It drives me crazy when I see triathletes complete a good training ride, do a short jog, and then refer to that as their “brick”. If you’re like most athletes and have limited time to train, you’re squandering a great opportunity to improve your next performance.
Think back to your last race. Your run pace probably varied tremendously according to how long it took you to ease into your stride, the competition around you, the course topography, weather conditions and even fuel management.
How do you prepare for these extreme variations of pace and effort? By executing a precisely structured brick workout once a week.
I employ many variations of bike-run workouts, but let’s start with the traditional bike-run “brick”. Here’s how my athletes do it:
- Use Your Tri Bike. First, always ride your tri bike during your brick workouts. While the road bike is an important tool – even during the season – you’ll gain the most benefits from your brick session by replicating race conditions… so use your TT bike!For those training for an Ironman 70.3, I like to see my athletes lay the workout foundation with a vigorous ride of between 35 and 65 miles (depending on fitness).
- Workout Length. Immediately follow your ride with a run of between 6 and 14 miles (again, tailored to the individual). The most important factor on the run is its intensity, which we manage through a technique I call “swing pacing”.
- Why Swing Pacing? You’ll see the greatest benefit by varying your pace — both slower and faster than your projected race pace — throughout the brick run. This is called swing pacing.Why do I like swing pacing so much?I find that swing sets are invaluable for teaching athletes proper pacing in simulated racing conditions. It also helps your body get accustomed to difficult sub-threshold surges that you often experience in competition. You’ll be recruiting those fast twitch 2a muscle fibers that have a high contractile force and can burn glycogen at a higher rate. Additionally, there is a great training adaptation with swing training (I’ll be covering how swing pacing improves your metabolic and energy system efficiencies in future installments).
- Constructing Your Swing Set Workout. Let’s say your estimated race pace is 8:00/mile. At this target pace we’ll construct your brick run around a swing pace set using a 50 second variation (or “swing”). The slower swing segments are run at approximately 30 seconds slower than race pace; and the faster segments are run at approximately 20 seconds faster than race pace. These segments are put together in a set like this:¾ mile at 8:30/mi — slower than race pace
¼ mile at 7:40/mi — faster than race pace
½ mile at 8:00/mi — at race paceRepeat this set 2 to 4 times. - As Your Fitness Improves. As your fitness improves, the faster swing segments can be lengthened and the slower segments slightly sped up. We can also increase the number of sets to the workout. Additionally we can vary the entire workout to include more complex combinations of running and cycling segments (including one of my favorites: the run-bike-run). Finally, don’t forget about the bike; slowly increasing the intensity of your cycling segment in the weeks leading up to your race will allow you to reap even more benefits from your swing-paced run!
Races are usually won – and age group podiums attained – by triathletes who finish with confident and assertive runs. Integrate swing pacing into your brick workouts, and watch your performances improve!
Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Email me at info@davescottinc.com or post a Tweet to @DaveScott6x with your comments and questions. I’ll do my best to get back to you.
