1st Brick of the Year

For those who don't know, a "brick" is a multisport workout in which the disturbed (that would be me) does one type of workout followed by another. Most of the time it's a bike ride followed by a run since that is the toughest transition. Somehow ! had Thursday off work and since the only other option ! had was doing dishes and changing my oil, ! decided to go for a long ride. Up Lookout mountain and back is 45 miles so ! added a few laps around Wash. Park to get to 56 miles. ! slammed some Gatorade and changed clothes and went for a 13.2 mile easy trail run on the Cherry Creek trail. Even though the forecast was for a high of 54* and rain and wind in the morning, it turned out to be a really nice day. Most of the run was shirtless. ! have a light sunburn on my shoulders and real tan lines. The 4.5 mile climb up lookout took 32 1/2 minutes. That's really slow. The record is just under 20 minutes. The descent took 11:50. ! tend to over-hydrate before a ride and today was no exception. ! must have peed 10 times before ! got home. ! decided ! could do the run w/out any water since ! have been doing that distance twice a week for nearly a month now. That was a mistake. It was much warmer and after a 4 hour ride ! was starting out dehydrated. ! made it. Why do these distances? They are half IronMan lengths. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. !'ve been doing the run for a while and !'m actually starting to enjoy it. Also, Thursday night is the club swim and it is usually a little more that 1.2 miles so ! could say ! actually did a 1/2 IM today. Last September ! did Harvest Moon 1/2 and my legs cramped @ the start of the run so ! needed to test myself. !'ve signed up for 2 1/2s this year. The long runs have really surprised me. In the past ! would run because ! had to. ! never really built a base. Just went straight to the speed building which is pretty much the same as building your house on a foundation of jello. !'ve been working a lot and the weather hasn't really been conducive to pleasant bike riding so !'ve been running. "Train the weakness" Build a base. Running is great aerobic conditioning for the limited time available. Now !'m starting to enjoy it more than ! have in the past.