Introduction to Bricks

Leesseebee

Hi all!
I did my first brick workout of the season (bike, run) as encouraged by other people here and I was wondering about brick workouts in general so I found this and thought it might be helpful: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/Enrico Contolini/Introduction_to_bricks.htm
Also, if it is hailing outside and in March, don't wear shorts and a sweater-after a substantial heatwave, I, along with other early morning bikers and runners were verging on full on tears...brutal.
Happy Training!
Alyssa

symegeer

Thanks for this, very timely! I'm planning my first brick session for next weekend

Leesseebee

oooh, good luck and let me know how it goes!

trijoe

Well, it sounds to me like you survived quite nicely, and if it's true that wasn't doesn't kill you makes you stronger... My guess is you're one strong woman by now.

Congratulations on making through a hail storm. You definitely earned street cred points for that. And you got in a brick workout to boot! Sounds like a two-fer! You are just racking up the street cred. Beside being pelted by ice, how did you feel after your brick? How was your transition? They're such good practice.

Congratulations on your brick, and gutting out the hail. You rock!

rob_v

Call it crazy but I love bike/run bricks. The only thing I would add would be to set up a mock transition area.
Use some chalk and make a mount/ dismount line, practice running w/ your bike.

Start off in whatever you would be in getting out of the pool. Get yourself wet and run to your bike, dress, and do your bike part of the brick, Get off your bike, and get your running gear on as fast as possible, and go do your run. Then back to the bike again, change, run the mount like, mount the bike and go. It will help you TONs. My first race my bike to run transition was over 2 1/2 mins. My last race it as :43 seconds. My neighbors think is funny as hell to watch me in my driveway running up and down it w/ my bike jumping on and off. But I dont mind the audience.

Leesseebee

Thanks for the support and the advice guys!
I did all portions slowly, so it did not feel very warrior-like, but it was a very fine start that powered me through the rest of my day!
I like the idea of practicing transitions-I have done one full tri before so I have a feel for them, but getting better is always a plus-I don't really stress myself out about transition times, I just do them for fun, to see what my body can do, and if it isn't to get undressed quickly, thats cool
That said, I will practice!

scott091501

I'm not a huge fan of bricks. My experience is that your legs are going to feel like lead coming off the bike either way. You just have to bear down and go knowing that they'll work themselves out in a few minutes. Also take a peek at your watch, I can almost promise you're going faster than you feel like you are. This applies to sprints and olys.

If you feel like crap coming off the bike in a long course race you probably overcooked the bike.

aggiesrar05

I did my first brick EVER last Friday! Have to say it was quite interesting. Had the afternoon off and it was a gorgeous day here in SE Texas (those will be few and far between soon enough), so I figured it was time to bite the bullet and go for it!

Wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My legs did feel like lead coming off the bike but that wore off pretty quickly. I may have taken slightly longer than a "transition" because I ran inside to put on my shoes and grab my dog to go on the run, but worth a little extra time to run some energy out of psycho-lab! Overall thoughts - Good workout! Looking forward to doing it again.

On a side note... I am now officially signed up for my FIRST EVER sprint tri in June :-)

scott091501

I did my first brick EVER last Friday! Have to say it was quite interesting. Had the afternoon off and it was a gorgeous day here in SE Texas (those will be few and far between soon enough), so I figured it was time to bite the bullet and go for it!

Wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My legs did feel like lead coming off the bike but that wore off pretty quickly. I may have taken slightly longer than a "transition" because I ran inside to put on my shoes and grab my dog to go on the run, but worth a little extra time to run some energy out of psycho-lab! Overall thoughts - Good workout! Looking forward to doing it again.

On a side note... I am now officially signed up for my FIRST EVER sprint tri in June :-)

SE Texas huh? Which race?

aggiesrar05

Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Sprint Tri. Just a little baby one until I know what I'm actually getting into.

trijoe

This is very exciting! Good for you! Race well, have fun, enjoy your day.

scott091501

Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Sprint Tri. Just a little baby one until I know what I'm actually getting into.

Well you can always come down and hang out at Lonestar this weekend in Galveston. Should be a mediafest since Lance is there. Or come see what a good local race looks like in Kemah the end of April.

Drudoo

Ill be there racing. I just rigged rockets to my bike so I can now take it to Lance. Not sure if I can keep at him on the run though!

scott091501

Ill be there racing. I just rigged rockets to my bike so I can now take it to Lance. Not sure if I can keep at him on the run though!

Good luck. I think I know like 50 people racing. LOL. Should be a long day of cheering and drinking for me. I REALLY wanted in on this, but after picking up a new ride it just wasn't in the budget. Now to talk to the wife about IMTX 2013.

Leesseebee

Ohhhh, I want rockets on my bike (unless that is some code for a legal technical thing...and not just cartoon rockets, which they are in my head).
As for to do or not to do bricks, I like training my mind and body and by doing them you get both in-but if you don't want to do them, by all means, don't
Your legs will feel like noodles either way, but this can help with your transitions and your endurance (I think) and it makes you totally hardcore

symegeer

I think I'm going to work my way up to a run-bike-run brick so I get used to tired legs on my bike too. Weather permitting, I'll try my first brick on Sunday

ironholgs

Good luck Drudoo for the race this weekend.

I like doing brick sessions - probably more psychological, as it lets me know that I can run off the bike. Two weeks back I did a 7 hour brick ( 5 hr bike and a 2 hr run ) as part of my IM training, the thought of it wasn't good but to be honest it flew by ( still took 7 hours but you know what I mean ).

I also think it's important to practice your transitions, as you can save a whole bunch of time there.