This evening, I rode about 55km then followed up shortly with a moderately-paced, 11km run. It was tough towards the end of the run as I began to cramp mildly one thigh. Bricks are activities performed, consecutively, so as to accustom your body to the rigors of actual competition. A brick can be a duet, or trio of activities in any combination and sequence. However, sticking to the process, a brick can be a swim-ride, or ride-run. A swim-run is fine for those doing biathlons. A run followed by a swim is much more challenging to the body, and you may not do it that often due to safety reasons. After close to 3 hours, my body is as knackered as workhorse - not that I've ever been a horse, or worked that hard before.
The remarkable thing about our bodies is, that given adequate rest and nutrition, our bodies will cope with the exacting stimuli and adapt by becoming fitter. Certainly, since bricks demand that we operate at a higher threshold of discomfort and resources, we can only do it occasionally.
When marathoners start to fatigue badly, usually after the 30km-mark we call this condition hitting the wall. I once mentioned to my friends after an exhausting marathon that I hit the wall, and an eavesdropping medical-attendant thought I actually ran into a brick wall!
In our daily lives, what can we do to brick it? Can we brick meetings back-to-back? What about conducting performance appraisal interviews one after the other? What would be the consequence of performing too many bricks? Can we brick a more diverse portfolio of duties and responsibilities?
No comments:
Post a Comment