Triathlon Training: Do We Really Need Brick Workouts? | Tri To Disagree!

Who's side are you on? 🥊

I think the reason we don’t do swim-bike transitions as much is because they’re logistically difficult. It means keeping your bike in a safe place while you swim and racing round in a car park at best. If you’re in a pool, it’s a hard sell to let them run through the leisure centre in just your swim gear, sopping wet!

This series is slowly becoming my favourite GTN video format, keep them coming!

6:07 I don’t buy James’s argument here because the reason you blow up isn’t “I feel great so I’ll smash it.” The reason I blow up is I have no feel of the pace so I run really hard at the start, feeling slow. Having brick sessions helps you hold back because that “sluggish” feeling is actually faster than it feels!

Great debate! The interview with Björn Geeseman on the How They Train podcast is super interesting for this discussion. He explains that he thinks brick sessions are essential for age groupers, so that they know how they feel what the start of the run feels like and for confidence. He also pays attention to the goal of the session (from 1:23 onwards). He also talks about making sure you have enough fuel to do your brick session. However, he thinks there is usually no physiological benefit necessarily.

My team does one pre-race workout that we call Brick-Ass: 3 brick sessions back-to-back-to-back. Usually, the entire team does it together, starting in a parking lot and transitioning every half hour on the half-hour. It really teaches pacing. If you go out too hard in the first run, the final run is a real sufferfest. The goal is to be nearly-even paced for all 3 bikes and all 3 runs or even negative split.

Of course James wins: he's wearing glasses.

My opinion on the subject is that Brick sessions are important but they don't need to be very long i.e. 10-15mins max. Just enough time to go from "brick" legs to finding your running legs. Agree that its more important in short course.

Great discussion. We need more of this type of content.

On a separate note-I use them for simulating the feeling of how much effort is required to do two hard efforts/or race pace efforts back to back you don’t have to run badly to do that. Yeah-what you said mark-and the time efficiency thing-not really for the brick weird leg feeling.

I love this new series. It highlights that things rarely are black and white and even experienced athletes have personal preferences.

I look at a brick session slightly differently and in James court here. Use it for an ironman and 70.3 to feel the intensity of a lengthy bike followed up with a lengthy run to test nutrition so I don't fall short on a race day, less in the sense of finding my running legs. It has helped tremendously. The brick sessions as we know them are a pretty much waste of time.

"You get better at what you do." I'm in the very early stages of my triathlon career and am only doing sprint distances at the moment but my approach to brick sessions is to, once a month, do a full swim, bike, run session at a relaxed pace paying attention to being comfortable and having good form.

This is every point I've had with every coach and coaching platform I've signed up for in one discussion. Mind Bending ... Suggested Title: TriMind Debate

Interesting discussion. I use longer bike-run brick sessions as part of my normal training, not just for race prep or simulation. Currently 75 min bike then 45 min run, all aiming for zone 2. They allow me to get in longer sessions, and run on slightly tired legs without having the pounding on the joints that a long run only would. Plus, I get longer recovery between sessions than I would if I did, say, separate bike in the morning and run in the evening. I'm definitely pro-brick.

I love this video series. It is wonderful to hear two different opinions and well-substantiated arguments each time. These videos always put a smile on my face. It reminds me kind of a triathlon Statler and Waldorf, I'll leave it up to you who is who 😊

Swim to bike for me is more about just standing up. I am amazed at the way the pro's hit the beach/shore jump straight up and start running to transition. I generally have a trouble recognising which way is up :) The bike to run is definitely different though. Your legs do feel strange when you start the run after a long bike, but once you have experienced it a couple of times. Certainly towards the end of the Barcelona Bike I was aching so much that I wondered how I would be able to run at all, but after 5 mins I almost forgot that I had been on the bike for 7 hours. I"m not sure that a brick session helps really. I'm talking from an ironman perspective.

Learning how to run "tired" in triathlon = brick session.

What i did to work towards my triathlons was of course the individual event training. Then about once per week I would go to the gym and ride a stationary bike(i dont have my own bike, I borrow for the races) then go run outside right away, then get straight into the pool at the gym. Now I've only ever done sprint triathlons, so the way I would practice the above mentioned would be about 6.2 miles biking, run a 5k, and swim 500-750 meters. And sometimes I would do a bike then swim set. That way i could incorporate the swim in my brick. By the way, I love this "coach vs. coach" setting. Just to hear different perspectives! Keep it up!

I do a 'lazy brick' after my weekly swim training - 1h pool swim coaching with the club then a 5 mile ride to work on the cyclocross bike (extra resistance). This makes the swim to bike very natural. Training for the Outlaw this year (my first full distance) I did 2x bike-run bricks. One was a ride to the river, open water swim, ride home then run a half marathon all at steady pace. The other was a 5k run after a 185k bike ride. This was probably more a confidence booster than a good physical training session.