Brick surprise

Two weeks ago I did my first brick workout which consisted of biking and then running.  I've been doing back-to-back workouts for months now, but not this particular one. 

I had fully anticipated that my run pace would suffer at least 30 seconds slower after the bike ride.  Riding 12-13 miles will surely take a toll on your legs and endurance, right?  So I hopped up on my bike and did a 13 mile ride which consisted of two hills.  (I really need to work on hills, ugh.) I transitioned from the bike to the run in a somewhat timely manner and took off down the road.

Everyone warns you about how your legs will feel after being on the bike.  All the warning in the world doesn't compare to actually having your legs moving under you and feeling like you have no control over them.  I was certain that if a video camera had been pointed in my direction I would have won $10,000 on America's Funniest Videos.  My legs were moving quickly, yet it seemed like I was going nowhere.

Then I looked at my Garmin.  I was running an 8:30 minute mile.  WHAT?!  I couldn't slow my legs down the first quarter to half a mile.  After that I felt like I finally had some control over my body.  However, I was still running faster that I had anticipated.  A LOT faster. 

I ended up running my fastest 5K ever!  27:11.  I haven't even done that in one of my road races.  I haven't done that particular brick workout since.  I'll be doing it again this week.  Let's see if it was just a fluke or a sign of things to come.  I'm hoping for the later.