Limiters

This morning was the Terrier brick. Last week I couldn't believe how quickly they are coming to an end, but this morning and the cool weather, I could certainly understand why they are. Which leads me to something I'd never even thought of before - what if it's cold at Westchester? I never even considered the possibility that it might be in the 60s that day. This morning it was just about 60 for the workout and I was definitely a little cool, even while running. I was thinking that it wasn't so bad and that I wouldn't worry about Westchester other than the fact that I'll be wet on the bike & the run. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for warmer weather.

Robert gave us a couple of options for workouts today. First there was the workout for people who are racing this weekend, so I didn't really pay attention to that workout. Then, he said that we'd be working on "limiters" ... or what we think is the weakest link of the triathlon. He asked who thought their weakest link was the bike and a few people raised their hands. He said that their bike workout would be two loops in the park, but that each loop would have 3 Harlem Hill repeats, so you'd do the hill a total of 6 times. And each time you went up the hill, you'd do it in the big chain ring. Your run workout would be 20 minutes. As soon as he said the words "big chain ring" I immediately knew that there was no way I was doing the bike workout.

Then he asked who thought that the run was their weakest link. I raised my hand along with some other people. He said that for us, we'd ride our bikes for 40 minutes and then we would go and do 6 running hill repeats on Cat Hill. I wasn't the only one who didn't like the sound of either workout. Someone else made a bit of a face and Robert asked what was wrong. I said that I was thinking about saying that swimming was my weakest link. He said I should feel free to leave my bike with the watch dog and hop on into the Central Park Boating Pond. I didn't think that was so funny.

We all headed off to do our various workouts for the day. Because the days are getting shorter, it's still completely dark by the time we start riding. This morning was horrible. There is a portion of the park where the street lights go off at 5:45 AM, which means that to ride there is in complete darkness. I think that if I had been riding with my eyes closed, it would have been just about the same. All I could think about was hitting a bump or a rock or something that would throw me off my bike and then I'd break all my teeth. I don't know why, but I think about falling off my bike and breaking my teeth more than I think about breaking anything else. Probably because I imagine myself flying forward, even though when you really start to think about it, that doesn't make any sense since I'd have to be hit with enough force to unclip both of my shoes to fly off the bike and land on my face. It's probably much more likely to end up with a big bruise. But I worry about my teeth nonetheless.

My total biking time today was 41:09 and I went 9.94 miles (14.5 MPH average).

I made it back on the bike safe and sound and switched shoes and headed off for my run. I drank my entire water bottle while I was on the bike (I didn't have time to drink anything before leaving the apartment today) and I was glad that I was doing these Cat Hill repeats because there is a drinking fountain at the bottom of the hill that I knew I could use if necessary. However, I think because the weather was so cool this morning, I never really got hot, so I never needed to stop for a drink. I did the six hill repeats without complaining. Honestly, other than sighing once or twice when turning around to run back up the hill, it really wasn't that bad. We were supposed to do a slow jog down the hill as our recovery, which I definitely took advantage of.

The run was a total of 3.55 miles in 33:14 (9:21 pace).

Looking back I'm wondering if maybe I should have done the bike workout instead, but I'm not sorry with my choice and even though I didn't leave the workout super sweaty (darn you cool weather!), I was definitely still sweating!