Let there be BRICK!

Last night i did one of the many Brick sessions that are in my trainng plan

Brick training session are sessions where you train for two of the disciplines back-to-back, traditionally a brick session is BIKE then RUN but can also be SWIM then BIKE or any other combination that you can think of, (but some people mat call them something else).

They all have there place in training some more than others, generically any training session made up of two discipline will help your body prepare for doing more than one thing in a race, so transitions from one discipline to another will not be a big shock to the system, as Triathlon is a sport in itself and not just a sum of its parts. Plus it is also a way of helping you get all those required sessions fitted into a weeks training

Swim to Run training is normally done as part of open water training (on my part) where I will have a long OW swim followed by a short tempo run to loosed up afterwards, this type of training can also be useful for Aquathalons.

Running then cycling, this is mores specific for those that take part in duathlons that are often Run-Bike-run

Swimming then Cycling gives us the chance to practice T1 (which can take some time), getting out of our wetsuit and off onto the bike, many people have problems with dizziness and nausea when moving from the prone position of the swim to the upright position and if you are like this, this is a very useful session

Cycling then running, this session is the most popular although (IMO) a lot of training plans do not introduce them early enough. Firstly the prepare you for the ‘jelly leg’ felling of moving from Bike to run, next they help you more quickly improve your generic endurance as Bike-run brick session can be longer earlier in the season as doing two different disciplines does not place the same stress on the body as would just a long bike or long run and I would do one of these Brick sessions most weeks These bricks and can be approached different ways

A steady/easy bike followed by steady/easy run, used to help build overall endurance and train the body for the transition

A hard structured bike followed by steady/easy run, this is a bike focussed brick session that will leave our legs feeling like they belong to someone else when you start the run, great fun, and great preparation due to the fact that you will be most likely giving it all on you bike before you start you run in a race

A steady/easy bike followed by hard (and/or) structured run, this one is run focussed and helps the body to adapt to getting up to speed on the run as quick as possible.

A hard Bike followed by a hard run, is simply what it say s on the tin and is race specific and lets you try out back to back in race simulated conditions, but (for me) this would probably normally be a shorter session so not to risk injury.

Bricks do not have to be the same every time, be creative and mix them up, for me last nite was a Bike focused brick and took the form of: -

BIKE (2:10 total)

• 20-30mins warm up, mixed HR
• 8 x 5 min seated climbs at VO2max
• 8 x 1 min hill sprints, flat out
• Mixed cadence work to finish

RUN

• 1 hour trail run

So get out there and brick

WW

Indoor Training (Bricks)

During the winter, a lot of training moves in doors through necessity imposed by bad weather and dangerous conditions.  You do not want to end your season before it has even started because a care has knocked you off your bike in the dark or it has slipped away from you in the ice, so indoor it is…

Monday’s for me normally means a brick session, and these can be quite long, but long and indoors does not have to mean boring.  The following are examples of the bike and run segments I may do as part of the indoor brick …

BIKE

 

This may be (for me from 1:00 to 2:30)

Session 1

Warm Up 10 – 15mins

Main set
 # x (

- 3 mins seated climbs just below VO2max 

- 2 mins standing  climbs just above VO2max

- 1min lighter resistance speed spin trying to maintain VO2max

- 2min recovery

)

Warm down 10-20mins

Session 2

Warm Up 10 – 15mins

Main set

# x ( 

- 5-10 x (1min seated climb | 1 min recovery)
- 5-10 x (1min fast spin | 1 min recovery)
- 5-10 x (1min standing climb | 1 min recovery)

- 5-10 x (1min fast spin | 1 min recovery)

- 5 min Easy
)

Drills

- 5-10 x 1min (each) 1 legged drills
Warm down 5-15mins

RUN

When in the gym the run part I aim to keep to a maximum of 30mins or so and base my sets on my steady marathon pace of 10kph (the gym I use is in kph)

Session 3
5 mins building speed
Main set
- Intervals 5 mins of ‘ups’ @ 10.5 kph and downs fast walked @7.5kph
- Intervals 5 mins of ‘ups’ @ 11.0 kph and downs fast walked @7.5kph
- Intervals 5 mins of ‘ups’ @ 11.5 kph and downs fast walked @7.5kph
- Intervals 5 mins of ‘ups’ @ 12.0 kph and downs fast walked @7.5kph
- Intervals 5 mins of ‘ups’ @ 12.5 kph and downs fast walked @7.5kph
Warm down

Session 4
5 mins building speed
Main set
- 1 min 10.0kph | 1 min 9.5kph
- 1 min 10.5kph | 1 min 9.0kph
- 1 min 11.0kph | 1 min 8.5kph
- 1 min 11.5kph | 1 min 8.0kph
- 1 min 12.0kph | 1 min 7.5kph
- 1 min 12.5kph | 1 min 7.0kph
- 1 min 13.0kph | 1 min 6.5kph
- 1 min 13.5kph | 1 min 6.0kph
- 1 min 14.0kph | 1 min 5.5kph
Warm down

Have Fun

WW

Interval Brick Session

My off season is approaching the end and the New Year will see the start of structured training starting with an extensive Base period.

But at the moment it is still off season and training variety. Last night was an interval brick session that took the form of: -

SPINNING BIKE 10 mins warm up Z1/2

5 x (
- 3 min seated hill climbing (hard effort)
- 2 mins standing hill climbing (upping the effort)
- 1 min fast spin (lighter effort)
- 2 mins recovery Z1/2
)
5 mins recovery
8 x (
- 20secs vomit inducing effort
- 10secs easy spin
)

5 mins recover

TREADMILL FARTLEK SESSION

20 mins, efforts ranging from slow easy pace to my 5k pb pace with 2 x 1 min efforts at my 5k pb pace.

For the 20 sec bike efforts, these were done in similar style to Tabata style training, but at the end of my normal interval session rather than a session on its own.  The whole session left me feeling quite good as I retired to the sauna.

WW

Winter Brick Sessions

By the time I finished work last night it was already getting dark, and my breath stood heavy on the quickly chilling evening air … and I wanted to get in a brick session, I thought it may be a bit dangerous out on the bike in rush hour traffic in the dark so the plan was to hit the gym and the spin bike for the firs segment then outside for the run. After all the weather/conditions in the UK really fall to where you cant get outside and run and treadmills are the invention of the devil.

So since it was going to be the spin bike I decided to push a heavy load and work my HR aiming to sit just below my Vo2 max (85-90% of) with recoveries dropping to 75% (just above the point where my lactic levels start to rise). The work out looked like :-

10min warm up
10 x (
- 2min heavy standing
- 1min heavy seated
- 1min spinning seated (rec)
- 1min heavy seated
)
8 x (
- 40secs heavy standing
- 80secs heavy seated
- 40secs heavy standing
- 80secs heavy seated
- 1min spinning seated (rec)
)
5 x (
- 1min heavy standing
- 1min heavy seated
- 1min spinning seated (rec)
)
5mins spinning

So 2 hours in total on the bike, by now I was drenched in sweat so I had a quick towel down pulled on my jacket and out the door I was.  The sky was clear and star filled (even amongst the light pollution) and I quickly started to feel the sweat in my hair start to freeze so I decided that I should go for a decent pace to keep mw warm, aiming for 80-85% MHR.

The first part of the run was flat allowing me to maintain my HR then as I approached the end of my loop it was time for hill reps … or hill sprints to be exact:

8 x 45sec hill sprints | walk back recoveries

The aim on these sprints is to really push myself and maintain a long stride length throughout, I time for first sprint and at my end point, so I always run the same distance for each sprint but by the last sprint it may be taking me longer than 45secs … but you get the point.

My session was finished off with a jog back to the gym, strides and stretching ….

Total run time 40mins

Not a bad midweek session … well for me

WW

Swims, Bricks and Aerobic Threshold

Last nights structured swim was a good work out with a focus on improving speed endurance as I would like to get my Ironman swim down to under 1:10. The set looked like: - 250m warm Up 500m Drills ( 2 x (50m Catch up, 100m 1-arm, 100m finger drag)) 1000m hard (4 x 250m : RI 15sec) 500m Flat out (10 x 50m :RI 10 secs) 250m warm down focusing on swimming long and smooth And the above set left my shoulders and upper back feeling suitably drained.

Today I decided to do a brick session, that is a bike ride immediately followed by a run, and the focus of this brick session was on my base aerobic fitness and my run to bike transition, I am quite a good runner off the bike but there is always room for improvement. The session was made up of a 27mile ride followed by a 4mile run and what became immediately evident was the difference in my Aerobic Threshold on my bike to my Aerobic Threshold on the run, with the bike being way .. way under that of my run (about 20+bpm). This could be what is at the route of why I am crap on a bike ... so over the next few weeks In need to improve this .