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"Mike's
approach to coaching really brings out the best in your
performance" Chris, Berkshire |
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Brick
Work — the Building Blocks to a Fast Duathlon |
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At the Duathlon world championships
I realised that not just the new comers to the sport
were not familiar with brick sessions, but also
elite athletes racing at the world championships
were not doing brick sessions. The content of each
brick session will may vary slightly as different
coaches try and achieve an advantage for their athletes,
but the principle is the same.
The body becomes efficient at what it is familiar
with.
Looking at it from the other side, if you don't
practice run/bike/run sessions in training you are
not going to race efficiently or effectively in
a duathlon race. For those that boast you can run
well with out doing a brick session, I can guarantee
you will race a lot faster if you do brick work.
What is Brick Work?
Duathlon involves running, biking and then running
again without resting. It is much more demanding
on the muscular skeletal system than triathlon.
To those of you that suffer badly with cramps, tight
muscles and a general feeling of an inability to
run fluently in the second run you will need to
practice training these disciplines back to back.
It is recommended to repeat the back to back sessions
more that you do in a duathlon. Run/bike/run/bike/run
Overloading the muscles will force them to adapt
quicker and become stronger.
Brick sessions have benefits on different levels:
They are time efficient, combining running and
cycling into one session!
They also force you to practice transition training,
which is often a neglected part of duathlon training.
Brickwork teaches the muscles to adapt to the
challenge of run bike run.
Where can you do Brick sessions?
I raced professionally in Japan and would simply
drop my bike and start running, in the UK I discovered
one day that when I came back for my bike it wasn't
there any more! So the session needs to be constructed
so that your bike does not get stolen.
You could perform a brick session at the local
gym, by jumping from cycle machine to treadmill
and back to cycle machine again. This is also good,
if you travel a lot but can access a hotel gym.
There is no excuse not to train!
I you are lucky enough to have a combined cycle
track and run track as we do at Palmer Park in Reading,
you can do the run bike run session over accurate
distances
If you can not use a track, the next best place
is an open grassy field with access to a road for
the cycling. Instead of running for measured distances
you can alter the session and run for a set time.
The end result will be just the same. Recently the
prevalence of Garmin GPS monitors now means that
you can easily measure out your own running course
just about anywhere you want Running on grassy park
land, not only reduces the stress on you legs but
also allows you to run around your bike, ensuring
it doesn't get stolen.
Another variation is to set up your indoor turbo
trainer by the track side, and to jump on it straight
after running.
I often leave turbo trainer in the garage and
run around the block and then straight back on the
trainer in the garage.
The permeations are many.
..but it does take a
little more thought and planning that an simple
run or bike session.
What do I do in a brick session?
Having thought through the logistics, the next thing
step is to plan the content of the training.
Through experience I have found that run, bike,
run, bike run sessions are much more effective that
a simple run bike run session. By Breaking the brickwork
down into small blocks of work, a tough session
becomes more manage able and is easier to push you
harder. And maintain a higher average intensity
of work.
A basic session consists of:
Run 4x400m
Bike 6x1km
Run 4x400m
Bike 6x1km
Run 4x400m
How fast should you go!
The pace of the running and cycling needs to be
the hardest pace you can maintain over the whole
session. This session takes about an hour. For those
that work to a heart rate zone, you should be just
above your anaerobic threshold. If you go too fast
your legs will clog with lactic acid and you will
be reduced to a painful jog by the end. Not fast
enough and you will be wasting your time. Only trial
an error will help you understand what your body
capable of coping with. You need to teach the muscles
to become more efficient, ie; to burn less oxygen
at a given speed, so that you can ultimately race
at a faster pace with out building up lactic acid.
This kind of lactic tolerance training takes a minimum
of 3 to achieve a physiological change, and peak
performance is achieved by week 6. If you have anything
over three weeks before your next duathlon I would
highly recommend getting stuck in to this brick
session once a week.
Lots of athletes use heart rates and power taps
to train with and they have their place as important
tools to help you reach peak performance. In fact
you can monitor your progress with this training
by monitoring your power output and heart rate,
but in this instance it is more important to see
how fast you can get you average time down to on
the intervals and how consistent you can keep the
repetitions.
You must aim to keep all the 400m and 1kms with
5 seconds of your fastest time. Each week try to
get your average times down lower that the previous
week. Over a 6 week period you will be astounded
at the improvement in speed. After the initial 6
weeks the gains become very small.
If possible try and train with a friend as there
is a tendency to slow down when you train alone
The
last set of 4x400m is incredibly painful, due to
muscle fatigue and reduced proprioception.
How much rest should you get between intervals?
You should aim for a ratio of approximately 3:1.
So if your 400m takes 90 seconds then rest for 30
seconds.. This would mean starting a new 400m every
2mins. This is a typical work to rest ratio for
a sub 40min 10km athlete.
For Elite guys I recommend starting on a 2minute
circle for 3 weeks and then cutting the circle to
1min 45 as you adapt. On the bike at an average
speed of 40km/hr, it will take 1min 30 per km. Take
30 seconds rest between intervals.
The reason why 400m and 1km have been picked is
because of the compatibility in work time. So 12x400m
will take approximately as long as 12x1km to perform.
For those that train faster or slower the rest time
will need to be adjusted The following table gives
some simple guidelines to help you.
(400m Run and 1km Bike)
| time |
Starting circle |
Rest time |
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| 65-75
seconds |
1:45
circle |
(rest
30-40seconds) |
| 75-90
seconds |
2:00
circle |
(rest 30-45seconds) |
| 90-105
seconds |
2:30
circle |
(rest
0:45 - 1:00) |
| 105-120
seconds |
3:00
circle |
(rest
1:00 -1:15) |
| 120-135
seconds |
3:45
circle |
(rest
1:30 -1:45) |
Why not go beyond the article and have us train
you 1-to-1 to meet and exceed your running and triathlon
goals - contact us.
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