Sunday brick: hard! hot!

This was our most difficult brick to date, mostly because it was the longest so far; all told, about 3:45 of training. We started at Hapuna with a 2:30 ride to Hawi, where we all turned around at the spot where the actual Honu Half turnaround will be. We were supposed to do 35 minutes at race pace at some point during the ride, but at about five minutes in I encountered Todd and Ben helping out the poor woman Ben mentioned who'd taken a big spill on the side of the road. I was a little bit annoyed because so far I'd been keeping a really great pace and was just ramping up, but she really needed us, and I hope someone would stop their workout to help ME on the side of the road!
After a bit we all continued, and I got my pace going again. Got to the turnaround in 1:25, which put me right on target for returning to Hapuna at 2:30 (those last 10 miles are a slow steady climb and then a super speedy descent.) I was making great time all the way back and feeling strong, even though I ate all my gel (next time, carry more!) and drank all my water (need to find a place for another bottle on my small-framed bike!) Then, I heard a twanging sound in my back wheel, thought I could have broken a spoke but nothing seemed to change so I figured some random road crap had just bounced up through my spokes and made a loud noise. HOWEVER, riding those last 8 miles was a total SLOG, and yeah, coming up out of Kawaihae is kind of an unpleasant and hot little climb, but I started thinking what is WRONG with me? I didn't feel especially tired, or weak, or dehydrated, so I started suspecting that my back wheel was tweaked. Sure enough, I got back to Hapuna (in 2:38, damn it!) and I had broken a spoke and my back brake was totally rubbing against the wheel! Got in some extra strength training and didn't even mean to. At least it wasn't ME.
Since I've been concerned about my left leg I decided I wasn't necessarily going to run that far, and headed off to Puako planning to play it by ear. My leg actually didn't really bother me at all (maybe because all my muscles were totally warmed up?) and I ended up going out about 1:05. We were supposed to run 1:10, so it was close. The plan was to do 25 minutes at race pace, but at about 20 minutes into the run the heat started to become REALLY noticeable. I ended up doing 20 minutes at a higher intensity, but still didn't end up going that fast or hard because the heat was really affecting my heart rate. Then, I ran out of water, AGAIN, so the last mile or so I ran/walked, trying to keep from dehydrating. Must ALSO figure out a way to carry more water on the run! This run was brutal, but not as brutal as the last time we did this same route, and I made it farther in the same amount of time. Came back so dehydrated I thought I might kill someone for their water, found Ben locked out of both our cars, so we went and spent $4 on 32 oz of water (that's how they getcha!) which was blissfully cold. On the way over to the food stand I drank the entire water fountain.
Todd made it back (having even more problems with heat and dehydration than me) and the healing waters of Hapuna saved us all from heat exhaustion, but not from total loopiness!
All in all I feel like I totally kicked ass this Sunday, and for the first time I can actually comprehend finishing a half-ironman. I slept hard Sunday night, but I didn't even feel sore or trashed the next day. Woooo!

Note to self: going to Costco and trying to shop after a training day like this is a BAD, BAD IDEA.