To Brick or Not to Brick?

I am just 14 days away from my second sprint tri, and well into the thick of my training.  Sunday is typically my "brick day," and I had great plans of biking to the gym for a nice long swim this morning, followed immediately by a bike and run.  That is, until I woke up and realized it was 55 degrees.  FIFTY-FIVE.  A month ago it was over 100!  What the heck is going on??  I'm loving the cooler weather and totally rocked a 5 mile run yesterday morning in it, but I wasn't so sure I was on board with the idea of biking and running in completely soaked tri clothes, or even just with wet hair if I changed clothes post-swim.  I was *this close* to rolling over and just going back to sleep, but then I convinced myself that a bike-run brick was better than no brick at all and dragged myself out of bed (or more accurately, off of the couch where I fell asleep last night.  Winning.).

Side Note: And okay, to be completely honest with you, I was a little bit enticed by the chance to break out my beloved ARM WARMERS for the first time since spring.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with them.  I know you are devastated.  

The bike-run transition is the one I struggle most with since my legs just feel like COMPLETE JELLO getting off of the bike.  I knew it would be excellent practice to do a really hard bike ride followed by a short run, so I gathered up my gear (including arm warmers!), packed it into the trunk of my Prius, and headed to my favorite trail, an 8.5+ mile loop.  In the car on the way there, I gave myself a pep talk, telling myself I would bike two full loops (and some change) for a full 18 miles.  Idk about you, but anytime I'm running a loop and need to go PAST my car for a second lap, it is usually way too enticing to call it a day early.

I'm happy to report, though, that I powered my little legs through 18 miles!  I haven't ridden that far since May I'm pretty sure--I've been in a total cycling rut lately, pathetically rarely getting over 10 miles, so this felt awesome!  I must give major credit to a podcast episode of NPR's "This American Life" for getting me through most of this ride.  Perfect bike listening!  After the bike ride (during which I saw a disturbing amount of tiny dead mice on the trail...okay, maybe 3, but I think 3 constitutes a disturbing amount when referring to animal carcasses!), I set out for two additional miles on foot, wobbly legs and all.  These were tough and I was crazy tired already, but I made it!  Woohoo, stretch break in the grass!!

In the spirit of a chillier-than-anticipated morning, I treated myself to hot oatmeal with plenty of brown sugar, PB, and blueberries:

Oh, and today I also learned that I am just not a protein shake kind of girl...blech.  I am sticking to chocolate milk!  The oatmeal was pretty awesome, though.  It's been forever since I've made hot oatmeal!  Yum.  I loved this weather this weekend, but am desperately hoping it isn't in the 50s for my tri!  Wet clothes + cool breezes = not a happy teacher runner.  :)

What made your weekend wonderful?

Do you modify your training plan when you're tempted to skip workouts, or are you super hard-core and power through no matter what?