that were opposite of this, but never have done one in the correct order. The goal was to complete 2/3 of a triathlon to see if I would be able to do it. I had no doubts about my fitness or endurance, but was concerned about how my body would handle the stress of going directly from one activity to the other. As it turns out it did very well. Here is a brief recap.
It was a dark and stormy morning, no, really, it was. We had a huge storm system run through this morning and I had to wait till it passed. I checked the weather one last time, it looked as thought the storm was going to skirt around us and I would be good to go. As I start out the sky lightens and a cool breeze helps distract from the dampness from the rain that had ended a short while earlier. Everything was going well until the return trip. I had just passed the 8 mile mark when I noticed random lightning in the distance. I still thought that I would be okay and that the storm was just going to pass by. I was wrong, the lightning got closer, and the sky opened and dropped rain in torrent making the roads into mini white water rivers. I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me. Rain hurts when you are going pretty fast and have minimal protection. I am glad that the storm was a quick and violent one because I really wanted to get my run in too. By the time that I had covered the last 2 miles home the storm had cleared and the sun was trying to do its thing. Getting off my bike I hurried through the door to put it away and get ready to for my transition.
After round tripping a flight of steps for dry socks I was out of my wet foot gear and into the dry. I think that it went pretty good considering that I have never done it before. I will need some practice to make it smooth, and to quickly get my legs adjusted to walking and ultimately running. So, out the door I went and off for my run. I felt strange running so quickly after riding and was having a little trouble adjusting to the muscle fatigue. All of that adjustment to a new activity went away by the time I finished the first mile, and the rest just seemed to cruise on by. I even had enough left for a pretty decent kick to finish it off.
Overall I would have to say that this has given me the answers I was looking for as to weather or not I would like doing tri's or not. I feel that as long as I can get some pool time I will have no issue with rocking some next year or maybe this year if I can find a reasonable one at the end of the season.
Workout totals:
Cycle stats:
11.87mi \ 48:36 \ 14.66 avg speed (the GPS lied, told me I had done 12.04mi before I adjusted to match my route.)
Transition stats:
3:00min.\ includes putting bike away, resetting app to record run, changing sock and shoes.
Run stats:
3.42mi \ 29:32 \ 8:37 avg pace.
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