Brick Runs
What is the minimal length of a brick run in order for it to be effective. For example, if I am a 10 minute miler and I want to increase my speed of my brick run am I better off doing one mile @ 7mph and building by one mile increments or doing .5 miles @ 7.5 mph and building in .5 mile increments? My EN head says that I should go for the speed versus distance and build...I'm just curious what the EN house thinks. I've never done a brick run longer than 45 minutes for any of my IM training.....
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* The answer to your question is in large part dependant on where you are in your overall season. In the Out-Season (OS) run bricks are primarily a vehicle to add low cost run volume to build durability. IIRC from prior OS plans, the longest OS brick run is ~30 min.
* Once you get into HIM and IM plans, the brick duration goes up, but it is still a relatively low number in relation to overall training, something at or under an hour. I think there is a wiki post about not running > an hour or so off a long IM or HIM bike ride b/c of risk of injury and recovery cost of doing so. Even in IM race rehearsals, the guidance is to run 6 mi or an hour, whichever comes first -- and that is close to the longest off-the-bike run you'll have in a whole IM build cycle.
The idea of the EN overall philosphy across a season is to build run durability and speed with more intensity in the OS and add duration in the race specific prep plans. SO, to your Q, I would say the idea in your penultimate sentence is correct, but the time span is across a whole season, not just one segment of it.
The brick runs have pacing instructions like all other workouts. Most are in the 20-30 minute range. You need to calculate a Vdot and use those paces for these runs. You should not be running faster than instructed as that is a sure fire way to injure yourself. You earn the right to run faster by running faster in your Vdot tests. So my advice would be to follow the plan as written. Don't worry, the speed will come soon enough.
i don't do bricks for speed building. i do them for getting a good idea of how long it takes until i can run normal again. this way i don't panic off the bike in a race if i feel off or if i am going slow.
but the safe approach is to just do as the training plan says.
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Excellent advice here. I'd add two other things:
• Running after a long and/or hard bike really depletes one's energy stores. When doing bricks of any length, I think it is critical to stay topped up on fluids during the bike portion, don't get behind on calories, take a Gu or similar source of 100 cal during the transition ("T2"), and TAKE FLUIDS WITH YOU anytime going longer than 20 minutes on a brick. You may not need the fluids or calories during the actual bike/run, but recovering for the next day's workout is a LOT harder if you deplete all of your energy and hydration during the workout.
• Because of the above point, it is probably a high risk, not so much for injury, but for not recovering sufficiently to get the most out of the following days' workouts, if the run portion of the brick is more than an hour, especially if any of that hour is done at faster than Easy or Long Run Pace. No matter what you do, you'll start to get dehydrated after an hour of running following a good bike. Our bodies are not simple vessels into which we can just pour back water like topping off a radiator. The H2O has to make its way into all the organs and tissues and extra-cellular spaces from which it was drained (mostly via sweat and expiration) during the exercise.
Al - Thanks for the reminder on the hydration aspect. You are 100% and at times I've had that deficit issue because I did not hydrate properly during the workout itself.
@Everyone - Thanks for the advice and feedback. Currently I'm pre-OS so I won't stress on beating myself up too much. It's so hard now that I'm back in the game. My head wants to be where it was this time last year...pre-Kona but the body is saying: Seriously - get real!