Tuesday was my first day riding my new bike to work—it’s so easy! Kenwood to Downtown is all downhill. When I got to work though, I realized that I had forgotten my lock. Even though my bike was in a special, employee-only locked room, I was still paranoid. So, I ran to Target and bought a lock. $12 for peace of mind ain’t bad. After work, I decided to take the long way to run club. I biked to the start of the Kenilworth Trail, and up the Greenway, to the Running Room. When I got to the Greenway, I realized that the “long way” wasn’t quite long enough, as it was only 5:30. (Run Club starts at 6:30 pm.) I kept going. I haven’t biked east past Uptown on the greenway for at least a year, so I was surprised when I hit 3rd Ave, and the bike trail kept going! I followed it all the way to Hiawatha. I wanted to keep going, but figured I’d better turn around. I LOVE MY BIKE. That’s all there is to it. I LOVE MY BIKE. I think that it is the nicest thing I have ever owned. I can’t wait for the Tour of Saints! There is a downside to biking a few or 12 miles before run club—it HURT to run! My calves would not loosen up. Argh. Luckily, everyone in my group was content to take it easy, and so we did. It made me realize that this duathlon is not going to be as easy as I thought. It’s a 2 mile run-22 mile bike-2 mile run course, and that second transition is going to be the hardest. Once the marathon is over, I plan to spend a lot more time on my bike, but apparently I’m going to have to practice that bike-to-run transition. Cory, my running coach, called it something like “doing bricks” the other night. That must be fancy triathlete-speak, but my legs did feel like bricks by the end of the run. Speaking of coaches, my two marathon coaches, Cory and her husband Jim, are planning on swimming in Lake Calhoun after run club some nights. They’re both training for post-marathon triathlons. This will be Cory’s first—she and I were on a relay team for the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon last summer, and it just about killed the both of us. But anyway, I might join them, and get a jump on my swimming lessons. Also, Cory knows how to surf! She is my hero! Day’s total: Bike: 12 miles Run: 3 miles Dinner: 1 can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli—yum! PS on June 8th: Running after biking 1 mile isn’t so bad. And we only ran 3 miles last night, so that helps. Since we got done early, I decided to take the long way to Abe’s for our weekly Chipotle dinner date. So, I probably tacked on another 5 miles on the bike. Biking after running is much easier than running after biking, and made me wonder why this duathlon has to be a run-bike-run format. Why can’t we just run 4 miles and THEN get on our bikes and do the 22? Probably to make it more difficult, but running 4 miles then biking 22 is difficult enough for most people. Grr. A fellow run clubber brought along an article from Twin Cities Sports magazine about training for triathlons, and doing BRick workouts. (Yes, Abe, it is supposed to be spelled like that.) Apparently, a BRick workout is a bike-run workout, and afterwards, your legs feel like bricks. Sounds pretty spot-on to me. This article recommends making all your beginning training outings into BRick workouts, but that seems pretty extreme to me. I might try for 2 a week though. The neat thing about biking to run club is that I push myself to get through the run much faster, so that I can get on my bike. Chipotle is a good motivator. I miss watching “24,” but “Keen Eddie” is a good filler. Day’s total: Bike: 6 miles Run: 3 miles Dinner: chipotle—a salad with chicken and black beans, and lots of lettuce. And too much Tabasco this week.
posted by Lola @ 4:20 PM
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