Thursday brick

I'm in a "cutback week" which means my workouts are much easier and I get more rest. It feels like a vacation from Ironman training...

Yesterday, I had an hour ride at Train Chicago Studios With the Max team followed by a 30 minute treadmill run. Doing multisport workouts on the same day, back-to-back is called a "brick". I have often wondered why it is called a brick: maybe because that's what your legs feel like afterwards?! ;)

Instead of using my heart rate monitor I did the ride based on power or watts.
Although my coaches philosophy centers on heart rate, I am becoming a bigger and bigger believer in power measurements, particularly on the bike. Heart rate may be better suited for running. The workout yesterday was a gradual hill finishing at 9.9%. It went up by 1% until 9% and then skipped to 9.9%. Between each course there was a plateau at 0% to recover. I really enjoyed this work out; it was an excellent ride for me. What I also found interesting was that with the eight riders, I started off at the back of the pack. But as the hill incline grew, I moved up the positions in the ride. This is important -not only for my psyche- but confirmed a lot of my training the past two months. I was able to comfortably climb the hill, keeping my heart rate low (my perception based on my breathing), and felt fine at the end of the ride. I think I preferred to start at the back of the pack and build up and finish at the front, rather than start off at the front and lost steam.

The run yesterday was a slightly different story. I think a lot of multisport comfort is based on "equipment". And part of equipment is apparel... I had planned well enough ahead of time do you think you wear my jogbra under my bike jersey but my bottoms were another issue. Of course I had on my bike shorts during the ride, but underneath I was wearing a pair of Under Armor "booty shorts". You know, the type you might wear to hot yoga. I figured, I would take off my bike shorts and just run in those... It would have been fine but I had some major "chub rub" happening on the run!! So what was to be 30 minutes at an easy 11 minute pace, became incredibly painful!! Lesson learned from yesterday- or rather a reminder- was that I really need to think about what I will be wearing, not only for my workouts, but for each leg of the race. Unlike other shorter distance triathlons where you wear one outfit for the entire race, at Ironman I will be changing after each leg of the race.

Friday is another off day this week, so I intend to rest, hangout with friends, and feel my wounded "thunder" (thighs)!!