Big Birthday Brick 2011

Today is my birthday (technically, since this post is likely going to be done late at night, while icing).

What a difference a day makes! Thanks so much for all your support! I really apreciate it. While I did "lose it" a few times today, I was able to have a great time at my annual "Big Birthday Brick".

Last year was the first year it was a brick workout, but the whole, go out and see what you can do started when I turned 30 and decided that I needed to run a lap of Kensington just to show that I could do it. Keira was pretty small too, so it was quite the accomplishment for me at that point in my life, especially since I hadn't trained much through the winter that year. I can't remember what I did for turning 31 (we may have been living in Ohio), and I was pregnant with Soren for 32. Last year, to help me prepare for my Oly tri, I did the "Big Birthday Brick" where I biked 25 miles and then ran 6.2, what I needed to do for the tri. This year, with my birthday being midweek and the move, we opted to do it on a Wednesday night to coincide with the start of the TIA Wed workouts. This also meant that time was a concern, and that I could not plan to just ride 50 miles on a wed and run 13.1. I don't know that I plan to do that at all in training for my 70.3, and doing it now in my current condition would just be asking for an injury.

We had planned for weeks now to bike 30 (2 laps at Island Lake) and then just run some amount. I can't publish an amount because Cristina will hold me to it. Some sounded good to me. The week started rough. We had SNOW!!! The forecast was also really bad all week. Accuweather just started charging (or I just noticed) for chance of precipitation. Are you kidding me? Maybe I don't get the membership thing and it is free, but it was more involved than what I wanted to do today. Everyone was asking me about my backup plan. What?? We are going to DO THIS. Really, I was thinking the back-up might be dinner??? I got tons of calls all day, are we doing this? It was COLD!!!! In the 40s, and it was raining in little pockets everywhere off an on. I was praying for it to not rain so we could have a safe ride. I kept telling myself, I am HARDCORE! I ran zillions of miles in BLIZZARDS for crying out loud!!!! I can spend a couple hours on a bike in the 40s!!! Right?

Well, thankfully, the weather, although cold, onminous, and WINDY, was "acceptable". There was no precipitation on us, and the road was fairly dry. We had a small crew, the same 4 ladies from last year, Me, Cristina, Kristel, and Valerie. We didn't have Ryan or Kent, but Tom, TIA's fearless leader of the Wednesday night workouts came out for the second lap! My pace was not so stellar, but the WIND, OH MY! It was pretty bad. At one point on a downhill I had to switch to a bigger ring in back because the WIND was pushing me so hard uphill! When we did this extra little road north of the Dogde Parking lot it was awful! I screamed. I didn't drink any water while riding for fear of wrecking because of the grip I needed to just stay in control. The forecast called for gusts of up to 40mph, and I am pretty sure we caught a couple of those on that little road. We (I) averaged about 15.5mph. I was the LAST to finish on the bike, and my garmin got full and stopped recording at 20 miles, which meant it beeped at me for the remaining 10. I couldn't make it stop and ride at the same time, I got a bit behind fussing with it and realized I couldn't fix it and ride, so it just BEEPED FOR 10 MILES.

My feet and legs were so cold once we started running. I couldn't feel from my knees down, and then I just felt PAIN in my feet as the feeling came back. It took about 2 miles for them to fully warm up and all of the toe pain to stop. We flew out with the wind over to Kensington to get in a total of 3 miles. That middle section into the wind uphill heading back in Island Lake was tough! I think we finished up in around 25ish minutes from looking at my watch and my paces. My garmin gave me a pace readout but wouldn't let me start the timer.


I am so grateful I have such wonderful (and insane) friends who came out to support me! Thanks so much! You guys are awesome, and I will miss our rides at Island Lake! I have 3 tris on the schedule at IL for this summer, so it is not "goodbye" yet, it is "see you later".