Tough question and really come down to training philosophy. Personally, I MIGHT have a few of my athletes do 1 workout like that...but not likely. When you get into the tail end of workouts like that you just start to lose the ability to adapt. Plus the recovery from that is most definitely going to affect the next week of workouts, so there just isn't a huge upside to that in my opinion. In my last build, I only did one brick run of over 7 miles outside of the 70.3s I raced leading to Texas. The best way to run strong off the bike is to 1) fuel well on the bike and 2) be a strong runner. IMO, it is tough to build run strength when you are starting a run tired. You definitely need to do a few bricks, maybe on longer one...but I think time could be better spent than during a long run off your long bike every week. To me, a brick does a good job of showing you how well you have your bike nutrition dialed in. That is their number one purpose in my mind. If you can't run 30 minutes with just water off a longer bike, you didn't fuel well enough on the bike. But going beyond 30 minutes just isn't that necessary many times in a build.
Again, you'll find a lot of coaches who will differ. Your situation might be slightly different due to time constraints, but if you have the ability to do a long bike/short run on saturday and a longer run on sunday, than time would be better spent that way than doing longer bricks. You would likely be able to be more effective with your shorter week day workouts as well.
Best of luck.
Zic wrote:
Matt, congrats on a amazing race and setting the IM record! Looking forward to seeing you defend it again next yr. Good luck to you in Kona, we'll be cheering you on from The Woodlands.
Question for you, I'm a 44 yr old AG with a wife and two kids. So training needs to be done in the AM around 4-5 times a week. I'm trying to go sub5 in my next HIM race and I'm wondering how much focus you put on bricks and simulating an actual race? I've been training with bike/run intervals building up to a 50 mile bike then a 11.6 mile run. What's been your take on bricks? Do you have any tips you can provide to run strong off the bike?
Thanks!