Another brick today

I did the planned brick today to catch-up on some training hours. I finished the week completing 9.8 of 11.5 planned hours. That's about 90%, so I'm not that far off. I started the day with 30 minutes of hottub and stretching that was much needed. What a great way to start a nice sunny day in the winter! I had to stay home from a yurt reservation this weekend....a full moon with a couple of fresh inches of snow from Friday....the night skiing would have been awesome.

In the afternoon, I did a 67 minute bike (7min warmup, 60mins of steady state riding). My legs were tired to begin with, so I went down a gear to make sure I'd be able to run. I was excited about this brick workout because it was such a nice day out, 47deg and sunny with no wind. I almost took my bike out on the road, but I decided I didn't want to crash on some ice, and I still haven't practiced getting my feet out of the clip-in pedals. The bike workout certainly wasn't anything special. After a seven minute warmup, I did 60 minutes steady in gear 7 for the first 15 minutes and then gear 6 for the last 45. I kept up a cadence of 86 the entire way, and my heart rate climbed each 15 minutes from 148 to 158....it's interesting how the perceived effort level doesn't go up towards the end but the heart rate does. I'm guessing that is a sign that I'm struggling and getting tired. I'm pretty sure that my heart rate would stay the same throughout under the same effort level if I was in better shape. I sweated alot during this workout..more than usual for sure. I have a fan in the room, but I need to get it cleaned off because it's all dirty from being in the garage.

After a 5-10 minute transition to put on dry clothes, I hit the run, a standard 5.3 mile course that I haven't done yet this year. I took along some Hammer gels, and I needed them. I kept up an effort level of 3 of 5 the entire way. Lots of mud and ice again today. I came in at a pace of 8:23, which is good for right now and the first bike/run brick of the year. This is just a little bit slower than the times I had at the Bear Lake Brawl in September 08, so I'm happy about that. One goal of this brick workout was to see where I was at in comparison to that race. Without the snow and ice, I think I would have come in on 8:00 minute miles.

I don't feel terribly tired (yet!) either, which is really nice. I keep thinking of the first Olympic distance bike/run brick from last year and how terrible I felt afterward. I didn't do anything for a couple days after that one. I could workout again tomorrow if I needed to, but I certainly need the recovery time. Monday will definitely be an easy run!

I haven't been using any recovery drinks after aerobic workouts yet, and I'm going to start that now. I've been drinking a 100% protein drink after lifting weights, but that doesn't provide the right 4:1 carbs:protein ratio for recovery from aerobic workouts. I guess it's time to put in that order to Hammer for some Recoverite, and I'll get some more gel and HEED, too.