Back in the Saddle

My parents are visiting this weekend from Seattle. They are supposed to arrive today (Saturday) around 11am. I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have to get stuff done before they arrived, but Michael and I strangely awoke at 6:30am. We decided to go for  a short bike ride! I hadn’t been on the bike since Reach the Beach. I wasn’t sure what to expect…it’s just like riding a bike, right?

I tried my new Sugoi bike shorts that a rep sent me last month. First, they fit much better than my Pearl Izumi shorts. However they are a size larger than what I have.

Sugoi Bike Shorts

Second, I like that they are a tad longer than my other shorts too. They also have a special “sticky” like tab along the seem to keep the bike shorts comfortably in place. The only con that I see is that the padding is NOT quite as thick as my Pearl Izumi shorts.

Sugoi Shorts

More padding is desired for longer bike rides but they were fine for the short ride we did this morning.  It was that weird in-between temperature but the sun was out. I chose to put my Sugoi tights on over the shorts and I wore a jacket. We did about 10 miles on the bike. We ended up riding Michael’s commute to work and back, plus a bunch of MONSTER hills mixed in. It was quite the experience being back on the bike.

When I hit the first monster hill, I struggled. I thought, “So taking a month off from riding means I lost everything”. I was pretty bummed out. I also noticed that my recovery time after the big hills was not great. Not like it used to be. 🙁 I was more hesitant on the bike than I used to be, and I was also back to being fearful of going super fast down big hills.

The good news is that my bike did great. After the Reach the Beach debacle, I’d gotten the bike serviced and the guy put on a $10 plastic widget that will prevent me from throwing my chain. I tried out my left gears (the culprit of bike woes) and they did great! I was really happy that I could now successfully use the left gears without my chain falling off or locking up. That’s great news.

We got back to the house in about an hour and I chained into running shorts and my Brooks shoes and headed to the track next to our house. I wanted to attempt a Brick Workout.

My First Brick Workout

A Brick workout is essentially training for a triathlon where you do two activities one right after another. I got off the bike, changed in about 7 minutes (need to get better at that transition) and ran the 1/4 mile to the track. I decided since it was my first time attempting this, I’d just run 1 mile. I ran down the stairs and started running the track.

It was a weird sensation immediately. I felt like I was running soooo slowly! My legs felt okay but it was the sensation of running in quicksand. I also felt like the world around me was moving in slow motion. How weird is that? At around the 1/2 mile mark my legs seemed to wake up and I was beginning to feel more like a runner.

Of course, the running really improved when I was almost done with the mile!

I ran up the stairs:

Today’s Stats:

Time: 1:33

Biking: 10 miles

Running: 1.5 miles

Calories Burned: 745