Brick (ish) bike and run 8 March 2011

My current running form - March 2011  

I did a brick(ish) workout today. Why the 'ish'? Well. I had cycled for about 30 minutes (average 64% MHR) and had about a half hour break lounging around before I went for my tempo run. I'm really not sure whether it qualifies as a brick workout at all but it saves me from writing 2 posts about it. I am having great difficulty on the bike and I think it's because I started to mess around with the seat height. I bought some clip on tri bars the other day and I can't seem to pedal properly when I'm in the aero position. My knees keeps hitting my elbows and I figured that maybe I should make the seat higher. Higher it went and it still feels awkward. My legs seems to bow out uncontrollably. This is something I need to sort out very soon as I don't want to keep on pedaling with this very unzen position. I wrote about being one with the water earlier. I also need to be one with the bike. Being one with the bike doesn't include the very very close feel I have with the saddle at the moment (ouch).

The run was a tempo 5 km run in my usual home park. 14 laps in all would make 5km. I went 5 laps at slow easy pace (75% MHR) and the next 5 at a fast (for me) and hard pace at 85% MHR. The remaining 4 laps was run at an easy 75% again.

(See my explanation on Maximum Heart Rate MHR here)

These are the lap times:

Lap 1    3:51

Lap 2    4:04

Lap 3    4:02

Lap 4    4:03

Lap 5    4:05

Lap 6    2:56

Lap 7    3:07

Lap 8    3:10

Lap 9    3:07

Lap 10  2:56

Lap 11  3:55

Lap 12  3:42

Lap 13  3:18

Lap 14  3:36

Total 49:59

Average hart rate 77% MHR

I'm very puzzled at the times I got for the last 4 laps. It seems that I was running faster in the last 4 laps than I was in the first 4. It's a mystery to me. The average pace I maintained for those 5 laps is 3 mins 3 secs which is still far off from the 2 min 30 secs I need to achieve a sub half hour 5 km. Please tell me where I can find that 27 seconds?

I've been pretty consistent with my run times in the 5 kms that I run during training even after a bike workout. I'm sure when I start doing hill climbs and more intervals/fartleks my timing will improve. It will definitely improve when I start to lose more weight especially when I reach my desired weight of 85 kg.

I'm due to run 7 km on saturday in a race held in conjunction with Federal Territory (FT) Day in KL at Merdeka Square. I'm not going to push myself too much during this race. This one I just want to finish with the least amount of drama. A 1 hour race for 7km will do me nicely for the time being.

Let's see what the next few weeks will bring.

About Reza Ali

Reza Ali Reactivated tells of the journey of Reza Ali as he embarks on transforming himself from a 120kg (35kg overweight) 46 inch waist unhealthy and unfit person to someone who can compete in a triathlon. Don't be afraid to dream. Take action. Correct your mistakes. Learn from failures. Bit by bit, you will get closer to your dream.

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