A Brick?

[minn]

I'm new to the triathlon scene, can someone help me out?? I've read that a brick should be an hour of biking and 15 min of running, or 1 mile of running for every 10 miles of biking. Is this a "standard" amount? Are there other kinds of brick workouts? How often should I be doing a brick?

[Tri Girl]

That's about right for me in my training. You can do any length brick that you want. It kinda depends on the kind of race you're training for. For sprints your bricks can be short, for longer races, they need to be longer.
For me, I try to do a brick at least once a week during the season, and for about 2 months prior to any long distance race, I do 2 bricks a week (one long and one short). On long run days (usually anything over an hour run), I usually like to do a reverse brick. I spin really easy on the trainer for about 15-30 min (depending on the length of the run). I've noticed that it really helps to flush the lactic acid from my legs and they feel a lot better the next day, but so does sitting in ice cold water for 5 min. The bike just doesn't freeze my skin off. Just my thoughts, and I'm sure others will have much better info than me.

[mommelisa]

in my training, i never do a brick longer than 30 minutes. my coach believes that the purpose of a brick is to get your legs used to the motion of running after being on the bike only - so i usually do two a week on my build weeks and none during my recovery weeks.

everyone is different though! some coaches believe in 3 hr bikes followed by 10 mile runs. i've only done that once - during my first training cycle for imfl. in preparation for imcda, the longest i did was 30 minutes and i felt completely prepared.

[HillSlugger]

For my bricks I usually plan a "Brick Specific" workout. In other words I'll plan a bike route that's nearly the same distance as what I'll be racing, set up a transition area like at a race, and do a run similar in length to race distance, too.

I think it's useful to do a full length run (5k) as part of the brick so you can experience all the phases of how your legs will feel and get a good idea of how much you'll be able to push it or how much you'll need to hold back.