Badass Brick Ride/Run

Cycle Day/Brick Run

Ride
Time- 70 minutes*
Distance- 18.2mi

*time minus time at red lights and checking in on base

Run
Time- 10 minutes
Distance- 1.1mi

Total Time- 80 minutes
Total Distance- 19.3mi



I honestly couldn't be happier with my ride today. I'm thrilled. Over the moon. Super pumped and full of confidence. This is the first ride I've really enjoyed. I left from the house since its a brick day and I wanted to end at the house so the bike would be left somewhere safe. Rode down to the base I normally go to, trying something I've been talking about but haven't really had a chance to put in to practice yet: keeping a high cadence. This is the first ride that was level or nearly level for nearly all of it. That means that I can be practicing getting my knees moving at around 90rpms, which is what every tri book I've looked at suggests as a good rpm rate. If you listened closely to me today you could hear me panting under my breath, "12345678910111213..." I figure I know what one pedal stroke a second feels like and I know I was moving faster than that. Keeping this in mind helped me not worry about being a a gear that felt challenging to push in the flats. I was using lighter gears the whole time because I was worried about cadence. Felt freeing, really. And felt faster.
This brings me to The Hill. I decided that since I would be on base I'd go once up Kolekole. It would be good for me to get some climbing in and its now kind of my yardstick to measure progress by. It was awesome. I felt like I flew up that bad boy. I never bogged down, never got going suuuupppper slooooow. For me, at least. I think three things are to blame for this. 1) I had about 23 minutes of warm-up riding before I started my ascent. 2) I knew I would only be climbing once, so I didn't subconsciously hold anything back for the next go. 3) Lots of gunfire and artillery today. Nothing motivates like the rattatatat of an M16 on burst.
I think I hit my normal turn-around spot, where I start thinking about the climb and checked my watch, at about 23 minutes. I checked again when I hit the top and it was 39 minutes. I'm not positive and I don't feel like looking back, but I'm pretty sure that's as fast as I've ever done it from that point. I was hooting at the top. The guard gave me a look. I stopped hooting (out loud).
The ride back felt just as good, kept the cadence high. It helped that the main drag I used on the way back was lined with people waving signs to vote for this jackass or that dudeguy. So I sped by them (the green light force was with me), shouting at them, "Yeah, vote for that guy! Vote for you! That guy rules! Woo!" They were excited to see me. Must by nice to have the Guy In Lycra and a Helmet demographic covered.
Got home, ran the bike to the door, took my shoes off (I didn't wear socks today in preparation for the transition) and threw on the toes shoes. Unexpected problem with this: a few of the toes on one foot had gone to sleep because they are a little pinched in my cycle shoes. It's hard to get toes into the right toe socket when said toe does not have full feeling. But I was successful. More practice will make my transitions, widely considered the 4th discipline, faster and smoother.
The run was fairly uneventful. Feels very strange to get off the bike with a 90rpm goal and go to slow run pace. Legs were a little wobbly but not too bad. I wasn't pushing this run. Its just getting used to going from one discipline to the next. My biggest issue, and this falls under Injury Report, is my foot kind of hurt again during the run. This makes me annoyed. It was feeling better. Then earlier today it was a little sore when I flexed my big toe up. During the run, same kind of soreness. Worst part, just like before, is I could run through the pain if I needed to. But I don't want to because I'm worried it'll cause more injury. So I'm resigned to using the elliptical tomorrow and Sunday instead of running, just to be sure it gets as much rest as possible. And, looking forward to next week, I have a recovery week. So if I have to I'll stay on the elliptical next week as well. I hope it doesn't come to that, but I'm being cautious and careful...and annoyed.
All in all, a great brick workout and the best ride yet. Stupid elliptical tomorrow with weights.

Oh yeah, fashion update! Those of you that donated to the paypal account have funded my tri suit. The difference between tri shorts and bike shorts is the tri shorts have a smaller pad, so they are slightly less comfortable over long rides but they don't fill up with water during the swim, resulting in the dreaded Diaper Butt, and they aren't too bulky for the run. So thank you to those of you that donated. If you haven't but want to, by all means. I can spend your money on tri stuff. Trust me. These are post-brick pictures of your favorite Dirtbag in his new duds. I warn you, the following is extremely sexy.

Very serious

Posing out (and I have to say, nice cut in the arms my good man)

Umm...oh my!