Bricks

Done my first "Brick" session yesterday in preparation for the duathlon at the weekend. Bricks involve a bike session, followed immediately by a running session. Its meant to mimic the transition from bike to running in duathlons and triathlons. As I found out yesterday, there's a good reason for doing them.

I'd been recommended to incorporate a few of these sessions into my training by a friend. So, after doing absolutely no running what-so-ever last week, I decided to give it a go last night in the gym (ease myself into it). After a 5k run on the treadmill (in a pb time of 30m 39s), jumped straight onto the bike for another 5k (approx 11m). I suppose thats a reverse brick, but its applicable to the duathlon this weekend.

After finishing the bike, I tried to do another 5mins of running. Needless to say, I lasted all of 90secs. Had to give up, as head was spinning, legs were wonky, etc. Did not give me much hope for the weekend.

So I give it another go tonight, this time out on the roads and pavements. Much better result. Done me usual 5.6km lap, first on the bike (12m 30s), followed by a run (approx 37m, my pb being 35m 40s), with a brief transition and also stopping to give some guy directions to the hospital. Total time was 50m 50s, which I'm quite happy with.

Again, it felt quite weird going from the bike to the run. Legs felt really strange, like I was almost running on a trampoline. Took it slow initially and this feeling soon wore off after about 500m. After that, down to the usual running, stopping occasionally to give legs a rest. Finished strongly, so happy with the overall performance.