Brick training for beginners
A brick in the triathlon world usually refers to a
bike-run workout but would also include a swim-bike workout. Brick workouts are important in triathlon
since the sport is made of up of three consecutively run legs – swim, bike,
run, in that order for the most part.
If you are new to the sport of triathlon and/or it has
been a while since you’ve exercised regularly, you don’t want to leap right
into brick workouts. Give yourself
several weeks of easy-steady aerobic training and light strength training to
first build your aerobic fitness base.
Brick workouts don’t have to be hard, but they are taxing
on the system. When you switch from
cycling to running, you are using many of the same muscles but in slightly
different movement patterns (legs) or entirely different movement patterns
(arms). If you do a swim-bike workout,
you are switching from using primarily your arms and upper body to primarily
your legs and lower body. In other
words, just the change in your movements, body position, and muscle groups used
is tough work.
That is why the first time you hop off the bike and run
should not be in a race. It will hurt like heck and you may say to yourself,
“This is the hardest thing I have ever done!”
After 2-3 months of base training, it is time to add in
the brick workouts. A starting brick
workout can be as simple as ride 45 minute to 1hour, then quickly change into
running gear and run/jog 10 minute easy.
“Easy” may not feel easy as the first time most people do a brick they
find the run to be hard regardless of their desired effort level.
From the point that you complete that first brick, my
recommendation is to include at least 1 bike-run brick workout per week. As the weeks progress, you can either
lengthen the duration of your brick or increase the intensity. For a sprint your distance should get into
the 15 mile bike – 2mile run distance.
For Olympic distance at least one brick should be 20 mile bike – 3 mile
run. For those of you training for a
70.3 / Half-Iron distance event, ultimately you would want to get to at least
one brick that is in the 50 mile – 6 mile distance.
At least one time prior to your race you should build your
bike into your goal race pace, and then run several minutes at your goal pace
off the bike, so on race day you are not surprised by the discomfort of this
sort of effort.
You can go farther on these but be aware of the exertion
levels and recovery time longer or harder bricks demand.
Swim bike bricks are also useful but harder to pull off as
they require taking your bike to a pool or body of open water. Ideally at least once before your race you
will swim half or more the distance of the event, then bike some to all of the
distance. Repeated swim-bike bricks will
help your body adapt more quickly to the transition from prone swimming with
minimal leg use to semi-upright cycling with lots of leg exertion.
Slightly more advanced bricks include repetitions of
shorter duration multiple times.
Examples of a sprint triathlon focused multiple brick:
Bike 5 miles – run 1 mile – bike 5 miles – run 1 mile
Swim 400 yards – bike 3 miles – swim 400 yards – bike 3
miles
A more complete brick AKA a practice triathlon would
include some time in all disciplines consecutively. Again, this is a good thing to include at
least once prior to racing in your first triathlon. You do not need to complete the entire
distance – just some of it, and you might include some time at your goal race
effort so race day is no shock to the system.
I did not include full Ironman (140.6) brick suggestions
because in my opinion you shouldn’t be training for an Ironman if you’re just
getting into the sport. To really
prepare well for an Ironman requires several seasons of consistent triathlon
training.
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Marty Gaal, CSCS, is a