When your legs feel like a "brick"

What's the big deal? I'd often ask myself. It's just some biking followed by some running; neither one is particularly difficult...why all the fuss?

And then I tried it. Oh, man, how I now feel the foolishness of those thoughts and why triathletes hold brick workouts in such high regard. Sure you can pedal 25 miles. Sure you can run six miles. But back-to-back? Better get to training, pansy!

So today turned out to be a rare mid-week day off WITH beautiful weather WITH me in a get-physical mood. Great! The plan:

1. Bicycle to Mt Sinai for EKG
   
2. Run a loop of Central Park
   
3. Bicycle home
   

In hindsight, this was too optimistic of a plan. The bicycle in was OK, though I did take an east-side route for the first time and found out what a terrible, brutal ride that can be. There's no decent bike path on the East side, nothing like the Hudson River Park, and 1st Ave is torn up pretty bad. As part of what I was cycling was Marathon route, I all of a sudden had a deeper understanding of just what the initial Manhattan leg (between 59th street bridge and the Bronx) means - an uphill, broken-concrete-paved several miles. This could be the hardest part of the course - I believe Danny mentioned it in his marathon writeup. Bike1 = ~ 12 miles.

Got the EKG. Have no clue what all those scribbles mean. Meh. Paging Dr. Danny...


Back on the bike, down to NYRR. Stowed my bike and bag and headed out to run in the park. This is where it got hard. Apparently, legs don't like the transition. At first, I took to the reservoir loop, assuming some dirt would be easier on my legs. Within half a mile I was in great pain, even though I'd been stretching a lot during the bike and before the run. I left the dirt on the west side of the park and took the regular asphalt loop south from there, quickly revising my 6-mile plan to a 4-mile plan. What transpired was one of the hardest runs I've had in recent months, including ones where I struggled with asthma - my legs were at times in agony. I was forced to slow to a walk, had to stop and stretch several times, and finally, after a couple of miles, was able to keep going because the UPHILLS were kinder to my legs than the downhills! Pain or not, I did manage to throw in two strides of roughly eight-minute pace for 200 yards each before throwing in the towel and exiting the park at 92nd street. Walk/jog/run = ~4 miles.

After post-run stretching and gulping down more powersnot (which is so old in the bottle at this point it is starting to sugar!), I got back on the bicycle and headed home, swinging by work first to chat with the bossman. The day had been getting hazier and windier as it wore on and now I was headed into pronounced headwinds that slowed me down badly. Combined with my fatigue, I was burning up what energy I had left. I stopped at about 23rd street for a quick snack. (Hammer Nutrition sent me a sample of their line of energy bars in my last order. Turns out, they're quite good! Much better than my current favorite, the Cliff chocolate mint energy bars.)

Back on the bike, up and over Manhattan bridge, and finally home. Whew! Bike2 = ~13 miles.

Arrived home tired, hungry (no, famished), and feeling like I'd been beaten with a length of 0 gauge power cable. Once I'd satisfied my hunger, I realized I was also curious. Got online and found a couple of sites.

One is for beginner triathletes and has a good definition of a "brick". It also has tons of useful advice I'll be reading up on.

The other site is more local. New York Triathlete runs various tri- and duathlons in the area. Entry fees are a lot steeper for these events than for running races. I got to looking at the results of March's races and realized that I could probably enter a race and at least come in a little ahead of last place.... hm.... I guess I need to put up or shut up. I'm considering the May 7th run-bike-run in Prospect Park. It seems short enough not to kill me and close enough to home where I can crawl home licking my wounds if need be. I don't know if I'm supposed to have a special bike for this kind of thing or not, but I figure I'll just use my road bike for this first race. My only hesitation is that this is only one week after the Nashville half-Marathon and I hope I won't be overdoing it.

Advice, anyone?