I am a triathlete, wait no, duathlete, wait no...

Today was my first brick workout. Let me start by saying I have no desire to do a triathlon and I've been saying that for a while. But, a lot of my friends are triathletes and because of that, I've been doing endurance style workouts. My friend, Lori Levasseur has been riding and swimming with me. Holly Di Giovine, like no one who reads this has ever heard that name, has been helping/leading rides, so I've gotten a LOT of cross training in for my marathon training. Lori is showing me drills for the pool and helping with my technique... she deserves a medal because i'm not a strong swimmer... at all.... Imagine my phoebe running in the pool. Yes... that's me...

SO TODAY WAS THE DAY OF THE....

BRICK WORKOUT

To be honest, it was way more fun than I thought. The Caine Halter YMCA is having their annual Sprint Triathlon on June 18th, so this was a course preview. Holly was nice enough to host this preview with her Team Primo Victoria and they invited some of us novices out for a tri try. :)

I'm the one with the black tank and white hat

Source: Holly Di Giovine's camera 

The Bike: 8.35 miles, 37:05

We did a small 3 mile loop that we circled 3 times. It was super hilly so my biggest challenge was shifting. I'm still learning and getting comfortable and the biggest problem I have is switching between big gears, or my front gears. They're a little bit more difficult to switch and so I don't love doing it. I almost always knock the chain off, which happened this time, and have to stop and put it back on. 

What I loved:

*The speed.... I'm getting more comfortable with downhills and even dropped my chest forward a few times to gain speed. Max speed was 31.5 mph which is good for me. That usually makes me nervous

*The alone time... I was pretty much by myself and I got to think and really just pay attention and enjoy what I was doing. 

*The challenge: this is hard but in a different way. I actually like cycling better than running and this was the same. 

What I didn't love: 

*Changing gears all the time. I'm assuming this isn't always the case, it just happened to be a hilly course

*Not being as comfortable with traffic laws - I wasn't sure how long I needed to wait at lights when turning left, blah blah... I'll learn

*Not being faster!!!! That will come with time

The Run: 3.16, 32 

This was definitely different but what I will say is that since I knew this would be tough, I broke it down to a run 3, walk 1. By doing that, i could run at an efficient pace and feel good doing it. My legs were super heavy and it was a weird sensation for the first mile. 

What I loved:

*I already felt warm so the first mile wasn't as terrible as it is when I just start out running 3 miles

*I felt good because I knew I was challenging myself in a different way

What I didn't love:

* heavy legs - haha

* 10:10 pace...

Those are things that will improve I'm sure. 

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll do it again. If I can get my crazy swimming under control, maybe I'll even do a tri... 

Last thing: I wanted to try to make my breakfast look pretty like other bloggers, Fit Foodie Finds, Peanut butter fingers, etc. Here's my first attempt

I need to work on it