Rethinking the Value of the Brick for Long Course Triathlon
Team,
We've shared our brick article with BeginnerTriathlete here and I wrote some notes in response to a forum post over there. Just bringing it in here so you can all gets yer learnin' on!
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Thanks for the discussion! A few notes:
- As Johnny said (good to see you again JK!), running endurance is the sum of all of your running workouts: frequency + volume + intensity applied consistently week after week. In my experience, no one workout provides the secret special sauce to build the endurance required for success at Ironman.
- I believe the session that the OP was referring to could be called a "big day," and we do prescribe these for our athletes. That is, a 1hr swim, 4hr bike, and 1hr run, all done back to back. In our experience, opportunities to improve pacing, nutrition, bike setup/fit, weaknesses in core/lower back strength will express themselves on a day this long. Our athletes also do 2 x 112/6 race rehearsal bricks in route to their race.
- I think it's important to make the distinction between bricks for short course training and racing and bricks for long course triathlon. For short course racing, yes, there is value in teaching your head and your body how to come off a very hard bike and start running very hard, right away. However, I'm referring here to the focus of many IM athletes, the brick that happens off the long bike. So, call it a 45-60' brick off a 4-6hr bike, typical of many IM athletes. In my experience, this brick will be:
- Run at a slower pace than the same run done before the bike or later in the day. Again, my personal preference as a coach is to have my athletes rack up more miles at a faster pace vs slower pace.
- Run is done in the heat of the day, likely slightly dehydrated, low on glycogen, etc. For this reason, and several others, the recovery cost of this long bike + brick run is greater than long bike + run done before the bike (at a faster pace) or in the PM after you've recovered a bit, it's cooled down, etc.
- Bricks for time efficiency: absolutely, we get that and are in full agreement. However, the conversation we have with our athletes is "In our experience, there is no special run-off-the-bike run fitness. My job is to make a faster, more durable, excellent endurance runner AND ensure you are able to apply that run fitness to your race by teaching you how to race. So you're going to see a bike and a run on Saturday. My first preference is that you do the run first, eat, drink, then do the bike. My second is that you do the bike, recover the rest of day, and knock out the run in the evening before dinner. These are my recommendations based on our experience and our objectives for you outlined for you above. But if life says you do this run as a brick right off the bike...that's cool, no worries, I get it. What you're doing isn't bad. If that's the case, I want you to make _these_ modifications to that schedule run."
Finally, I want to step back and make a broader comment about all of us as triathletes. If you look at the mass of discussion and material out there centered on "how to train" stuff, you'll see that it significantly outweighs the "how to race" stuff. As a result, we are culturally conditioned to seek a training solution to perceived problems: "I had a poor swim, bike, or run, ergo, the solution is obviously to SBR differently in some way -- longer, harder, faster, this or that special workout, etc."
So as a doode who's put more than a few athletes across IM finishlines and has been to 4-6x IM's every year since 2002 -- standing on the bike course, at mile 1 or 18 of the run course -- these are my observations:
- IM athletes are some pretty damn fit people! Whether you train the way I would recommend or do your own thing, no worries...I'm very sure that you and many, many others have certainly punched the clock and are crazy, crazy fit. You're doing your long bikes, long runs, long bricks if that's your bag, it's all good.
- Yet, the majority of the IM field continues to underperform on the run because they haven't applied the focus they applied to "how to train" to "how to race."
- As a result, these same very fit people are riding too hard the first 40 miles of the bike, riding the hills too hard, coming off the gas on the downhills, and, most importantly, are running the first 6-7 miles of the run too fast.
In my experience, THESE race execution mistakes are much more the cause of running under-performance than some training this that or the other thing that didn't happen.
Good stuff, thanks again for the discussion!
Comments
Seriously, I couldn't agree more. Well put. There's just plain zero physiological 'secret training adaptation' occurring in a 60' brick run at Z1-2 after a 5 hour bike. Much better off running on fresh legs, running faster, and getting stronger.
There are some very specific adaptations to learning how to get your good run form going as soon as possible off the bike. No doubt about that. But that should be learned early, and then only refreshed occasionally.
Coach Al's article is not in any way inconsistent with the recommendations provided by RnP, even though he wants you to believe that it is. Brick running is important, if practiced with good form, to 'groove' the neuromuscular patterns that tell you how to run off the bike. So, brick running with perfect form is important.
Now, ask yourself, how many times have you done a 1hr brick after a 4-5hr ride with perfect form? The answer for most of us is never. Coach Al is one of the first to tell you that running with bad form is a waste of time. In fact, he tells many athletes to take significant time off in 'run jail' in order to fix their running mechanics rather than to continue to ingrain old bad habits.
So, if you're not taking time in 'run jail', and your form is not perfect, I'd argue that his recommendations don't apply to the ironman athlete during the 12 week build to race day. I do believe that disciplined bricking with a focus on form can have terrific returns outside of that window. 12 week IM build is just such a different beast, getting as many high quality training opportunities must be the first priority.