Brick # 9

Not even a week back from vacation and here I am back to bricks. No choice, however since the fourth and final multi-sport race of the season is three weeks from Sunday.

I woke up this morning to the pleasant discovery of overcast skies. While I normally like my summer days to be sunny, this was a good thing because heat has truly been my enemy, especially on the run.

Considering I was out when a lot of folks are commuting to work, I decided to stay on the bike path for my ride. It's a little less challenging than some of the other brick rides I've done, but also safer. There's also the fact that the TriRock is a more or less flat course along Harbor Drive so climbing huge hills doesn't serve much of a purpose.

As usual, the bike was fine. I've come to find that success in triathlons is not being able to swim, bike and run, it's being able to run after having swam and biked. In other words, the real test is on the third leg of the race. That's also true on the run leg of a brick. Considering the struggles I had at the Creek Streak I went into the run with a few concerns.

My average HR in the Streak was in the mid 150's which is high even for me. With that in mind, I decided to not worry about my time and instead focus on my heart rate. I'm considering using a heart rate-based training plan for next year's races anyway so this was a good chance to field test it.

For most of the first three miles, I kept it around 130 which is about as low as I get on a run. Gradually, as I went further along it picked up but the max was 160 and that was only in the last few steps. All in, it was a slower brick than I normally run, but I also didn't devastate my body and it was just a little further than the one I ran two weeks before the Streak.

With three weeks to go, the fact that the race is at sea level and the usual increase that comes with a race, I'm confident I can knock some more time off of this one:

Brick 9 Results:

1) Bike : 23.52 miles, 1:22:32, 17.1 mph average
2) Transition: 1:29
3) Run: 6 miles, 1:05:44, 10:57 ppm average

 

I know I mentioned more pictures but bricks don't really lend themselves to photo-ops. So instead, here's my favorite picture of Venice from my recent trip: