Dear Mr. NYC Parks Department Man,

This morning I woke up early for the Terrier brick. I walked out the door of the apartment and luckily realized right away that I had forgotten my running shoes, so I had to go back and grab those. I was worried that I would be running late, but luckily I was there in plenty of time.

The workout was as follows:
10 minute bike warm-up followed by 6 x 6:00 minute intervals in the big ring. Each interval would be followed by a 2:00 easy spin recovery. Then we would do a 30 minute run.

I'm really glad that I got that light for the back of my bike. Riding to the park this morning, it was really dark out. I'm not a fan of the fact that the days are getting shorter again and it's definitely becoming evident in the mornings on my workouts. When I got to the park, the lights near the meeting spot went out, so it was even darker than normal. We started out on the bike ride heading north. I was going pretty slowly because I wasn't sure what the road condition would be like after yesterday's brain-jarring ride. Luckily, they had mostly paved what was torn up yesterday, leaving only about 15 feet unpaved. That seemed much more tolerable than the mile or so that was unpaved yesterday. A couple of people commented that they didn't understand why they didn't finish paving the road and I didn't either, but at least it was better than yesterday.

Because I was going so slowly at the beginning, I didn't quite make it to the top of the Harlem Hill in my 10 minute warm-up, but I left the bike in the middle ring the whole time (and didn't switch into the granny gear), so I think that still counts. As soon as I got to the top, I shifted into the big ring for the next 6 minutes. It was about 5:45 at this point and then the street lights in the park went out! I mean, it was still dark outside! I think the Parks Department needs to think about adjusting the timer on those lights. I'm all for turning off lights when they're not needed and trying to be green, but I definitely still needed the street lights for at least another 10-15 minutes. If I thought it would be effective, I would write a letter to the Parks Department to tell them, but I doubt one little e-mail would make them change the timing of the lights. Maybe I should get a headlight for my bike instead.

It's pretty interesting how after you have been riding in the big ring and then you shift into the middle ring for the 2:00 easy spin, how easy it feels on your legs. I found myself staying in a harder gear longer than I normally would have because it still felt easier than normal. I got really, really lucky on the timing today because on the second loop of the park, I was on a 2:00 easy spin for the Harlem Hill. When I got back to the 72nd Street transverse, I realized that I still had a few minutes to go on the workout, so I did another loop of the bottom of the park before heading in for the run.

I got off the bike, changed shoes, and headed off for the run. I headed north for the run instead of doing the lower loop like I had done the last couple of weeks. As soon as I did that, I was thinking that I didn't really want to run up Cat Hill again, but luckily, it wasn't too bad when you only have to do it once. I got back to 72nd Street a little too fast, so I headed down Dead Road and then back up the Mall so that I could add about another 0.5 miles onto the run and make it closer to a 30 minute run than a 20 minute run. I will say that the last couple times that I've run off the bike, I've felt really good. I've felt less like stopping than I do when I just go out running. I have no idea why that would be, as I would think that I'm more tired off the bike. Or, maybe it's that I'm more warmed up and that helps with the running.

All in all today, I went almost a sprint distance triathlon on the bike and run. I signed up for a duathlon the weekend after my Olympic triathlon (Drew and I are going to do it together). I know it might not have been the best idea, since I'm sure I'll still be tired, but today showed that the duathlon (run 2 miles, bike 12, run 2) is pretty similar to a workout and I should be more than capable of doing that as long as I just remember that I'm just going out to have fun! Today was really helpful in proving that doing the duathlon wouldn't be so dissimilar from a Thursday brick session.

Bike: 14.2 miles in 56:05/58:00 (15.19 MPH pace)
Calories: 628
Max HR: 176
Average HR: 160

Run: 2.75 miles in 26:22 (9:35 pace)
Calories: 341
Max HR: 181
Average HR: 173