Bike:
- 9.98 mi Distance
- 33:38 Moving Time
- 565 ft Elevation
- Avg Speed 17.8 mi/h
- Max Speed 39.1 mi/h
- Avg Heart Rate 149 bpm
- Max Heart Rate 173 bpm
Run:
- 2.58 mi Distance
- 25:49 Moving Time
- 10:00/mi Pace
- Elevation 170ft
- Avg Heart Rate 166 bpm
- Max Heart Rate 182 bpm
A key component of triathlon training is doing combination workouts, or “bricks” as they are called in the sport. These are training sessions where you essentially simulate one or more transitions, doing a ride and then immediately going for a run, for example, just as you would in an event.
This was my first attempt at doing such a thing. I really wasn’t sure how it would go, since I’d never done it before, so I decided to keep both the bike and the run relatively easy. I’d shoot for around 10-12 miles on the bike and about 2.5 miles on the run, as flat as I could manage from my house.
I felt really good on the bike, putting down the miles with relative ease and moving fairly comfortably. Things took a turn when I was close to the end, though. I came to an intersection in the middle of a hill and had to stop for traffic. Then as I started up again, preparing to tackle the rest of the hill ahead of me, my chain snapped.
Like, literally just broke in two.
I heard a snap, my legs started freewheeling and I looked down to see it just dangling off my chain ring.
I was only a mile from home, so a rescue mission didn’t take long to reach me. It was frustrating, though, and dropped me out of the zone hard. I hurriedly changed into my running gear (no tri suit yet) and headed out on my run, eager to regain the momentum I had had going before the mechanical failure.
My legs felt awful. I had never experienced anything like it. I’ve been tired on a run plenty of times, and having finished two marathons in the past, I know what it’s like to feel nearly 100% fatigue in your legs. But this was different. This was like my legs belonged to someone else and I was controlling them remotely, or something. It was really weird. They felt almost numb, even though I could feel them. It was clear very quickly why people practice this sort of thing.
After about a mile, the weirdness started to clear up and I felt more like myself again. I crested a hill and started down the other side, when a car appeared heading toward me. I moved to the side of the gravel road, into the shoulder. And felt a twinge in my calf. Different than a cramp, it was like a very specific section of my calf contracted as hard as it could.
I should have stopped immediately to stretch and rest, but I was determined to see this through and was locked into a mental race mode. The leg hurt for the rest of the run but I finished it out and limped up my driveway.
I wasn’t sure how that was going to play out, but it didn’t look or feel good.
