Mountain Brick

 Can you believe, that I made it to July, without a brick workout on the training plan? Me neither. But today, I ran out of luck. On tap was a 60 mile ride in the mountains followed by a 3 mile brick.

Ride 61.4 miles in 4:18:59 (14.2 mph) and 10,570 ft of climbing according to TP.

Because of the current heat wave, I made sure to get an early start for my ride. I left the Tigerville Elementary parking lot at a little after 6.40am. Later on, there would be a group ride to Saluda starting at 8am, so I just did a couple of out an backs on a some rollers to get some mileage in. By the time the group ride headed out, I already had 17 miles on the Garmin. Booyah!

I really enjoyed to have some company in the middle of my 60 miles, so I ended up chatting a lot for the ride up until the real climbing started and the whole group kind of stretched out a lot. We made a quick stop at the pick-nick shelter in Saluda to regroup and eat something and then enjoyed the downhill, that we worked so hard for! ;-)

In order to get my mileage in, I split from the group once we got back to the Watershed and took the road towards Flat Rock with some more climbing.

While I really enjoyed the ride, I was glad once I was finally back in Tigerville, even though I dreaded the brick run. It was close to 11.45am and needless to say, it was stinking hot.

Run 3 miles in 32:56 (10:54 pace -> boooooo!) and 486 ft of climbing according to TP.

I already laid out my stuff in the car before I started the ride, so the transition to the run was fairly fast considering that I stowed the bike away and changed shorts. I know, I should have just worn tri shorts, but I am a little hesitant for rides over 40 miles and rather got changed.

To make a long story short: The run sucked big time. I know, that I am not braking any speed records, but for 3 miles that is even on the slow side for me. It was just plain too hot. I don't really know anything about running in Tigerville, so I ended up on a fairly hilly route and not a ton of shade. There was a lot of walking, especially when I felt that I might loose my breakfast/ clif bar.

Fortunately, it was a short run and it was over soon enough.

Once I got back to the car, I did some stretches under a big tree (the only shade around) and then booked it home to the comfort of air condition!! ;-)

Now it's taper time: Countdown for the olympic distance next Saturday is on.