Biking + Run/Walk

Background: For quite awhile my friend Jamie and I have been thinking and planning on training for a sprint triathlon; however we don’t plan on doing the triathlon until 2010. So any hardcore training won’t begin until next year. At the same time I’ve been very curious how my legs/endurance would feel biking and then running right afterwards. Something I can experiment with now.

Today: I spent the early part of my afternoon with my niece, nephew, and sister at the park. The humidity is down and it was a gorgeous day, although a bit hot in the direct sunlight. So after about an hour of hard playing we went to Cold Stone Creamery and got some ice cream. I got a kids cup of chocolate ice cream with Heath Bar (in honor of my dad) mixed in. I’ve been craving ice cream all weekend and it hit the spot!

I was a bit worn out when I got home, so I relaxed with my book for about an hour. But while I was reading, I kept seeing the beautiful sky above the top of my book and biking was running through my mind. That was it, I decided to go for a ride!

I filled my Camelbak up, changed clothes, fought with my helmet briefly, remembered to put my stopwatch on and got my bike off my balcony. My warm-up entailed carrying my bike down a couple flights of stairs, lol! I was off! Overall, I rode ~9.4 miles in 44.10. I realized when I’m on my own, there really isn’t a leisure pace. I rode at a steady and what felt like a good pace for the whole ride. I had to slow down to cross at a traffic light and one cross-walk. I rode on a bike path. I’m not one for riding on the road, just don’t trust drivers out there! I could feel my quads burning for the duration of my ride. I felt it was a good mix of inclines, declines, and 1 pretty big hill coming and going.

When I got home, I carried my bike back up and I was feeling so good that I decided I would go for a walk to stretch out my legs. But since I was feeling so good, I decided to do a bit of run/walking. I ended up doing a total of 2 miles. For the first mile I did 1:1 min ratio of run/walk. The second mile I did 2:2 min ratio. I’m not sure how long it took me to complete the miles. But my overall workout took me about 1 hour and 10 minutes. That included the 44.10 bike ride, carrying my bike back up and then the 2 miles of running/walking and then about .25 miles of walking for my cool down.

At the beginning of the run/walk session my legs felt tight from biking, but I felt them loosen up as I got into it. My lungs/breathing was feeling a bit “tired” but I powered through and eventually I got that under wraps! For my stretching I decided to try one of Yoga is Yummy’s videos. I did the Yoga for triathletes video which lasted about 10 minutes. I really enjoyed it and my muscles felt great afterwards, thanks Polly!

I now have confidence that I will be able to survive a sprint triathlon with the proper training and of course incorporating the swimming in. In due time! I will note that the next time I decide to do the biking and running scenario I’ll eat a snack before (my stomach wasn’t hungry nor did I feel out of energy, just good practice) and remember to wear my knee strap during the running portion. My knee felt a little sore, but overall I felt really good!

Yesterday I made a quick stop at Trader Joe’s and came out with a few snacks to try: