Our first brick

What is a brick you might be asking. Taken from triathlete.com, the definition of a brick is as follows: Bricks are a very important part of triathlon (and duathlon) training and they are sometimes overlooked. Bricks refer to training on two disciplines during the same workout, one after the other with minimal or no interruption in between, just as you would do in a race. Usually when people talk about bricks they refer to a bike/run workout, but bricks could also refer to a swim/bike workout or to a run/bike workout (if you are training for a duathlon). These last two are often overlooked but still important to fit here and there in your training plan.


Our team did our first run/bike brick last night out at Coldstream park. We first practiced running along side of our bike because in the actual event you cannot ride out of the transition area - rather you must run by your bike and then mount it once you have exited the area. That is a little awkward - especially when you don't actually have on tennis shoes because of a clip-in pedal system (like mine). Anywho, once on the bike, the point was to familiarize ourselves with how our legs and body would feel dismounting the bike and beginning the run. We rode 3 laps (@ 3 miles), jogged 5 minutes, rode 3 laps, jogged 5 minutes, etc. etc. It was challenging but Susan gave us some practical tips on stretching our legs prior to dismounting for the run and it did seem to help. Man my running shoes have never felt better (and I need new ones I might add) after running with my bike to change to my tennis shoes. Right now it seems like I will be at a disadvantage because people who were biking in their tennis shoes were leaving me in the dust, but I know come race day the fact that I can pull and push in my bike shoes will give me advantage over those biking in tennis shoes.

We had a really good time just figuring things out and laughing at ourselves - trying to run with our helmets, feeling like jello legs and so forth. I don't have a lot of funnies to share, although I will say that the first question out of "drill sergeant Susan's" mouth was "So...who fell on Sunday, I heard someone fell". Yours truly! Thanks for sharing with the team Coach! ha!