Brick it to me

She's a brick---house.
Mighty, mighty, just lettin it all hang out....


I just had a butt-kicking brick workout today and am feeling back to my usual athletic self.

Much to my (and my professor's) surprise, I rallied and managed to get all my stressful work stuff taken care of in a few days.

Now that the research crisis is over, I can begin to focus a bit more on my upcoming half ironman. The piriformis still isn't 100%, but it is yards better than a week ago. Right now everything is just tight. I am trying to be very conservative in my "training" for this upcoming tri. I would rather be ridiculously undertrained than injured. Since running seems to be a major trigger, I am sticking to as much biking as I can. I know that even if I lose a bit of fitness between now and the race, I will still be fine.

Today I had a very successful impromptu brick session. For those of you who aren't hip to the lingo, a brick session is when you do back to back swim/bike or bike/run. It's important to do bricks if you're training for a triathlon because when you switch between sports your body uses different muscles, and you need to get used to the feeling. Until today, I had only done two bricks in my life, which made me very unprepared for the jello feeling when you switch from biking to running in a triathlon.

When I went to bed last night I was planning on just doing a moderate-distance ride in the AM, but I woke up with bricks on the brain. I decided that maybe it would be good to actually try to simulate the triathlon experience as much as possible. After all, this is going to be the longest and biggest triathlon I've participated in to date. So, I dug out my proposed tri gear and got everything set up. In a way, it's kind of funny. I can be ridiculously OCD about marathon preparations, but kind of fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to triathlons.

Anyways, back to the brick. I biked a very hilly 30 miles and then quickly transitioned into a brief (1.5 mile) run. I tried to take in a ton of fluids during my ride, so the first half mile of my run was interesting. Since you know how much I love to share gross details, let me share. I kept burping up gatorade and pieces of banana from my breakfast. Gross, I know, but true. I think I am going to try to do more cycling/running bricks, because I really need to get my body used to taking in a ton of fluid and food during the cycling portion and starting the run with a relatively full stomach. Honu is going to be hot---a$$ hot. I expect to take anywhere from 6 1/2-7 hours to finish, and it is essential I get as much fluid and nutrition in my body as possible during the cycling portion. So, stomach, get ready. It's go time.