Brick Training

I wanted to get up and bike this morning and then run in the afternoon.  That didn't happen, so I decided to combine the two and create a brick workout.  That is something common in Triathlon Training, where you need to get used to going from one type of workout to another.  Typically, it starts with a run and then transitions to the bike.  I have never done that before, but I've read that it is tough to get used to running after biking.  I'd believe that because my legs always feel weird after biking.  Therefore, I opted to do the reverse today.  I started with a run and finished with a bike ride.

Yesterday I was off from running, but had some fun anyway.  I went up to the McDade Trail in the Delaware Water Gap.  That is about 40 minutes away.  It is a trail that goes on for about 30 miles.  I was there briefly last year, but never ran there.  I want to run it in the future, so I figured I might as well explore it on my bike.  I started off on the Southern end and rode over 5 miles out and then back.  It is mostly a stone trail, but unlike the typical rail trails that I'm used to, it has a lot of elevation change.  It also curves in and out.

The McDade Trail was a great setting for the ride.  The hills were challenging.  I actually had to walk up one in each direction, they were that steep.  Most of them were short.  After the Smithfield Beach area, the trail flattened out a lot.  It ran along the Delaware River and went through the woods and alongside of fields.  The weather was great, so it was an outstanding ride.  It was on muddy, but that can obviously be fun.  I'll definitely be back there to run, especially when I'm looking to do a long run with some hills mixed in.

Back to today's workout.  I didn't want to run and bike on the same trail, so I opted to park at the D&L Trail at Cementon.  I could then run out on the D&L Trail and bike a mile over to the Ironton Rail Trail and do that loop to complete the workout.

I'm trying to ease back into this running thing, but I might have to be more cautious and back off.  Even though this was only my second run of the week, my quads were quite sore in the beginning.  They really slowed me up.  It is amazing what a difference it can make when your legs feel good.  The first couple miles were a real struggle.  I did complete the initial one at 8:38.

The other thing that sucked was the weather.  It was actually a nice day out for this time of year, but it was windy.  I only had shorts and a short sleeve shirt on.  Just like when I did the half marathon there, I was running into a headwind at the beginning.  I thought to myself that if I could complete 12 miles or so into the wind during the race, I could do a couple miles today.  To compound the problem, there is a cliff alongside the trail and it was blocking the sun.  Of course when I got into the clear, the sun went behind the clouds.

Not only were my quads sore, but my foot still bothered me.  I keep having minor ongoing problems.  I hoped this soft surface would help, but it didn't.  I wasn't beat up enough that I couldn't run, so I just soldiered on.  I knew things would get better on the way back.  I just had to make it 3.5 miles out.

I kept counting down every half mile, looking forward to the turn around.  There wasn't much going on.  The trail was rather empty.  I thought I saw a guy up ahead and I wondered where he went as I approached.  Maybe he was farther down the trail than I thought.  I saw a huge group of turkeys in the adjacent field.  Oddly, they were gone by the time I came back through there 5 minutes later.

I knew I'd come to the turnaround point close to the Cove Road Trailhead.  I've run there so much now that I'm used to the route.  I turned around shortly before the trailhead. I passed the guy again.  Amazingly, he was the only person I saw on the whole 7 mile run.

Before the turnaround, my legs were already beginning to come around.  It is amazing how much faster my speed gets when the legs start feeling better.  All of the final 4 miles were under 7:50.  There was still some wind going this direction, but it felt better than going the other way.

I cruised along and started to really enjoy the run, now that I was feeling better.  I watched my pace drop.  I also enjoyed some of the scenery.  It wasn't the most beautiful day, but it was still great for December.  I didn't think it would be possible for my overall pace to drop under 8 minutes, but it did.  With a final two miles of 7:39 and 7:38, I was moving fairly well.  I wasn't upping my effort either.  It was nice and easy.  I'm curious to see how fast I could actually run now if I was pushing myself and my legs would feel good.

I don't know what I'm going to do with regards to my running.  I might have to back off even more and bike more frequently.  For now, I'm going to stick with my training plan though.  Hopefully my quads will improve at some point.

I got back to the car, put on my cycling gear and a jacket.  I took a couple Sportbeans and off I went.  Crossing the main road took a little time, but I was onto the unmaintained section of the D&L before I knew it.  I knew this section was a rough dirt trail, but I didn't know how bad it was.  It was quite rocky, with some ups and down.  It is right next to a cement plant and it looked like they washed out samples on to the trail.  There were small hard sections of concrete.

I couldn't wait to get on to the paved Ironton Rail Trail.  I thought that would be a big relief.  To an extent it was, except that it was uphill at the start.  I went into a low gear and slowly pedaled up the gradual hill.  I knew that it would be fun going downhill.  I couldn't wait for that.

Finally, I was descending.  It was fast and then the trail goes around a curve.  I almost went off the path there.  I got back under control and cruised along.  It was certainly colder on the bike than it was running, but being away from the river wasn't too bad.  I took a Clif Shot to make sure I was well fueled too.

It was nice going around this trail at a faster speed than when I run there.  Before I knew it, I was on the stretch near the river.  I thought this would be colder, but actually it wasn't too bad.

When I was in Philly, I used to hate biking because real riders would just blow by me like I wasn't moving at all.  On trails like this, I don't encounter many real cyclists, so my slow pace isn't a big deal.  If I wanted to go faster, I'd bring out the better bike.  For now, the old mountain bike does just fine.  It is also less likely to get a flat and can handle some tougher terrain.

I guess I don't go too slow.  There was a couple on their bikes.  I flew by them at my easy effort.  There were riding like they were out for a very leisurely Sunday stroll.  What was odd is that I saw very few people on this trail.  It goes through a residential area and is usually crowded.  It wasn't that cold either.  I guess when the calendar hits December, a lot of people go into hibernation.

I was about to finish up when I encountered a problem.  As I got to the dirt trail, I could hear some dirt bikes flying up it.  I saw these guys there last time that I ran at this location.  Rather than mess with some potentially out of control kids, I decided to take the road back to my car.

I dreaded this because it was a steep uphill climb before descending.  The dirt path along the river is flat.  I struggled getting up the hill.  I was exhausted.  Finally, I thought I was at the top.  Then I realized that I was only about halfway there.  To make things worse, the road went downhill slightly before heading back uphill.

I struggled and struggled to get up the hill.  It is definitely not something that I wanted to do at the end of a ride after running earlier.  My legs were beat.  I thought that I could at least look forward to flying downhill.  It turns out that that wasn't much better.  It was easy, but going close probably close to 30 MPH just meant a huge rush of wind.  I was freezing and my eyes started watering.  Luckily, that was over fast and I was done with my workout.

In total, I ran for 7 miles in 55 minutes.  I then biked close to 8 more miles in about 40 minutes.  I really enjoyed doing the back to back workout.  I'll have to try that more often.  Running first was definitely the way to go too.  It gave my legs a decent cooldown on the bike.  I'm actually really tired right now and might end up falling asleep early.  It looks like I wore myself out.  That doesn't happen too often at this point.

I want to bike and run again tomorrow.  The difference is that I'll ride early in the day and run with the LVRR group run in the evening.  While I don't enjoy cycling as much as running, I think I'm going to start doing it more.  That does fill my craving for more endurance exercising without the added pounding of more running.  Hopefully it will make me stronger in my running too.  I guess the colder weather is one thing that might keep me off the bike in the coming weeks.  I'll just try to layer up and see how well that works.  It will be worth a try.  Maybe one day I will be a triathlete or dualathlete.  It is hard to picture that though.

7 miles - 55:44 (7:58 pace)