Bricks are building blocks.

I realized something today while out on my 2nd run of the day.

The run that followed a 20K bike on the du course at Willow, which followed a quickie 1+ mile run on the du course at Willow.

I learned that a sprint duathlon (run/bike/run) or sprint triathlon (swim/bike/run) is still an endurance event, even if it is comprised of multiple events.

Hmmm.

What brought this realization to light?

The freakishly fun Ann Arbor/Dexter/Chelsea/Dexter/Ann Arbor 40 mile bike ride yesterday.

And then today's 3 Metropark (Willow, Oakwoods, Kennsington) and 1 Recreational Area (Island Lake) super brick:

• Ran 1 mile in Willow Metropark.
• Rode 12.44 miles through Willow and Oakwoods Metroparks.
• Ran again in Willow but got a little bored, so I hopped in the car ready to call it a day.
• HOWEVER - I ended up running 3 miles at Kennsington (No where near Willow or Oakwood) to make up for my lazy assed morning at Willow.

I now have my bike and my run goals for April met (110% covered), now I need to focus on swimming again. My butt is a little sore. My quads are a little tired. I need to remember that my legs have propelled me by one form or another, be that biking or running, over 56 miles in 2 days.

Tomorrow is swimming. No running. No riding. I need to give those precious quads a rest! 45 minutes in the pool. Man I am sooooo ready for this.

At the run after the bike - I really had to force myself to run. I ran about a half of a mile at Willow, and then I gave up. My legs were just too tired. I hopped in my car and headed home. On my way I remember that there is a nice flat course at Maybury State park that I like to run.

I headed there, only to realize that my pass expired (of course - being that it is 2007) and that I had no cash on me to get the 2008 pass. I drove on to Kennsington. Hey. I love running at Kennsington, and plus I wanted to check out Island Lake recreation area, as it is attached to the Metropark.

I get out at Kennsington and head out. I was doing a recovery run for sure, with my pace in the low 12's. Here is a really neat thing to realize after so many miles (an so many hills!) on the bike. Somehow spinning up the hills on Sweet T has trained my quads that spinning is better that grinding.

My legs moved fast and short strides... I chopped my way over the hills, and my legs felt awesome! Well.. tired, but the hills are a LOT easier now.



I feel confident about Willow next weekend. I am going to take it slow and just enjoy the race. My goal is to finish - my stretch goal is sub 2 hours. If I can hit 1:50 or less I will be estatic, but a lot lies in my running. I am not so sure that I can hit 10 minute miles for both 5Ks consistently, which is what I need to do if I am to hit that 1:50 mark. My biking I can get done in 40-45 minutes potentially - the strong cross and headwinds can and do knock my speed down quite a bit (13 miles per hour is really slow!) but if I can spin fast and long for the length inside Willow, and the portion in Oakwoods Metropark, then I may be able to cover the distance speedier than I have in my test runs. Or test rides I should say!

At the end of the day, finishing is what I am here for. This du is simply a training ride with other people which I have paid money for and will receive a nice multisport t-shirt after completing.

The real fun will be the 20 miler I am doing the next day! :)

OK well off to clean the hizzouse and recover. I need to figure out what on earth I am going to swim in tomorrow night.

Runnergirl out.

Spinning out of control. Updated.

So I had a choice to make, my wonderful friends in bloggyland.

I could have gone to the gym, hopped on a bike and go for a good 45 or 50 minutes. Or I could have gone to the gym, hopped on a Schwinn and spun for 1 hour with the drill sargeant from hades. I did try her class about 2 months ago and vowed to never step foot back into that sweat shop. I did not even make it past 30 minutes I was so beat and confused. Her shouts make no sense to me. And to be quite honest, I am a lil scurred of the drill sargeant.

The decision was easy enough - bike on my own or give the spin-ster another go. Yet somehow I manged to mull over it for a good 25 minutes.

In the end opted to bike by myself and listen to a great cardio playlist that I had made for PF Chang' RNR AZ Half Marathon this past January. I got so into the music that at 33:03 minutes I had busted out 12.07 miles and had not really noticed. I do not know if that is good or not, but I will take it!

So this is sort of where the story gets interesting. Sort of. In a sick, sick way. After the bike, I drove home and stopped of at the workout center here. Yeah, that is not the sick part. The sick part is that I was there to see if the elliptical was free... I kid you not.

24 hours ago I hated the thing, now I sort of want to sneak in little elliptical miles here and there. Someone must have drugged me. When I find them... oh are they gonna pay!

Alas, the elliptical was not free this time, so I settleed on doing 1 set of 12 bicep curls on a rediculously crappy machine (gag) and a dreadmill opened up. I hopped on, busted out a quarter mile at a 1% slope in 3:00 and then called it a day.

Forward motion rocks. Seriously. ;)

Tomorrow I am doing 1 mile with my running club, as well as LB and core afterwards. I think that for the 1 mile I am just going to go easy because this will be my first run on pavement since... well I honestly lost track.

I hope that everyone is having a good week out there! A lot of the fall marathon and halfs are coming up shortly!

})i({ RunnerGirl

Bike: 33:03, 12.07miles, 21.9 miles per hour

Treadmill: .25 miles, 3:00Minutes, 1% incline

UB: Bicep Curls, 1/12/25#

CORE: 50 crunches

A nice mellow 7.71 mile bike ride

I decided after my last post to head out for some cross-training... a bike ride. My intention was 10 miles. Due to construction and fatigue - I did 7.71 at a SLOW near constant 7 minute miles.

I am actually cycling slower than some of you run! Oh well - it was only my 2nd time on a bike in 3 years. I need to get into the sweet-spot of gear shifting and find my innner cycling mojo! But I enjoyed every single mile of it.

50 minutes on the dot! If I had ran that same distance and pace, I would have burned 1401 calories... but alas... ;)

I did some major bike thinking while out there, and in my last post amybe I was being too hard on the situation. Maybe I should just conceed and get a mountain bike and ride that for the 2008 tri season, then see if I want to invest in a nice road bike next fall.

In my heart I really want my own "greased lightning" road bike. I am so afraid of settling for the hybrid or MTB and then every single race or group training session, longing for and possibly even coveting somone else's "greased lightning" bike. I think that Mike and I are going to have to learn together on this one.

And you know what? he did his first duathlon on his Trek 800 Sport MTB, so it can be done. Even Iron Wil said that in her last tri there were people on MTBs there as well.

I tell you - it is a heck of a lot cheaper to get a nice MTB versus a cheap road bike.

*sigh* I just do not have the answer right now.

But I will not let my quest for the perfect bike take away from any of my accomplishments! I feel so accomplisshed on my 7.71 miler today. That is the longest I have been on a bike since I was like 13!

I am getting back into the cycling groove, and using this as the PERFECT cross-training for my half marthon training. Mike and I are going to start swimming as well, and with the continuation of our gym dates for strength training, I think that I will be pretty well rounded fitness wise by the end of this year.

I am finishing up week 3 of my HM training schedule (7 miles running on tap for tomorrow!), and entering Pre-Pre-training season for my tris. In September I am going to start swimming with a coach, and I should have much better biking legs by then as well.

All for the sake of fitness!

I am not in it to win it, but I am in it for life.

I hope that all of you are enjoying this nice fine weekend!

~})i({~
RunnerGirl

Jenn + 3 years + Bike + hills = Fun times

Last night was a rest night for training, so we went to Sizzlin' Sticks, my all time favorite Mongolian BBQ place! I love it here because like at BD's you can make your own meal. Plus at Sizzlin' Sticks they have brown rice. I made my typical bowl of tofu + tons of veggies, and topped it off with seassonings and salsa mixed with black bean sauce and a little dash of garlic oil.

YUMMY.

Then we came back home and watched Little Miss Susnshine. I really did not know what to expect but man-o-man that movie was both funny and rediculous at the same time. Over all I liked it.

I got up at 8AM and headed to the gym. I worked out back and biceps for about an hour, then went to Leo's Coney Island for our weekly "Breakfast of Champions". My breakfast of choice? An eggwhite omlette with spinach, feta, tomatoes, and onion. No hashbrowns. No toast. Tomato slices on the side, and 1 coney extra messy.

Hmmm... what?

Oh yeah - the coney throws you off, eh? Well it threw me off as well... I am now going to be coney free. I am paying for it that is for sure. I ate it first and could barely touch my omlette. Not terribly healthy!

Now that I am in training I really need to get back to food = fuel. Mike and I discussed this exact point this morning and we decided that tonight at dinner with friends, we would get two side salads and split the main course. That way we are eating the proper portions and getting our veggies in to feel full. Man do I love veggies. I just hope we go where there is Salmon. I am so in the mood for healthy grilled fish!

On the training front for this weekend... today was 30 minutes of cross-training (non-running) so I decided to mount the ole bike and head out.

By ole bike I mean Mike's Trek 800 sport (mountain). My bike was actually stolen last year from our back porch. Jerks.

It has been.... conservativly guessing.... 3years since I have actually ridden a bike of any nature... road or mountain. This plays a key part in my training for today.

#$)(&*#%*(^&@*(#&)&*#)&%(*&#)$&*()#$_- Hills. Suck.

The same is true in my running as in my biking route choice around here... we live net up hill. Son of a gun. I really got a quad workout today. I did about a wussy 3 miles, but I could have gone so much further. I really did not want to get hurt or stress out my legs given that I have a 6 mile run tomorrow as my long-ditance for the week.

I figure since I have not been on a bike in 3 years or more that I should take it easy, and remember how to switch gears for hills, to get comfortable back in the saddle, etc.. It felt amazing! I forgot how much fun biking is!


Well I am off to do who knows what. This is a new feeling for me. You know what? I think that I will head up to the bike show and see what bikes are out now-days. I am getting a new bike for my birthday from Mike, so we need to start scoping out prices, etc. Plus I need to see what it feels like to try out different bikes.

I hope that you all are having a nice start to the weeeknd! I will report back tomorrow with the results of my 6-mile training run out at Kennsington. Wish me luck!

~ })i({ RunnerGirl~