Big Brick

Hi. It's Laura.

Happy Monday!

A reminder to those who have a forgotten, a brick is a two part workout: a bike ride followed immediately by a run to simulate how you would feel in a triathlon.
The switch from the bike to run is more difficult than the transition from swimming to biking (so I am told).

It is a called a brick because the workouts are layered one on top of the other like bricks. It is also how your legs feel, like bricks.

My first brick was awful. My legs were wobbly, my hands were shaky and I got severe cramps on my right side. I read so many articles about the brick and they all assured me it would get easier. I can now tell you from experience it does and it doesn't.

Every week for the last 15 weeks I have done a brick on Saturday morning and every week the ride and the run get longer. This past Saturday was about as big as my training bricks get longer: 1 ½ hour bike ride followed by a 30 minute run. Exhausted is not exactly the right word for how I felt afterwards but pretty damn close considering the one hour long nap I took. The plus side, I burned nearly 1100 calories which pretty much gave me license to eat whatever I wanted that day.

Today I was faced with a 900 meter swim and strength training.

I have seriously neglected my strength training over the last two weeks due to the heavy schedule I have had with swimming, biking and running. It is very difficult to get it all in and still deal with the rest of your life. I don't know anyone who can (or should) spend 3-4 hours in the gym working out. (Maybe Olympians but that is a different story.)

So today I started in the gym with a newly designed strength training program incorporating lots of repetition and a very light load and taught myself something new; Band Assisted Chin-Ups. I have wanted to try these but it can be uncomfortable trying something new when you think everyone is watching. BTW no one is watching and really no one cares. You are the only one that really cares. The chin ups were much more difficult than I thought they would be. I thought for sure I could do 12, I did 3 and I know I will be sore tomorrow. So my goal is to do one more every day I am in the gym working on these exercises.

As for the swim today, after swimming in the ocean, the pool was a piece of cake.

I took the tips my brother gave me (after I remembered them) and applied them to my workout this morning. I was way faster and found it so much easier to breathe. Because of those tips, I moved from the medium slow to the medium fast lane. The volume of water I was pulling with each stroke seemed to be so much more with the new and improved stroke. woohoo.

That leaves me with 13 days left before the big day.

If you have any questions about the spectator information I put out the other day just email me.

Play hard!

Laura