This morning was our second bike practice with the team, and actually our first brick, which is a bike/run combo. Coach Rob said it’s called a Brick because your legs will feel like bricks. They just wanted to ease this feeling in by after doing a 90 min ride around Santa Monica from Ocean/San Vicente to the Brentwood golf course, we’ll be doing a quick 5 minute run. Since I’m on staff, I was scheduled to be sweeper, making sure everyone was on course. It was a bit weird because it’s still pretty new to me, and naturally, I’ll be the last one anyway. My level of effort was low on the bike, as I was sweeping, plus still getting used to the gears. Most importantly, the clips. I fell AGAIN when trying to cross San Vicente’s middle island. I didn’t clip out in time when I stopped pretty suddenly because of a fast car going west on San V. Ouch! Sure enough, I got up and rode again, with a stinging throb to my left leg.
Bike was done, and I was off to our transition areas. Didn’t stress out on the transition to much, as I was happy to run. It was VERY weird though running in bike shorts. It felt like I was running with a diaper with a big load (because of the heavy bike padding). Now I understand why there’s a distinction between having bike shorts and tri shorts. I think I’ll invest in a better seat instead, because come raceday, I’ll be in my tri shorts. Once the run was complete, the team gathered around Coach Rob and he pretty much showed us how to change a tire. After he showed us, we had to deflate our own tires. Luckily for me, my roommate Carlos showed me the night before, so I thought it was pretty easy changing out the tire. I’m just not comfortable yet using that CO2 inflator.
Another practice of many firsts, done. First brick, first tire change.
