Transitions and Bricks???

There seems to be a global culture of inventing strange words to confuse newcomers, and sometimes it seems Triathlons are no exception - it has a bit of its own language and sub-culture as well. :) I learnt pretty quickly that T1, T2 refers to the swim/bike transition and the bike/run transition respectively. I also leant recently that a brick is not just the stuff we build a wall with, it also refers to any training that combines two or more of the swim/bike/run workouts.

I was initially focused on just doing more swims, cycling, runs, but not all together. I was thinking that if I wanted to do all three together, I am already doing the Triathlon, so no point in parting part in the OSIM Triathlon. Well, last week I got worried about my ability to complete the course, so started doing some bricks - specifically swim/bike and bike/run (I will probably try just one full brick swim/bike/run - if any - before the race). Despite reading about it, I was still surprised at how "strange" it felt going from the swim to the bike (T1) and the bike to the run (T2). Going from the swim to the bike, I felt all "wobbly" and unstable. 1st time I did it, I actually fell over while standing over the bike having a quick chat with my traning buddies! Just last Sunday, I did the bike/run brick and this time, going from the bike into the run, my legs felt very stiff - my calfs especially felt that they were at the border of cramping up. I actually had to stop running for a few minutes to stretch out my calf.

So the lesson learnt for me is to take it slow on the bike after the swim and be extra careful of losing my balance. Perhaps to take it easy and just "spin" on low gear for a few minutes until my legs are probably warmed up. On the bike/run transition, perhaps I probably should slow down just before the end of the bike route and start stretching my calfs on the bike to save some time, I should also start the run slow and take time to "warm up" the legs for the run - different muscle groups afterall.