B....rick

Yesterday I skipped out of my morning run with the girls in favor of a few more hours of sleep.  I hadn't been able to get much sleep the night before so when the alarm went off, all of me said no.

Usually when I make this choice (and I try not to make it often) in the summer months it means I do not get any running miles that day because I am not willing to run in those temperatures, and whatever exercise I do get will have to be done indoors.  A class at the gym, perhaps.

Well, now that I am the proud owner of Red Sass the bicycle, exercise outside in the southern summer heat is not so bad.  I've always enjoyed a good sweat and for some reason cycling in the heat is not as oppressive as running in it.

So after a bagel and coffee, I set out to get some miles with Red Sass.  I rode a little over 12 miles and called it good.  I was thinking of doing something else, I just hadn't decided what.  A brick perhaps?  (I need to interject here that I only know this term because someone else said it to me a few weeks ago and they explained it as Bike, Run, Ick). 

I came inside, stripped out of my cycling clothes (I find them extremely uncomfortable when not sitting on a bike), and sat down at the computer to drink water and consider my options.  By this point it was noon, very hot outside and  I was losing motivation fast.  I was either going to do some other form of exercise or take a shower and tackle some house work.

While stalling and hydrating, I went to my blog and clicked "Next Blog."  I have recently discovered this function, and I love it.  I never know what I am going to get.  Cycling blogs, running blogs, cooking blogs (how those apply to mine, I don't get), family blogs, etc.  It is like channel surfing, and sometimes I can hardly get myself to stop and read because I want to find out what is next.

On this occasion, my first click took me to Riding the Wind and for once I found myself too interested to keep clicking.

I had landed on the blog of Anton Krupicka who recently finished second over all in the Western States 100.  Not being a major Ultra Marathon buff, I had never heard of him before, although upon reading further I recognized a few names from the book, "Born to Run" which I am about to finish.  Krupicka's blog took me further along link to link as I read of his and a few other's ultra experiences.  I was amazed and inspired.  I thought to myself if these guys can run 100 miles on crazy terrain, surely I can run 3 tiny ones at noon in July.  

So that is exactly what I did.  A simple 3 miles.  I took a water bottle just to make myself feel better, but it wasn't bad at all.  My splits were 8:31, 8:54, 8:45 and I didn't think that was half bad for a runner like me in heat like that.  I call it a brick simply because I ran after I rode, but there was significant rest and blog reading between the two.

Another plan has begun to take root in my mind as well.  A plan inspired by the book, "Born to Run" and the articles of these ultra runners.  I'm still in the planning stages but I think I know what I want to do.

Because if they can do that, surely I can do this.