Brick workouts for triathlon: how long, how often and sample sessions

What is a brick workout?

A brick is two sports back to back with no real break between them, almost always a ride followed by a run. The name is a nickname for the way your legs feel in the first minutes of the run. A swim followed by a ride is also called a brick, but the bike-run version is the one that most plans use.

A brick is not a harder workout by definition. It is a rehearsal of one moment in the race, the change from cycling to running, and most of the work is in learning to handle it calmly. It sits next to your ordinary rides and runs and replaces neither.

Why does running after cycling feel so hard?

Running right after a ride costs more energy and feels heavier. A review of the research puts the extra energy cost of running at 1.6 to 11.6 percent, depending on ability. In one small study, a 3000 m run took about 7 to 9 percent longer after 20 minutes of hard cycling than on its own (our arithmetic from the published times).

These studies show the cost of running off the bike. They do not show how much a brick session lowers it, and the samples are small. The advice below is our recommendation, based on common coaching practice and published beginner plans.

How long should a brick workout be?

For sprint and olympic, a brick is a 45 to 120 minute ride followed by a 10 to 25 minute run. The run is short on purpose, because the aim is to feel the change, not to run a hard session. These lengths are our recommendation. A published 12-week beginner plan uses 15 to 30 minutes of running after rides of 12 to 18 miles, and later 3 to 4 miles.

The run of a brick rarely needs to be longer than 45 minutes. Long runs belong in their own session, when your legs are fresh.

How often should I do brick workouts?

Once a week is enough for most athletes, starting about a third of the way into a plan. A published 12-week beginner plan adds its first brick in week 4 and then repeats it in most later weeks. In our 12-week plan the first brick comes in week 5. Keep bricks short in deload and taper weeks.

• First sprint or olympic (12 weeks): one brick a week from week 5, 10 to 20 minutes of running, shorter in deload and taper weeks. The week-by-week table is in the first triathlon plan.
• Experienced sprint or olympic athletes: one brick a week in build and peak weeks, none in an easy week.
• Half distance: one long brick in most build and peak weeks, plus a 10 minute run after other rides if your legs and schedule allow it. The phases are in the half-distance triathlon plan.
• Do not stack a brick on the day after a hard run or a race simulation, and when you return from illness or injury restart with the short version.

What are sample brick workouts for sprint, olympic and half distance?

Here are six sample bricks. A sprint is a 750 m swim, 20 km ride and 5 km run, and the olympic distance is 1.5 km, 40 km and 10 km (World Triathlon). A half distance is a 1.9 km swim, 90 km ride and 21.1 km run. All sessions are our recommendation.

How do I run well off the bike?

Spin your legs out at the end of the ride, change quickly and run the first few minutes easier than feels natural. The review lists possible causes for the heavy feeling, among them exercise intensity, fatigue of the breathing muscles, dehydration and depleted glycogen. You can manage the last two.

1. In the last 2 to 3 minutes of the ride, shift to an easier gear and a higher cadence. In the cadence study the first 500 m of the run were quicker after 80 or 100 rpm than after 60 rpm, though total time did not differ.
2. Practise the change: shoes ready, helmet rule checked, a smooth switch. Time two or three transitions in the last weeks.
3. Run the first 3 to 5 minutes by feel, with short, quick steps. Stand tall, because the review notes that the trunk leans further forward after cycling.
4. Drink and eat on the bike, not when the run begins. On long bricks it is the cheapest way to avoid a flat run.
5. Judge the run by effort, not pace. The first kilometre often looks slow on your watch, and that is normal. Use easy running and zone 2 as your reference for easy.

How do brick workouts help in a fitness race?

A fitness race asks for a similar skill many times: running 1 km on legs that a station has just tired, eight times. A brick is the triathlon version, once. The idea carries over, but this is our reasoning and not a study of fitness racers.

• Both train running on tired legs, started easy and held by feel. See compromised running for the fitness race version.
• If you race both, bricks and compromised runs can share a week, but not a day. Fitness race and triathlon in one season explains how to order them.
• The fitness race plan has its own run sessions. The 12-week fitness race plan shows where they sit.