Bricks

[Flying_Monkey]

The most important aspect of triathlon training, and something you neglect at your peril, is doing bricks. I don't mean lugging breezeblocks around, although that probably wouldn't do you too much harm, but bike-run training. Basically it means trying to make the transition from bike to run, which is always the most evil part of the race, a bit more bearable by practicing these two legs together.

After a certain point in the season, basically from now, I will not do any training ride without doing a run afterwards, even if it is just a short one. Today was my first proper 90% brick: a 24km bike ride followed by a 6.5km run* all accomplished in 1 hr 15, which wasn't too bad, and it didn't hurt too much (just a bit!).

(*my training distances are basically determined by the size of the island I live on. There are only two metaled roads on the island, and the 24km ride is to from my house to the southernmost point and back. My longer training ride is to the 'foot' of the island (in the east) and back (52km). If I do all the roads, it adds up to just under 80km. Any longer and I have to go to the mainland by ferry first, or do 'laps', which I don't like. My runs are various rural 'blocks' (the island's gravel backroads are a rough and uneven grid) - one block is 6.5km, two is 10.5km, three is 14.5km etc...)

 

[xxmimixx]

Hi fm how ironic you posted this because today i did my very first brick session and was going to start a thread myself!
I did 13m bike and 3m run in 1:20. I know is not great but im not disappointed because this is my first day training after a week in bed ill and i intentionally didnt want to push myself (in fact this is reflected in my avg hr of 150 When i work hard it goes up to 170) as well as not having the energy back! Saying that i would only probably be 5 min quicker all in all lol


When i started running my legs felt like two pieces of wood and only started settling as i reached the 0.8 of a mile distance then i was 'ok'.
Im thinking of doing one brick session a week. Do the same routine 2 more times then up it. What do you think?
And how much should i increment by?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

When i started running my legs felt like two pieces of wood and only started settling as i reached the 0.8 of a mile distance then i was 'ok'.
Im thinking of doing one brick session a week. Do the same routine 2 more times then up it. What do you think?
And how much should i increment by?

Apparently, your legs will never stop feeling like this at the start of a tri run, and it is worse the longer and harder you cycle beforehand! The thing that bricks do is 1. let you know that you can do it and, more importantly, 2. reduce the time that the muscles in your legs are shocked and can switch into running mode. I'm no expert, but I would say that at this stage you should be making half of all your training sessions, bricks. As with any training, the distances you do should probably have some relationship to the distances you will be doing in your triathlon(s) and you should build up so that at the least you have done the full distance of the bike and run legs as a brick a couple of times before you do the actual event and preferably often enough so that you can do these distances regularly and comfortably with something to spare (which you will need in race conditions).

 

[007fair]

useful advice

.. And heres me thinking it it was to do with the fear of OW swimming (bricking it.. ? )

BTW whats the island you live on ?

 

[xxmimixx]

Apparently, your legs will never stop feeling like this at the start of a tri run, and it is worse the longer and harder you cycle beforehand! The thing that bricks do is 1. let you know that you can do it and, more importantly, 2. reduce the time that the muscles in your legs are shocked and can switch into running mode. I'm no expert, but I would say that at this stage you should be making half of all your training sessions, bricks. As with any training, the distances you do should probably have some relationship to the distances you will be doing in your triathlon(s) and you should build up so that at the least you have done the full distance of the bike and run legs as a brick a couple of times before you do the actual event and preferably often enough so that you can do these distances regularly and comfortably with something to spare (which you will need in race conditions).

so as I wish to do all Sprint Tri's (maybe ii'll make my last one an Olympic at end of season), then I dont need to up it?

 

[fimm]

Often my run off the bike will be about 15 minutes - just enough to get the post-cycle feeling out of my legs and start moving properly.
I agree with FM that as long as you do tri, you do bricks - however I did a race the other weekend ... I think I've done one brick this year and I didn't run too badly off the bike (I got a faster run time than last year for the same course) so it would appear to me that the brick training I've done in the past has stayed with me. Not much help if you are new to this, of course!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

5 days after my half-marathon, and I'm switching my training much more to focus on tri now. So it was back to bricks. And this one hurt really bad... made worse by the strong wind we've been having here. It will get better. Has to.

 

[Daddydadbo]

My first training for my first triathlon I did exactly that on the advice of my cousin who does iron man. She didn't call them bricks, just said they were hard and it is easy to cramp up. I did 5 m cycle and 2m run and the cycle was dead slow (On my 2 ton mountain bike.) Have six weeks to go and will be mostly cycling with a run afterward.