Mega Brick

I've been looking forward to this session for a while, which is kind of like looking forward to a dentist appointment. You know it is going to be very painful but you're hoping the end result will be worth it.

The Mega Brick session was a one hour ride, followed by a 25 minute run - repeated 4 times. Allowing 5 minutes for the transitions in each set, this equates to a 6 hour session (4 hrs riding, 1h40m running & 20m transitions). The plan for both Mark and I was to do at least 3 repeats - we both ended up doing 4 rides, but skipped the last run. So it ended up being around 5 and half hours. Due to Elaine having the car, I used my ride to and from the club rooms as my first and last rides (almost an hour ride each). My running gear was left at the club rooms on Thursday night (and is still there after the session), so I didn't have to carry anything extra on these rides (I hate riding with a backpack).

All brick sessions are really good for testing pacing and nutrition. However during straight 4 hour ride I would loose concentration and my pacing would end up all over the place. Breaking it up into 4 x 1 hour rides allows me to remain focused and I also stay in close contact with all of the other club members. The group atmosphere is probably the highlight of this session. I didn't count, but we may have had nearly 50 members doing this session (with differing number of repeats). But as it was mainly based upon time, most people would transition together - minor chaos - but it definitely added to the group session feel. There is nothing quite like sharing the pain, especially when you can see it so obviously displayed on other club members' faces.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, my pacing was compromised by not having my power meter or heart rate monitor. So I only had speed to go by (I usually rely upon my power meter for pedalling cadence). During my last brick (described in the Mushy Middle blog post) I struggled to maintain my goal Half Ironman run pace of 4m30s per kilometre. The solution I came up with was to set a heart rate alert on my watch, but without heart rate this was obviously not going to happen. As the run pacing seemed the most important aspect of the session (ie. my weakness), I decided to ride on the harder side to really test the affect it would have on the run.

The official session started at the club rooms at 6am, you could start at 7:30am if you were doing less repeats. I had intended to leave home at the same time, but ended up heading off at 6:10am. With it being such a long session, I thought it would be wise to have a nice coffee before I left (to avoid the caffeine withdrawal headache). Leaving a little late would help me ride faster on the first bike leg, but even though I arrived at the club rooms in good time, I was still behind the main pack and it was almost impossible to find a spot to park my bike.

I took the first kilometre of the first run at 5 minute pace just to ease myself into things (didn't want to blow up too early). From there I found it fairly easy to sit just above 4m30s pace and was quite happy with my 5km run split of 23m15s. For the first time I was trialling a new nutrition product called Napalm (from Infinit) which I carried in a small 5oz running flask. The only flavour it comes in is grape and my initial mixture was too strong. So the first thing I did when I got back to the club rooms was add more water to the flask. I also tried to adjust the Cobb Max saddle I was riding for the first time. It needed to be dropped lower at the front, but the allen key I brought along with me was too small (correct size for my road bike), so I suffered another bike leg in pain.

I headed off with the main pack on the second bike leg and maintained a good effort throughout, averaging 35kph for the 30km, which was quite good considering the number of lights I was stopped at. Although not the 41 degrees celsius of the day before, it was still reasonably hot and very muggy, so the general populace was heading towards the beach (inconvenient for cyclists like me riding along Beach Rd). Even though I rode fairly hard I still felt great on the 2nd run averaging 4m27s pace for 6km (including 4m45s pace for the first kilometre which is mostly uphill). The watered down Napalm tasted better as well. However I kept spilling it over my hands which started sticking my fingers together. When I got back to the club rooms I was lucky enough to find someone else with an allen key and was able to adjust my seat (but the saddle sores had already appeared).

The third set was always going to be the ride/run of truth (could I handle it). Head coach Clint suggested another Rob (aka Fishboy), Ray and I do a longer bike leg on this set. I think I'm a marginally stronger cyclist than Ray, but Fishboy probably has an edge on me and he had race wheels and an aero helmet, so I knew this bike leg was going to be tough. About halfway through Fishboy pulled off to go home, which initially gave me relief, but within a kilometre or two I caught up with the main pack (who had skipped the extra 2km near the start). A wise man would have stayed with the pack, but I prefer to ride out front when I'm doing Bricks on my tri-bike, so I surged off. All the way back from Mordialloc to Sandringham I could see the shadow of a rider on my wheel. I figured it was Ray or Clint and wondered how many others were slotted in behind. When I slowed to undo my shoes at the Sandringham Football oval (just before our clubrooms) I discovered the rider was not part of our club - just a random rider drafting off me. And of course I had ridden this bike leg way too fast. The average speed was only 35kph for the 34km, but the wind had picked up and I'd been stopped at even more traffic lights as more people were crawling out of bed and heading to the beach (3 of my 5km splits were well over 38kph average).

I knew before I started that the last run was going to be ugly. My calf muscles felt like bricks and I was really starting to feel the heat. Not wanting the injure myself (at least that was the convenient excuse I came up with), I only ran 4km at 5min pace for the last run. It still meant that I ran 15km for the whole session which was my original target. It also highlighted that despite the bike being my strength, I still have to moderate my efforts if I want to run well in a Half Ironman.

After my last run, I sat on a chair outside the clubrooms, rehydrating myself and watching the carnage around me. Club members were arriving back from the 3rd run looking like death. Some of them were short course athletes who had only done 2 sets, but still looked wrecked. A lot were heading off for a dip in the bay (the clubrooms are on the beach), while Clint was trying unsuccessfully to convince the numerous Ironman virgins that they should do a fourth set.

Mark arrived back from his 3rd run, looking exhausted but still better than most. He decided he'd do a 4th ride but skip the last run. As the first half of the ride was the same as my trip home, I joined him on the bike. I'm usually a much better cyclist than Mark, but on this occasion I was so wrecked, I was struggling to keep up - a promising sign for Mark's Ironman prospects.

All Saturday afternoon I felt completely shattered. This morning I'm a bit better, but decided to skip any training and rest instead (or drink red wine like I'm doing now). My original program had a long run scheduled for tomorrow, but I think I need to completely rework next week's training program.

On a different topic, despite suffering terrible back pain all week, Elaine still managed a Personal Best time at the Portsea Classic 7.8km Fun Run on Saturday night. I had just enough energy to support her with the girls, however a fair bit of that time was spent lying on my back in the grass identifying different shapes in the clouds.