In case you don't know (I just found out like a couple of months ago) a Brick is a bike ride followed by a run (it can also be a swim followed by a bike ride).
I had NO IDEA where we were biking. Our original plan was to bike the same area from last week but with my car waiting for a doctor's appointment - that was out. And by "our" and "we", I mean TriGuy. We agreed to bike for an hour and then run for 30 minutes... seemed easy enough, right?
Well, the new bike course consisted of a gazillion big hills. The type of hills that on runs, you practice. Like rolling hills which coming down is awesome (actually more fun than running down them), but going up.... I wanted to get off and walk the bike up. But I did not walk. I pedaled (apparently, wrong - another blog post). By mile 4, I had severe cramps in my right calve (from pedaling wrong). I did not think I was going to make it.
TriGuy forced me to go in front so he didn't leave my in his dust. But being in front made me even more self conscious about how much I stink at riding and at how slow I was going. I mean, he wasn't even out of breath.
We reached the turn around point and I wanted to throw in the towel. I just wasn't picking up this bike thing as quickly as everything else. I mean, I believe I am a natural athlete. I tend to just figure it out without really trying. This is NOT going to be the case with cycling.
We turned around and I tried to pedal correctly and think about what I was doing. I asked TriGuy to just go and he did. While he wasn't ever out of my sight, several times he was as small as an ant... and yeah, he wasn't even pushing it.
I felt like a failure. And yeah, I even fell at a stop light. Just lost my balance, was clipped in on one side - of course the side I was falling on. I didn't get hurt but was embarrassed.
We returned to his house and quickly got out of our bike shoes/shorts and headed out for the run. Wow, your legs feel so funny. My quads were on fire. I was feeling okay but had no idea what our pace was. And of course, the run path was hilly as well. THANKS TRIGUY!
Our splits:
Mile 1: 8:27
Mile 2: 8:54
Mile 3: 9:11 (Mentally... completely defeated)
Mile 4: 8:55
TriGuy was very encouraging. He kept telling me how good I was doing and that how I was doing more than the Sprint Tri even called for. I have to admit that when I was finished I was glad I had done it. I am glad that TriGuy was with me... and I think I have officially changed his name: TriGuru - he is *that* good (and doesn't even know it).
I was wiped out the rest of the day. It was tough. Dare I even say tougher than the last 6 miles of a marathon.
And the other strange thing is that it took my about 15 minutes to stop coughing. Like hacking up a lung, can hardly breathe type of cough. I think I really need to check this out... I mean runner's cough and biker's cough... is this sports induced asthma?
5 comments:
We used to do something similar... but rowing first and then running. So HARD. You did it... that is NOT failure in my book :)
Great job on your first brick!! I had my first of the season this weekend, too :D
I don't usually get the lung hacking from the bike, but definitely when I push myself too much on a run.
You had your first fall! Congrats!! I've had a couple. The non-bloody ones are almost worse because you just have a bruised ego and that is just not as much fun to show off to people ;-)
You are doing great!
Good job!! none of this = a failure! come on now!
Isn't the feeling of running after biking so weird?? and I agree about being tired after!
I can remember doing that, maybe I should do another IRONMAN, no, no, no, all that training just sounds like hard work...
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