length of bricks

[Susan Otcenas]

Curious to know what your longest brick was (is) pre-HIM or pre-IM . With my first HIM coming up end of June, I've been giving that some thought lately. I've read that many coaches don't think there's a whole lot of benefit to doing a post-ride run for longer than 1 hour.

What have you experienced?

[colby]

Good question. Starting in about a week or so (3 months in/from), I will start running 5-15 minutes after almost every bike ride, and 15-30 minutes after every long ride. I THINK it goes up a bit, but I also don't think it's more than an hour.

My training plan DOES include shorter races (for Ironman, one each of sprint, Olympic, and Half Ironman) which can be longer, but are more like practice races than bricks.

[Catrin]

Bricks? As a non-Tri woman I am having fun trying to figure out what this is

[Veronica]

Last year I didn't do any bricks before my HIM. I was too sick after crewing RAAM to do much of anything for awhile. I'm not sure how I got through that race.

Two years ago though Wahine suggested doing short brick repeats. I was biking about 7 miles and then running a mile. I would do that 3 or 4 times in a row. I liked that because to me it seems it's hardest to run right off the bike.

My personal experience also says that running after that 56 mile bike ride, really stinks. It's not so bad after a sprint or even Olympic distance ride, but 56 miles is a whole different ball game.

Once I'm done with school, I'll be doing LONG bike rides followed by short runs to try to convince my legs that yes, you can run after 56 miles.

Veronica

[sgf726]

I haven't done anything as long as a HIM yet either, but I did attend a tri focused running seminar last weekend and it was mentioned that the key was the first 5-10 minutes and getting your legs used to the running motion.

They recommended doing the longer bike ride and then the shorter running bricks just to get use to the change.

Sharon

[HillSlugger]

Bricks? As a non-Tri woman I am having fun trying to figure out what this is

A "brick" is a bike ride followed as quickly as possible by a run.

[Catrin]

A "brick" is a bike ride followed as quickly as possible by a run.

Thanks - I was trying to figure it out and while I had some amusing images on this, I knew that I probably wasn't in the ballpark

[tribogota]

after cycling a 10-20 minute run, just to get the muscle memory

[kacie tri-ing]

I just looked back in my log--
Before my first HIM in New Orleans, I did a 1.5 hour ride followed by a 1 hour run.
Before the Augusta 70.3, I did a 2.5 hour ride followed by a 1.5 hour run. Funny how I don't remember that. Sounds pretty bad

The rest of my bricks are pretty short, but my coach write in one long one too.

[Tri Girl]

I've never specifically trained for a half, only IM (but did a half as part of my training). My longest brick was 1:40. I did LOTS of hour bricks in training (after that looonng Saturday ride there was always a brick and it was usually 1 hr). I think you could definitely keep it at an hour or under for the half.

On Sundays I always did a run-bike-run to get in a long run without all the pounding. The longest I did was a 2 hr run, 1:30 bike and a 30 min. run. For a half, I would probably do a 1 hr. run, 1 hr or 45 min. bike, 10-20 min. run.



V: I like the idea of doing lots of mini-bricks. Ride 7 miles, run a mile, etc. Those sound smaller (easier for me to wrap my mind around) and a constant change. Running RIGHT off the bike is always the hardest for me, too. After a mile I'm usually OK, but that first mile is painful. I will have to try that! Thanks!