#brick workouts

[sharingfitness-blog]

The Exercise of the Day - The Brick Shoulder Tap

[thedesiretowin]

Guys... I just did a 23:57 5k... As the brick after a 1.5 hr bike ride full of lots of work

Apparently a lunch consisting of 50% rice crispy treats works for me. And so does getting less than 8 hrs of sleep over the past 2 days. (Exams this week! Woo! Lots of stress eating plus very little sleep to get the homework in on top of studying) I don't think I'll actually keep that pace in a race... But who knows? Excited for my 140.6 in about 5 weeks. :)

[shapinup]

Triathlon Training 2012

It's only been a week and a half since my half marathon (and all my training) concluded and it's now time to focus on the next big thing: The New York City Triathlon. After seeing the results of hard work in the half marathon, I want to get a schedule in place and prepare for the tri. I've done it twice without much training and it's time to get serious.

The first year I competed I think I had beginners luck because the race seemed fairly easy and I finished just under 3 hours. Year 2 was WAY harder, with rough waters and me doggy paddling for practically the entire swim (embarrassing, tiring and scary). I finished the race nearly 12 minutes slower, ending up with worse times in every single part of the race, including my transitions (ouch).

To prepare for 2012, I've been looking up training schedules and they all look crazy. Seems as if you would only be able to do all the workouts if either you didn't have a job and could work out all day, or didn't care about your social life (or sleep). I've put together a calendar of weekly goals to achieve and just like I did for the half marathon, will see how much I can do. I don't expect to complete every workout, but here's hoping I can stick to it pretty well.

Take a look at Week 1 Goals:

Swim 30 minutes

Swim 30 minutes

Bike 40 minutes

Bike 40 minutes

Run 30 minutes

Run 30 minutes

Run 30 Minutes

From here, the times go up and eventually halfway through training, "Brick" workouts are added in.

Have you trained for a triathlon? Do you have any tips?

[island-in-the-stream]

Matt Fitzgerald answers the question: How often should you incorporate brick workouts into your training?

In triathlon, there’s no choice: You have to run (or at least walk) after riding your bike to reach the finish line. No run, no finisher’s medal.

In training, you have a choice. Everyone agrees that triathletes need to run after some bike rides by way of preparing to do the same in races, but there’s also a consensus that it’s not necessary to run after every ride. So what’s the sweet spot? How regularly should you follow a ride with an immediate run?

According to the top coaches, it depends. Among the factors to consider in planning this aspect of your training are your experience level, your schedule, your susceptibility to injury and how your body responds to this type of training.

There are two basic types of bike-run workouts you can do. A so-called “brick” consists of a full bike workout followed immediately by a full run workout; in other words, it’s a session in which each part could stand alone as a complete workout. A transition run is a short run—usually 10 to 20 minutes—after a full bike ride. Whereas bricks prepare the athlete more comprehensively for the race experience, transition runs are more narrowly focused on preparing the athlete for the transition from riding to running.

Because they are more stressful and time-consuming, bricks cannot be done as often as transition runs. According to elite triathlon coach Cliff English, whether you do occasional bricks or more frequent transition runs should depend on the distance of your races. “The long-course athletes I coach usually do one brick per week,” he says. “Short-course athletes do multiple short transition runs.”

A second factor to consider is your level of experience in the sport. “The newer the athlete is to triathlon, the more valuable transition runs can be to get them used to running off the bike,” says Tim Crowley, an endurance coach in eastern Massachusetts whose athletes include 2008 Olympian Jarrod Shoemaker. As a beginner you will probably notice that transition runs yield big improvements in your ability to run off the bike. As you gain experience, you might find that you become less dependent on transition runs to maintain the ability to run well after pedaling, and as that happens you can reduce the frequency.

Some triathletes perform frequent transition runs—as often as after every bike ride—not because they need to, but simply to save time. “Training in three sports and getting reasonable frequency is a challenge, so this is a good, time-efficient way to maintain run frequency,” says Lance Watson, head coach of LifeSport.

Another potential benefit of frequent transition runs is injury prevention. “Adding short runs off the bike is a great way to increase frequency without overloading the athlete from a musculoskeletal standpoint,” says Matt Dixon, whose roster of athletes includes 2009 Hawaii Ironman runner-up Chris Lieto. The idea here is that a short run after a bike ride offers largely the same running-specific fitness benefits as a longer independent run but with less pounding on the legs.

While frequent transition runs may help you fit it all in and avoid injury, coaches caution against depending on them. “It’s important to run on fresh legs sometimes,” says Crowley. “Some faster runners may even get slower if they run off the bike all the time.”

While there’s no magic number for frequency of post-ride runs, a few basic considerations will help you settle on a number that, if not quite magic, works best for you.