So I’m going to do a Brick Workout this Wednesday morning (bike and run) and really can’t decide on what exactly to do. What are some of your suggestions or favorite Brick Workouts to do?
In my area I have:
a) Roads with very few cars so I can fly around everywhere
b) A track with a paved entry so I could ride my bike down onto the track to do my bike-run transition.
c) Everything else is pretty much the usual…
What distance are you training for, how many weeks out from your BIG race and what phase of your season are you in?
Sprint and Oly. Big race is Wilksbarre Tri in just a few days short of a month. Wilksbarre is a Oly.
Phase? I’m pretty much in the try to get as fast as possible so I can kick butt at the race phase.
What is your currrent longest run? What kind of time do you run off the bike at an Oly?
K, here comes the stats…
Oly bike time on rolling hills / hilly course is about 1:06 or 1:07ish.
40k time off of the bike is usually around 39:00 for the same type of course.
Longest run I have ever done is 12 or 13 miles on trails which I did a few weeks back.
Other stats:
40K TT - last year and the only time I ever did a TT I went 1:04 on rolling hills
1600 Run - 4:43
5k Run - 16:46
10k Run - Never did one but I except around a 36.
Man, it seems like this Brick is going to turn me into Macca. 
Sounds like you have some good base to work with - my suggestion and there are MANY ways to skin this cat but here are some ideas:
LT bike workout/end at track and run 12x400, every other one hard. So for you: 400 @1:25, 400@1:35
Warm up on bike, then 40 minute steady tempo, then start run and do 20 minute steady tempo. Follow that with 20 minute steady tempo bike and 10 minute steady tempo run.
Bike LT workout with 8x5 minutes near LT, then run to track and run 12x400 on 30 seconds rest. Pace should be highest sustainable pace.
A 'standard brick would be what I call my ‘hour of power’ - within a 40 minute bike ride do 12x30 seconds standing sprints - just about all out, increasing the gearing every 3rd rep. Then come off the bike and run a 5k all out just like in a race.
I hope this helps. Of course you can make variations of any of these. Let us know how the race goes!
My bread and butter brick workout is not to complicated, but sure seems to do the trick… I load my bike and indoor trainer and take them to the local track. After a 2-5 mile easy warm-up jog, I’ll set up the bike on the trainer just off the track .
Start: 10 minutes on bike just below LT
Transition into running shoes, and run a mile above LT pace
Transition back to bike, another 10 minutes just below or at LT
Transition back to run, another mile above LT…
Repeat cycle 5 times for a total of 50 minutes on the bike and 5 x 1 mile repeats above LT pace.
For a Duathlon, sometimes I reverse the focus to training my legs to HAMMER on the bike following a hard run effort… So, I’ll run steady for at least 5000 meters , then transition to the bike and ride above LT for at least 20 minutes, sometimes more.
this brick wouldn’t really apply to you BigD, but for all you Ironman people this is a great brick that I just did today.
Open water swim, ~3000 meters, transition to a 100 mile ride. Real good on figuring out the timing of when to start your on the bike nutrition.
Hmmm… 1 and 4 look nice but I did 20x400’s on the track last week and that was enough 400’s to last me for a good month.
How many seconds rest between the after each 12x30sec sprint?
Also, I understand you live out in Co. Will you at all be in Colorado Springs between the 20th and the 27th?
Remember, 400s are great for pacing and that is a limiter to most triathletes. 12 x 400s won’t kill you. Just cycle that workout into your routine, as it’s a great ‘TEST’ workout for later on or even next year.
Do the 30 second sprints on 1:00 rest.
I won’t be in the Springs, I live about 75 miles North, in Boulder.
On the 12x400s, (#1) there is no rest, it’s continuous. Hard 400, Easy 400. It’s a tough workout not to fall off too much in the latter stages.
I am a big fan of:
4 x 5 mile bike 1 mile run
You get lots of brick practice in one session this way.
Yup, pretty much the old stand-by.
Not really - just ‘cruise’ the easy one. If you run 6:00 pace off the bike, you should aim for slightly faster then that pace on the hard 400, and then on the easy one back it way off (about 10 seconds slower per 400) - it’s a great workout, try it sometime.
This thread is very interesting because all of the information I’ve read suggest that the run portion of your brick workout should be 40 minutes tops at a moderate to slow pace. I come on here and people are suggesting 10 x 400 which I don’t even do on my speed work days. What am I to believe???
The original question was ‘what are your favorite brick workouts’? Looking at the athlete’s background I can see he can do some more veteran type brick workouts - he has a 10k in the 36:00range so he can handle a more advanced brick…make sense? and 10x400 - that is only about 15 minutes of running for the guy asking the question. I didn’t suggest anything over 40 minutes - …for most athletes a slower brick will work just fine. What distance are you training for/what is your background etc? - 12x400 is a pretty typical workout for a MOP AGer or faster.
true and true… My background is first year duathlete, ran a marathon in April, 4:10, in Nashville which was very, very hilly. Race distances I’m training for are 5k, 40k, 5k. I have a race Aug 8th. My running pace goals are between 6:00-6:30 mile pace.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated…
I can a few assumptions from the marathon time, but what are your current 5k, 10k times?
I can a few assumptions from the marathon time, but what are your current 5k, 10k times?
5k 19:35 and 10K 42:00 within the last year…
Well… from my own personal experiences, nothing sharpens my fitness better than a training block that includes regular 10-12 x 400 meters with 45-60 seconds rest between. My pace is slightly faster than my current 5K race pace. The next best is 12 x 200 with a “moderately difficult” 200 meter reccovery jog between each interval.
If I were training for the 1/2 or Full IM distances, I’d simply double the total intervals, double the rest intervals, and drop the pace to my current 10K race pace.
Put something similar to this into a “harder tempo” traiing phase and significant improvments will usually follow during the consolidation or fine-tuning phases of your training/racing season.
Adding the brick portion has mostly been covered already in the previous posts.