The Importance of the Brick Session
The words ‘Brick Session’ to the regular person would mean building construction, but to a triathlete it means replicating race pain on two out of the three disciplines one after the other. Every triathlete has a love hate relationship with this part of their training because it is one of the toughest sessions in trying to prove your mental and physical toughness as race day approaches.
If you have done a triathlon before you will have come across the dreaded ‘jelly legs’ feeling and although you can never fully get rid of this feeling, you can find ways in your training to help yourself get more used to it – this is where the brick session has made its name. There are three reasons that the brick session is beneficial to triathletes.
1) Tuning the body to race day
The bike to run brick workout helps you to gather the feeling of what it is going to be like going onto the run straight after the cycle section. It’s important not to forget that there is a significant difference in how you feel in a solo running race, compared to how you will feel in a triathlon race trying to run after the bike. Brick sessions allow you to get used to the feeling of heavy and tired legs and help you learn how to manage this better.
2) Pre-race confidence booster
Confidence is key! By doing a few of these sessions pre-race you will notice your confidence will increase. You will be prepared exactly for what is to come on race day. You won’t be coming towards the end of the cycle leg dreading how you are going to feel as you will have practised it and will be prepared for that ‘jelly legs’ moment and will know you can overcome it.
3) High intensity feel and change
The brick session allows you to train for that high intensity feel so stick with it and push on through. You won’t be doing these types of sessions too often so it’s important to get the best out of yourself when you do attempt them. It also gives you a chance to do something different with your training and challenge yourself in another way to just the regular monotonous track session or turbo session, it will freshen you up mentally.
Down below are some examples of brick sessions you could do before race day. These are just guides and it is best to liaise with your coach about what specific brick sessions you should be doing that they should put together for you as an individual.
Sprint/Olympic Distance
Warm up eg. 20 min light cycle
3X
- Bike – 10 minutes at race pace
- Into
- Run – 3 minutes at race pace
- 5 minutes recovery
Cool down eg. 15 minute light cycle
Ironman 70.3/Ironman
Light Run – 45 minutes
Bike – 2.5 Hour Steady ride
Run – 45 minutes
- 15 minutes tempo 5 mins recovery
- 10 minutes tempo – 5 minutes recovery
- 5 minutes tempo – 5 minutes recovery
Overall, the brick session is key to your training BUT it is very important that you do not overdo them. You may do 2-3 over a 6 week block of training leading into your race. You should have a coach who should know you as an athlete and be able to manage these workouts for you and what you personally can handle before race day!
