First Brick

The Ironman training is rampin' up!

Sarah, Brenda, and I did a brick today (first one this year for me) and it went really well. Their training plan (from Wendy Mader) starts earlier than mine and it called for 3:30 bike and a 30 min run. I was a little nervous about it thinking that I might not be able to keep up with them but it turned out fine. They rode a slower pace than what I've been doing on Wednesday mornings (which is smart) so I felt fine on the bike. The run was another story!

More on that in a moment.

I have to mention how the day started. I had everything ready last night: bike, helmet, gloves, shoes, water bottles (2, filled with Powerbar Endurance drink), bike shorts and top, running shorts, running shoes, socks (for the run), gels, bars, cell phone charged, camera battery charged, etc. I put out my cereal bowl and had the coffee ready to go - all I had to do was hit the button.

I even got to bed on time!

The first thing that went wrong is the electricity went off in the middle of the night and set off our alarm. Great, just what I need, I thought. It was 4:10 AM and my alarm was supposed to go off at 4:50 AM.  I finally drifted off to sleep and woke with a start at 5:10 - crap!  My clock was off so the alarm didn't go off (duh!).  Good thing I woke up!

I still have time but now I have to hurry. I slurp down a large bowl of cereal and drink my coffee quickly. I get dressed and get my bike in the back of the truck (Kurt has the van and he's out of town).

My plan was to leave at 6:00 so that I would be at Sarah's by 6:10'ish.  But I have to hook up the battery to the truck (something we've had to do for years because there is an electrical shortage in the truck somewhere and no one has ever been able to find it). No problem, I can do that quickly.

Not!

I can't get the cable screwed in right. I try and try and no good. Crap, I'm going to have to take all my bike stuff and throw it in the car. But I decide to try it again and wa - la!  I'm successful, but it's now 6:10. Darn, I'm late.

But the ride went well. As I said earlier, we went at a pretty slow pace but that's ok. I'm not sure I would've made the run if we hadn't. Still, I found myself wanting to go faster during the ride.

We rode from 6:30 - 10:00, with two potty breaks. We put the bikes in Sarah's garage and headed out on the run. It was very hot and very hard to run after riding 58 miles!  But this is where things get weird for those of us who like endurance events - it actually felt good to hurt a little.

My goal on the run was simply to stay with S and B. They are running so fast now (and more often than me) that I honestly didn't know if I could. Sarah was chatted easily on the run, which shows what great shape she is in, and I was breathing heavily. But I was able to keep up and that thrilled me to death!

We made it back in 30 mins and I was about to collapse. But I was so glad that I did it.  One brick down, a dozen to go!