Last Tough Brick

Its hard to put in an evening brick on a Saturday after you've done the daily stuff around the house and didn't get much sleep the night before. So there I was, about 5pm Saturday wondering if I should put it off till Sunday and instead try to do just an easy ride. No... I need to put in the right workout and can't confuse tired motivation with truely being tired. I took a little nap earlier so I believe I am just feeling tired, but should have enough in me to do a short, but tough brick in preparation for the race this weekend. I only try to peak for two to 3 races a year and when I looked at a late season races, the Treadman looked good, but that was moved to early September so that messed things up a bit. However, the Cannon Wells Du moved to late September so that worked out good.

Back to the weekend workout... If you follow Joe Friels Tri Bible, it was pretty much the A1 in the 'combo' (brick) section. Since the race I am training for is pretty short, I went with the shorter end of what the A1 has you doing. This is a bike-run brick. Intervals are tougher than just TT'ing, but I guess that is sort of the point--working up to the desired HR, effort, or power level (often higher than you would race at), then recover back down to an aerobic level. Rinse, repeat. Intervals at the right time yield great benefit, but too many too often can cause a plateau, which may make you think you have to do more, which will then cause a loss of fitness, a downward spiral of results, etc. Anyway, two weeks ago was an R&R week, last week a taper so the week ended with an easy 30 min ride yesterday, following the intervals on Saturday.

Here's how the interval session went:

Run 1- 8:52 easy jog of 1.1 miles--just a small loop near my house to help warm-up

Bike- 15 min easy ride for a warm-up, then:

• 5 minute all-out interval (mostly flat), w/ 2.5 min recovery
• 5 minute all-out interval (which took place on climb, then rolling hills), 2.5 recovery
• 5 minute all-out interval (a roller or two, then flat), 2.5 min recovery
• 10 minute moderate pace back home

Since I have struggled with the second run in most du's this season (start fast, then fade) the last month or so I have been starting my brick runs easy, then going at a harder pace to finish. They have been rough, but this last one worked out ok....

Run 2 (5k)- started at below race pace then ran a harder:

• mile 1- 7:04, moving ok, breathing well, not quite race pace
• mile 2- 6:15, moving well, pretty much gasping, but tolerable
• last 1.1 miles- 6:59 (6:20 pace), breathing hard, felt like a race, a couple hills hurt!

The last run ended up being a 19:18 5k. Hopefully, come race day, I can pull that off.

Mostly short easy work for the rest this week, but with a few very short intervals (30 sec) thrown in on a couple of the days. These are just for maintenance to keep the systems in check and reminded of what they can do. The tough training is done for this race--if I wasn't ready a week ago, I'm not going to be ready, come Saturday.