Bricks are very time efficient…one less costume change and shower.
Personally, IMO, what you are doing is fine. You are not getting any younger so to think you will run times now like when you were 40 is, …
I see so many get into their 50’s are hurt and cannot run. As you get older, my priority is not to get faster, or be fast, but healthy to get to the starting line.
I do brick onto my treadmill from my bike trainer 3 to 4 days a week at 6:30 pace. Sure makes coming off the bike in a real race feel easy, if that is ever possible.
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I would love to get under 19 in a 5K. I am 57 and pushed my granddaughters in a double stroller at the last 5K turkey trot. I had to stop twice to deal with the front wheel so I only got like 19:50. I might have broken 19 if
the stroller had not given me issues. Will try again this Nov with a single stroller pushing my new grandson who will be like 6 months. I am just happy to break under 20 at my age.
I do believe that running a hard 10 minute brick on the treadmill at the 6:30 pace after each hour of L2 spinning makes coming off the bike easier in a race.
Before this hour L2 spin and treadmill, I swim for an hour first.
After my 1 hour hard bike trainer, I go out and run for 90 minutes with a 1000 feet of hill climbing.
So I am always trying to brick 100% of my workouts. I swim then bike then run brick. Or I bike hard then run 90 minutes with hills. Seems not to have hurt me in races so far.
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First off, I believe that you should always run after your rides. Even if its only 5-10 minutes. Not every brick has to be hard, but a focus on quick cadence (180bmp) is the key. I think the real question I would ask is if you want to have overall faster sprint tri times, or just faster 5k times at end of a tri? If faster overall, I’d find a way to ride at least 3 if not 4 days a week. If you run after those then your still running 3-5 days a week.
Not much advice from me but I am in same boat and I have 2 ideas I am toying with: .#1. how about some reverse bricks? example: run 1 hour & bike 1 hour right after. #2. incorporate tempo into long run. Example: during a 10 mile long run include 3 miles @ half mara pace. Our PR times are virtually identical. I ran most of mine age 33 to 40 & now @ 44 I’m also slowing down but hoping for a few more decent run times & solid triathlon results this season & in 2015. Good luck!
Exactly and if this means you can get in an extra workout then I say go for it.