Throwin' a brick

Yesterday I did a brick workout, and I've concluded the following: my biking sucks ass. It sucked ass last year too, but I didn't really work all that hard last year, so I had pretty low expectations. This past winter was the first time I really made any kind of effort with off-season training. It's the first winter I even used the word "training" to describe what I was doing. I have shown some improvement in swimming and running. At the aquathon in San Diego I swam my longest event yet, at 1000m. My pace ended up being 2:05/100m -- this is not going to win me any medals, but it's about a 10% improvement over my longest swim last year, which was 750m and a 2:19/100m pace (I had a 2:09/100m pace in a 375m race, but that's pretty damn short, so I'm not really counting it). As for running, I took 3 minutes off my 5k time and almost 6 minutes off my 10k time -- also somewhere around a 10% improvement. Again, my paces are not setting world records, but I'm very happy that the work is paying off in the form of lower times and faster paces. And then there is the bike. I stink. STINK. How much do I stink? People drive by me in their cars and say, "What is that smell? Oh, that guy is riding his bike. Wow, he stinks." I didn't realize the magnitude of the stinkbomb I was laying until I rode outside a few times. Now, I haven't had any races on the bike yet so maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but I'm just not feeling like I've made any improvement at all. In an effort to make myself feel better, I wondered if I should have taken more recovery time from the half marathon on Sunday. I had my usual Monday off, but was back to two workouts on Tuesday. Seems like a flimsy excuse, though. Last night, it seemed like the slightest breeze or the smallest hill made my speed plummet. And I remember the exact same thing happening last year. Safe to say I'm at a bit of a low point right now, and suddenly I'm not looking forward to Victoria's Duathlon this Monday. I think that any goals I have made as far as bike splits or overall race times for this summer will have to be adjusted. I don't even want to think about the 70.3 in September. Bad times.