A move from running into triathlons brings with it a whole new world of jargon to get your head round. I may be fluent in marathon speak, but my triathlonish needs some work. On Sunday, though, I learn that instead of saying “went out on the bike for a bit and then ran around the park” I need to say “yeah, I did a brick session”.
It turns out that cycling and then running straight after it has more benefit than giving you two workouts for the price of one pile of smelly kit – it’s a genuine bonafide technique to make you get better at, well, cycling and then running like what you need to do in a triathlon.
I’ve checked my beginners triathlon tips as written by soon-to-be Iron Woman K, and it seems there’s no mention of a nice sit down with a cup of tea and some cake between the swimming bit and the cycling bit or between the cycling and the running bit.
So on Sunday I cycled 9 miles along the canals of East London, a few times almost doing an unexpected cycle-swim transition, then parked the bike and ran 4 hilly miles. I learn something doing this: running 4 miles after cycling 9 is much harder than just running the 4, and my legs weren’t as fresh on my next run either.
But those 13 miles of cycling and running are nowhere near as hard as the half a mile distance to my local pool.
Excellent! Yes avoid those bike to canal transitions. Not good
Yuk, yes avoid the canal at all cost!
Where did you find those hills though? The pic is from my regular long-run route so hoping for them to be close enough for me 🙂
Mialena – there’s a big hill (Watermint Quay is the road) that goes up from the canal heading west. Then I did three laps of Finsbury Park which has a hill or two in it.