A few fun, kick butt bricks

So you don’t have a race on the calendar, you’re between plans or in maintenance mode and looking for a good challenging workout. Done right these bricks can make you wish you stayed in bed, especially on a cold day.

Disclaimer:

Some of you are coaches, doctors and maybe even professional triathletes, I am not, any advice you get from people in this group or post on this site or any site related to the Orange Swim Buoys Tri Club is ‘use at your own risk’, always consult a licensed and/or certified professional for advice.

In order to do these right you need to setup a transition and race through transition just like if you were doing a sprint tri. Go fast and hard, don’t sit down – hammer through these workouts.

If you do these a few times the workouts get easier, you get faster and you really train yourself to be fast on the course and in transition. These will also teach you to get out of the HR Comfort Zones 2 and 3.

You need to know your heart rate zones for these bricks. Do a HR Zone test or use one of the many methods to calculate your heart rate zones based on your age. Age based heart rate zones are not totally accurate but can give you a start towards HR training. I will leave it up to you to Google how to calculate your heart rate zone. Also, I have read that your zones for Bike and Run may be very different but as your training progresses they will start to get closer together and eventually will become one, with your mind, body and sole (my attempt at a little humor).

The workouts

Do these every other day with a rest or swim day in between. Each workout is about an hour.

Brick 1:(Monday)

Brick 2:(Wednesday)

• Bike #1
  • 5 Min – Zone 1
  • 5 Min – Zone 2
  • 5 Min – Zone 3
  • 5 Min – Zone 4
• Run
  • 2 Min – Zone 2
  • 2 Min – Zone 4
  • Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 sets
• Bike #2
  • 3 Min – Zone 1
  • 5 Min – Zone 4
  • 5 Min – Zone 3
  • 5 Min – zone 2
  • 5 Min – Zone 1

Brick #3:(Friday)

• Bike
  • 15 Min – Zone 2
  • 25 Min – Zone 4
• Run
  • 5 Min – Zone 2
  • 15 Min Zone 4
  • 5 Min – Zone 3
  • 5 Min – Zone 1

Links

These are good articles you don’t need a Training Peaks or Wahoo account account to use these as guidance:

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/joe-friel-s-quick-guide-to-setting-zones/

The Ultimate Guide for Tracking Your Cycling Heart Rate

Heart Rate Training Zones Calculator

Thanks for reading, Have a great workout.
Be Fast, Be Safe, Stay Healthy

Mike