The Fortress Gets Another Brick

Bike
time- 2:15
distance- 35.91mi

Transition- 4:26

Run
time- 20:51
distance- 2.01mi

Regular, long-time readers are familiar with my Fortress of Fitness. Those of you who aren't should follow the link if you're really really interested (which I'm sure you are!). 
I missed my workout Wednesday due to a sick Super Awesome Wife needing to go to the doctor and I used that as an excuse to crank out a simple brick yesterday. I haven't bike/ran in a long time and it will be a good idea to start throwing those into my workouts every once in a while. Not so much for fitness, but to prepare to run off the bike. The legs do feel a little bit funny going from cycling to running, and keeping the heart rate controlled in transition is important too. Speaking of transition, brick workouts are a great place to practice those, though yesterday's was slow. Not sweating that, I'm training for a half Ironman. Transition speed is waaaaaay down on the list of concerns at this point. It's Mr. Larmstrong who should be practicing. If there is a place he might might get ahead of me that is where it is. If I'm feeling generous.
This was also a great opportunity to test out the multisport setting on my fancy-shmancy Garmin Forerunner 310xt. It's kick ass. You set it to multisport (duh), and define what sports you're talking about and whether or not it should include transition, then you just hit START. The watch tracks your first sport, you hit LAP, it switches to transition and times that, you hit LAP again, it switches to the second sport. Very very cool. It's going to come in handy during races.
My bike today was going to be an easier bike so that the brick was more more run-centric. But then I started thinking about how weaksauce it would be to just go to the bottom of Pineapple and come back up. So I ended up all the way out at Dillingham. Wind out there felt brutal and I struggled to keep a strong pace coming back. Gotta stay low on those aerobars, keep the gearing light, and spin.
The new plan for Pineapple is stay steady on the uphills, then drop into a heavier gear on the flat sections and try to make up the minutes. This is both easier and harder. It's easier because I spend more time thinking about the flats than about the climbs, but harder because I used to use the flats as rest periods between struggles upwards. The most important factor is that it's quicker. So I'll keep on keeping on.
The sun was setting as I pulled into my driveway. I knew I would be behind the light, I was at school later than I wanted to be dealing with crap that drove me to want to workout for two and a half hours when I got home (Note: Not student issues. I love students, even the ones with problems. I can't stand adults. Students have a chance to change.) I don't normally run under lit street lamps so when I pulled in I took a quick nature break, then switched my bike jersey for a bright yellow tech shirt, making me a Sneetch without stars upon thars. I wore my toe socks for the ride, something I plan on doing for the Honu, so transition from cycling shoes to Bikilas was quick and easy.
Like I said, the original plan was a longer run/shorter bike. But it was getting late and dark and I was getting tired and hungry so I scrapped that plan in favor of a easy transition run of twenty minutes. I don't feel lame about this because in his excellent book I'm Here to Win, Chris McCormack writes about easy runs after hard rides. So there.
And it was an easy run. I'm trying to figure out what an ideal heart rate goal would be, and I think it's probably somewhere in the 150s. As you'll see from my data, I was way above that last night. If I can get fit enough and smart enough to run in the 150s that will help control how many buckets of fluid I sweat, which will help hydration and cramping issues. We are talking for the Honu here. The Honolulu Olympic tri will probably result in a much higher average heart rate, but its a much shorter race. (I'm kinda blown away I thinking about an Oly as "much shorter". Please see any post from a year ago for evidence.) Both Achilles protested quietly for the entire two miles. Never enough to make me stop, just enough to remind me to ibprophen, ice, and roll when I got home. Guess I ain't healed yet.
I like brick workouts, and I like running off the bike. For some reason it is easier to think about than just getting up for a run. Maybe I use the ride to make excuses for why I'm not running as fast. Speed is not the point, I know that, but it's still hard to internalize sometimes.
Preparations are moving along. To steal from the fantasy world, Honu is Coming.