Bricks for reverse tri

[Deleted User] · October 21, 2011 2:41PM

Hey all,

My first A race of 2012 happens to be a reverse tri (that is, run->bike->swim) in March, and I'm at a loss at how to approach the brick workouts. From the OS brick format, I'm guessing a reverse tri brick would look like a run FTP workout followed by ~15 min of Z2/Z3 biking. However, seeing that this is going to be the only reverse tri that I'll do all year and that I have a few olympic distance races (in standard swim->bike->run order) coming up in the months after that, is it worth doing "reverse" bricks this early in the season, or even at all?

Thanks for any input you guys might have.

Peter Greagg · October 22, 2011 2:48AM

Hi Anson — the main benefit from a brick is the lower admin cost from doing the run straight after the bike — one shower vs two.
That said, it does help to show you that your legs do recover quite early into the run after the bike.
So from my perspective, I wouldn't bother doing a reverse brick, but others may have more informed and better views?

Cheers
Peter

cgres123 · October 22, 2011 5:04AM

I would do 2 or 3 if you still have time to do them b4 your race 15/20 min just to know what it feels like. Once you got that feeling your not going to forget it any time soon then just move on with your training. Our training plans will be changing I believe here directly, I read some where, and bricks may be deleted for the most part.

D

GMAN 19030 · October 22, 2011 8:15AM

I'm firmly in the Rich Strauss camp when it comes to bricks. I think they're a waste of time.

[Deleted User] · October 22, 2011 2:50PM

Thanks for all the wisdom everyone. Hmm, I was not aware that bricks were looked upon as not being worthwhile. I can see how adding 15min of easy-ish running/biking to the tail end of a workout can have a low ROI in terms of fitness, but I guess bricks are all about getting comfortable with the transition anyway. Oh well, I'm glad I don't have to change up my plan too much just for this.

GMAN 19030 · October 22, 2011 5:01PM

@ Lynne - I think R&P made mention to bricks being deleted in the 2012 plans. It is in the thread about the new plans.

Peter Greagg · October 22, 2011 9:52PM

I think the idea is that running on tired legs probably has an adverse impact on running form.

[Deleted User] · October 23, 2011 1:42PM

@ Lynne: Here's a blog post about the new training plan tweaks.

http://www.endurancenation.us/blog/team-en/training-plan-and-membership-improvements-for-2012/

Coach Rich · October 24, 2011 11:03AM

The OS plans you see in the training plan drop down selector dealio are not yet the 2012 OS plans. We are working to bring those inside for the team.

Brick runs are brick runs for time efficiency purposes only. There are no magical run-off-the-bike fitness adaptations. See that blog post above for more info and this thread reminds me that we wanted to write a dedicated blog post(s) about this topic.

Reverse brick: you may want to run a very hard 1.5 miles and then jump on the bike and ride hard for 10', just to see what it feels like. After that...no need to do it again.

I believe you're talking about the Pasadena Triathlon, which is a 5k run, 20k bike (?) and 150m swim (I think). The swim is a pure formality.

Bricks for reverse tri

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