For several weeks now, the coaches and vets have been preparing (read: warning) newbies about the start of bricks. Bricks being when you pair up two of the sports training sessions back to back, to start practicing the transitions. Up until now, with the exception of the very first run, I've been generally excited about Y-Tri training and all it encompasses... until now. All the tales of wobbly knees and pure exhaustion gave me no confidence in my first brick being a positive experience.
That said... I actually had a great time! I know, I sound sick. 6am I was in the spin room ready for the usual grilling course. Today we focused on strength training, which meant lots of hills, jumps and peddling through peanut butter. After 45 minutes, we jumped (read: crawled) off our bikes and headed out for a 30 minute run. Putting my Pollyanna hat on: usually on runs the first mile is always the hardest to push through, working to get your body warmed up, but since our bodies were good and warm, I found it nice starting out at a faster and much looser pace.
The coach said "We'll just run up 16th for 15 minutes and turn around". To someone who doesn't know 16th St, this sounds like a fair idea. For those of us familiar with 16th, just north of Dupont, we know that that is a sneaky sneaky request. Let me fill the rest of you in. Heading north on 16th from Dupont will lead you straight into Merridian Hill... the steep hill that we lapped around on our 3rd week. This is no "slight incline"... this is a full on steep hill. *sigh*... Surprisingly enough, I didn't find this run particularly more difficult than if I had not had a seriously grueling spin class before hand. I seemed to find my pace ("beat" if you will) that much more efficiently because my body was already in full cardio mode.
We ended up going all the way to Columbia Rd and then back down. 3 miles. Not half bad for a morning where I thought my existence might come to an end.
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