Mach3Multisport.com

Brick workouts are perhaps the most effective part of any multisport training plan.  After all, they provide that all-important feeling of running immediately after a bike ride that all of us will do on race day.  But beyond that, bricks have many uses, from revealing glimpses into your fitness level to multiplying training volume, to testing your nutrition plan. 

For short-course athletes and beginners, a brick workout is a perfect way to add run volume to your training and give you the feeling of running off the bike.  A brick in this instance can be as simple as a 10 to 15 minute run after one of your weekly cycling workouts.  This brick will add a mile or two to your weekly run volume without the potential increased risk of injury that adding straight run mileage can add.  Those of you who have had the feeling of running off the bike know that this is necessary to train prior to a race.  Since you’re going quickly from a stride Length of twice your bike’s crank length to your longer running stride, it is important to train to run with a short stride of the bike and slowly increase stride length to avoid cramping. 

But there’s more than just feeling stiff and having a short stride coming off the bike.  Cycling uses many of the same muscles that are used in running and therefore those muscles are fatigued by the time your bike ride is through.  As the body fatigues, the supporting muscles of a certain exercise will fatigue first, and the body will recruit a new set of supporting muscles to aid in that sport.  In triathlon, many of the supporting muscles used in running are tired from the bike ride, so you will recruit a new set of running muscles in a race.  The only way to train these muscles is when the primary muscles are tired; hence, in brick runs.

For longer distance athletes, the brick is the best way to test your nutrition plan and fitness level.  If your fitness is weak on a long bike ride, that ride might end in a slower pace than it started.  But if your fitness is weak and you try to run after that long bike ride, you will have a very tough time getting the run even started.  The same holds true for your nutrition plan.  You can fake your way through the end of a bike ride under too few calories, but running while significantly low on calories is much more difficult.  For long and ultra distance triathletes, the long brick is the best and only testing ground for race-day nutrition.  If you feel good during a one-hour run immediately after a five-hour bike ride, trust that your race day nutrition plan is nailed. 

Finally, adding as little as a 30 minute run at the end of a bike ride can multiply your training volume.  If you’re a weak runner, changing one or two workouts per week into a brick workout will add 2 more runs to your weekly volume, allowing you to train as a runner in frequency without adding the time or increased injury risk of a runner’s schedule. 

Adding runs after your bike rides are easy.  Other variations include:  adding a run after a pool workout to work on gaining your sense of equilibrium more quickly after a swim for quicker transitions; run-bike-run bricks to gain the benefits of ultra-long distance running without the injury associated with it; and bike-run-reset-bike-run-reset workouts to aid transitions and add a  little speed work.  Utilizing a few of these techniques will allow you to reap great benefits in your training, and will see you through to your fitness goals!

Brian

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