Triathlon latest -"Bricking it" ... in more ways than one

I was fully expecting my legs to go all wobbly but I hadn't counted on the hot flush in my cheeks or how much my heart would be racing. No, I wasn't drooling over the latest David Beckham H&M advert - I was in the middle of my first triathlon "brick" session!

A brick session is a bike ride followed immediately by a run and, as I have recently learned, is an essential part of training for any wannabe triathlete such as myself. It sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? I can ride a bike and I can run, so putting the two together couldn't be that difficult ... or could it?

After cycling for about an hour, my legs were feeling OK, if a bit tired. I wasn't out of breath and so I was feeling fairly confident about the short run I had planned. In fact, my main concern was what it would feel like running in my padded cycling leggings!

As I parked my bike up, removed my helmet and set off on the run, sure enough, the jelly-legs syndrome I had read about kicked in. It suddenly felt like there was no connection between my brain and my legs and that my legs were just chilling out and doing their own thing rather than what I actually wanted them to do. It felt very strange but eventually the feeling passed. 

What I was not prepared for was how physically challenging the run would be. It was really hard, much harder than I had expected. 

Even though it was only a 2 km run, my legs were heavy, my heart was pounding and I was wheezing like someone with a 40-a-day habit. It felt like I had regressed to the early days of my running when I could just about manage a short run around the block. What was going on? How could I be struggling so much when I comfortably run 5 or 6 km at a time and sometimes (slightly less comfortably) manage 10 km?

Panic has now set in! I've been training for my triathlon for months and, until now, I felt that my fitness levels were vastly improved. So it was a big shock that I found the run part of the brick session so tough. And with only 5 weeks to my triathlon, I'm wondering if I have left it too late. At most, I'll be able to fit in 4, possibly 5 more brick sessions ... but is this enough? Right now I could do with some reassurance that it will all be OK on the day. Only time will tell though and I won't know for sure until the big day arrives. Until then, it looks like I will be "bricking it" ... in more ways than one!

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