Bricks Are Fun

Good morning.

Pretty nice weekend in Chicago. The weather people really can't even be that accurate on the next day's forcast. Yesterday was supposed to be cloudy all day. It ended up being sunny all day. How can you miss that? Oh well, I was happily surprised as I prefer Sun.

After communicating with my coach I decided to skip the Chicago Spring Half Marathon. She asked me if this race was an, A, B, C or D grade race. That got me thinking. After pondering about this I gave the Chicago Spring Half Marathon a, C/D grade. I decided with many more important races on the horizon why should I push it so soon after Boston on a C/D race. So, I slept in a bit and stayed home yesterday.

I also graded my remaining races and triathlons to keep priorities straight, in my mind. With all the time and effort I have put into triathlon training, they are extremely important. I would hate to miss my main Ironman event because of injury in a less important event.

My graded events are:

A

Steelhead Half Ironman, Chicago Marathon

B

Bigfoot Tri, Chicago Tri, Chicago Half Marathon

C

13.1 Half Marathon

Grading the events tends to keep me more focused and my priorities in check.

Since I stayed home Sunday I decided to do my first official BRICK.

I decided to ride the bike indoors on the trainer and get in a good solid 20 miler. I felt like sweating a lot. I organized my running clothes near the bike so I could quickly change after the bike workout.

I rode the bike for 20 in approx 1:10:00 and immediately changed into my running stuff and headed out the door for an un-determined distance. But, in the back of my mind I was shooting for 6 miles.

My T1 time was about 2/3 minutes.

As the run started my legs felt stiff and like little sausages. That soon cleared up after about 3/4 to 1 mile. After that it was time to sail. The legs got some life and my run times really started clicking. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast I could run. I would categorize this first Brick as a success. My run stats follow:

Split Time Moving Time Distance Elevation Gain Elevation Loss Avg Pace Avg Moving Pace Best Pace Avg HR Max HR Steps Calories
1 0:09:13 0:09:10 1 0 8 9:13 9:10 6:59 124 135 0 96
2 0:08:07 0:08:02 1 14 0 8:07 8:02 6:43 135 144 0 94
3 0:07:35 0:07:37 1 0 0 7:35 7:37 6:19 142 149 0 91
4 0:07:32 0:07:33 1 0 0 7:32 7:33 5:48 147 151 0 94
5 0:07:35 0:07:35 1 0 6 7:36 7:35 5:59 152 156 0 98
6 0:07:22 0:07:20 1 0 8 7:22 7:20 5:25 155 161 0 96
7 0:00:01 0:00:02 0 0 0 9:21 9:36 6:07 158 158 0 0
Summary 0:47:29 0:47:19 6 14 22 7:54 7:52 5:25 141 161 0 569




Edited by Silentrunner 5/17/2010 7:08 AM

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" Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own, sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."

* It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before... to test your limits... to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anais Nin