Brick # 7

It's been another busy week but less so than the one before. My plan to do the Stroke & Stride on Thursday was aborted by very heavy rain all up and down the Front Range that night. I knew there was trouble when I saw the buoys had not been set up less than 20 minutes before the start. Sure enough, the swim was called. Shortly there after, the rain started coming down heavily so my brother and I decided to bag the whole event.

I managed to get a 1500 meter swim done at the community pool on Friday so that left yesterday for the big work out of the week.

Having done another 40 mile ride up in the Bennett area on Wednesday, I wasn't too concerned about doing the 22 plus mile ride that made up the first part of my brick. It was a local ride so that meant some very big hills again and speeds that ranged from the single digits to just under 40 mph. There was also a stiff breeze blowing out of the south so that made for some difficult stretches.

I was back home in just over an hour and twenty minutes. Not exactly flying but not terrible either considering there were some very long, steep uphills.

I got home and felt like I transitioned reasonably well. I was out in two minutes and if I can do that in a race, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

As usually, I took the early part of the run at a short stride and I felt pretty good. My HR was down in the high 130's and I didn't feel any heat exhaustion. No doubt the breeze was actually helping in that regard.

Making the turn back toward home I began to feel the effects of the heat and the humidity. Folks living near the coasts or in Midwestern states may not think this is much, but because of all the rain we've had here, humidity levels were in the upper 30's which is much higher than most of us around these parts are used to. I was also running back into the sun and my black tri shorts started to get warm along with the rest of me.

By mile four I was sucking wind and feeling pretty lousy. Though I had set five miles as my goal, I allowed myself to stop at 4.5 which is 90% and I think close enough. Had I known how warm I would be, I would probably have run with my CamelBak so I could stay better hydrated. I also think I would have brought two bottles on the bike rather than one.

So another week in the books. While I don't think I'm going to tear things up at the Creek Streak in three weeks, I'm also feeling reasonably good about my ability to do it and to do it in under three hours. Weather is going to be the factor in training again this week. There are storms in the forecast again for Tuesday so we'll see whether or not I get to swim at the third Aquaman. I was fortunate enough to do so last week but the folks swimming the longer distances ended up being called in from the water some time after I had started the run. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Here's the summary of Brick #7:

1) Bike : 22.55 miles, 1:25:09, 15.9 mph average
2) Transition: 2:01
3) Run: 4.5 miles, 42:38, 9:28 ppm average

FYI: barring any unforeseen events, I'm planning on doing next week's brick on the Creek Streak course. Ought to be helpful to see it all first hand.