Another big brick (2 weeks to NOLA)

What do normal people do after a big health scare that turns out ok?  Hug their wife and go out to dinner to celebrate?  How about triathletes?  You got it, push the old ticker to make sure the doc got it right.  The plan called for a four hour and forty-five minute brick but due to some logistical problems I had to cut it short at four hours.  The pool didn't open until one and I had to be at church at 5:45 to volunteer. 

I wore the clothes I'm pretty sure I'll race in.  My De Soto 400 mile shorts and one of my Tyr racing tank tops.  I did buy some De Soto Forza tri shorts hoping they would do the trick since they have a smaller pad, but they are low cut so it feels like I have plumber butt when I wear them :-).  They probably fit better on skinnier people.  Maybe I'll be able to race in them someday.

So I got all my gear and nutrition together (no trivial task) and headed out.  I rode my bike to the Y to swim and when I got there (only 0.4 miles from my house) I realized I forgot the key to my bike lock.  I just got the lock and this was the inaugural use.  So I road back home, got it and biked back to the Y.  After putting all my stuff in my locker, I headed in to swim.  Swimming in the 400 mile shorts was no problem, but I never really got in to a good rhythm.  I did take in a couple mouthfuls of water, so that was good practice for NOLA :-).  Swimming with a guy that was lapping me about every five laps, wasn't much fun.  At least I was lapping the guy in the next lane at about the same rate.  I'm a slow swimmer and I'm in the second to last wave at NOLA.  I probably won't be DFL out of the water, but I'll be close.  That's ok, it will be fun passing hundreds of people on the bike.

After the swim, I biked home, dropped the swim bag by the garage door and headed out.  It was a beautiful day and quite windy as usual for spring in the Midwest.  Winds were 15 mph from the WNW gusting to 20+.  It was fun pushing 23 mph on level ground when I was heading due east.  Someday I'll be able to push that without wind assistance.  I rode at race pace trying to keep my hr between 150 and 155.  That's upper zone 2 for me.  I should be able to ride lower zone 3 for 3 hours so I might push it a bit.  I ate a cliff bar (240 calories) the first hour and drank about 10 ounces of water with it.  That's a bit low on the water.  On the second hour I drank 20 ounces or Ironman Perform (175 calories), that is low on the calories and I could feel my legs fading in the last 30 minutes.  I think I'll stick with water and go with GU gel or chomps for my calories.  My ride was scheduled for 2:15 but I cut it short to an 1:55 due to my other commitment.

Pic from Tuesday, I didn't stop on the brick.

After the bike, I changed shoes for my inaugural run in my New Balance 1080s.  I like them!  They feel less "boxy" than the 1063s they replaced. 



New shoes with Yankz laces.  What do you do with the ends?



I also took two Succeed S-Caps before heading out. I sweat out a lot of salt on long rides and runs. I usually have salt caked on my face and jacket and figure I will be sweating a lot at NOLA. I'll probably take two an hour on the bike and just drink water. On the run, I'll drink some Perform which has salt in it.

Typical salt stains on my jacket.

Running off the bike is always tough and always feels slow.  Surprisingly my hr didn't sky rocket when I started to run.  I actually stayed under 160 for a change.  After the first mile and a half, I started to loosen up and felt pretty good.  I took a GU and drank some Perform 15 minutes in and everything sat well. On the run, I'll target upper zone 2 (160 - 165) for the first half then let it creep up hopefully to LT (183) near the end.  If I feel good, I may throw that plan out the window and go zone 3 from the get go creeping in to zone 4 for the last few miles like I did at the Lewis and Clark HM last fall.

So the brick was

swim - 47:53

T1 - 6:56 (including riding home)

bike - 1:55:20

T2 - 4:11 (included finding my salt pills and hitting the porta-potty bathroom)

run - 46:50

Then it was a quick frozen pizza and off to church. 

I'm ready, but this is gonna hurt......

One last question.  To shave or not to shave?  My previous thoughts on shaving my legs were that cleaning up road rash is just an excuse because bikers like the way their shaved legs look.  I mean really, how many times do bikers really hit the deck?  Well, after having several rabbits run in front of me on recent rides while in aero position (read no handling or access to brakes) I'm reconsidering.  I'm actually surprised I didn't go down this week.  I'm just not sure I want to do the maintenance all summer.