Wednesday 21 March 2018

Building Bricks

Brick session on the program for the squad tomorrow, always a solid but very effective morning out for everyone. 

As we get to the pointy end of the triathlon season here in Western Australia, the brick sessions are becoming a more regular fixture on the Front Runner squad training calendar, starting to get in the more race specific work in preparation for some big races including Busso 70.3 in about 6 weeks time. 

Usually we have at least one brick session a week, typically in the form of a run off the bike on Saturday. However, this week we have two bricks on the schedule for most of the athletes in the group as we are getting close to the Olympic Distance State Championships, with the brick tomorrow focused specifically on the Standard Distance race. With the shorter race in mind the brick tomorrow is going to a bit shorter and a bit more intense than the 70.3 focused ones we have been doing to give people a bit more race practice.

Tomorrow's brick will have a fairly standard brick layout, with several short runs and bike legs put together one after the other. Even though these individual legs are relatively short (16km bike and 2km run) added together they make for a pretty significant session. The beauty of the shorter legs  in this case is that people naturally end up pushing the intensity. Most people understand that the session is actually quite long, but it never seems to matter, most bricks I have seen end up with people attacking each leg like it is a sprint and then absolutely burying themselves. Sometimes that isn't what we are after, particularly if the brick is being done in preparation for a long distance event. However, when the brick is being done to prepare for a short event, this exaggerated intensity can be just what we want, helping people do some needed speed work, push their limits and get some true race intensity simulation.

The other great thing about a brick of course is that it can be an awesome skills session too, giving people the chance to really hone in on their transition skills. The session gives everyone the opportunity to practice their mounts and dismounts over and over until they are flowing smoothly well before race day. Transition practice is often overlooked by a lot of adult triathletes, with many just deciding 'it will be right on the day' and leaving it at that. However, fast transitions are a great way of gaining free time for no extra effort. The shorter the race becomes the more important this free time is as races can be decided by seconds. Given that tomorrow is preparation for an Olympic Distance race, practice of the transition skills will be extra important. 

All up the brick session is a great workout that brings benefits on numerous levels. Obviously the session has to be used wisely and balanced against all the other elements required in a good program such as volume, threshold, recovery etc, but the brick should have a regular place in any complete triathlon training plan. 

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