Team -

What a beautiful weekend for our annual Ride N’ Tie event. And some beautiful costumes were on display also. Check the website to see some of the photos from Sunday and also a peek at your Santa Cruz team mates at track. Hope you had as much fun Sunday as the coaches did.

The QA department for proofing the schedule failed to inform me that Thanksgiving is next week - not this week. The training calendar should read a track workout for this Wednesday. Next week there will be no coached workouts.

Saturday’s spinnerval will be another fun workout. What better way to get 80 minutes of spinning and 40 minutes of running into a workout than being at an Ironteam spinnerval? Bring your bike, trainer, running shoes and hydration/nutrition. Plan to arrive around 7:30 so you can buy a parking pass and get your bike/trainer set up. And yes, the bands will be making their first appearance of the season.

Sunday we will be meeting at Redwood Shores for our first open water swim followed by a run.

Go long, stay strong,

Ann, Chris, Steve and Dan

Team,

We’ve got a fun week in store for you.. and it’s all about BRICKs. Brick workouts are an important part of your triathlon training.

What is a brick? Traditionally, a brick is a Bike-Run workout (bike followed immediately by a run). However, it has come to mean any combined workout: Swim-Bike, Bike-Run, etc.

Why is it called a brick? Two answers here: one is “Bike+Run = ICK!” the other is “that’s how your legs feel on the run.” In either case, you can see that this type of training is important because we want to reduce the amount of “icky-ness” on your race day.

With that in mind, this is BRICK WEEK! We have four brick workouts on the schedule (Tues, Thurs, and Sat)… and Sunday we have the ultimate brick workout: our RIDE & TIE!

Ride & Tie is a team race, and one of the most fun workouts of the year… Here’s how it goes:

1. Form your team: two athletes, one mountain bike. Choose your partner well, they should be approximately the same height as you will be sharing the bike.

2. When the race begins one will run, the other will ride.

3. After some time, the rider will drop the bike and start running.

When the runner reaches the bike, he/she will get on the bike and start riding, passing the runner, and eventually dropping the bike and running. This repeats as the teammates leap-frog past each other.

4. Every loop (approx 2.5 miles), the team will climb a hill together to participate in a special test or game to earn bonus points.

5. Costumes are encouraged! Yes… costumes. It’s fun!

So, start looking around for a partner - you will need (between the two of you) a mountain bike with flat pedals (NO CLIPS - you’ll be running in those shoes too). a helmet is mandatory for the bike rider!!!

If you need help finding a partner, contact your mentor! Racers will compete for (somewhat) fabulous prizes, so be sure to hang around for the awards ceremony.

Stay strong, go long, brick well.

Your coaches,

Ann, Chris, Steve and Dan