Gameplan: How to do long-distance brick training

MANILA, Philippines — For triathletes, transitioning from biking to running isn’t as easy as it sounds. One set of leg muscles gets tired or pumped from the bike and then they need to engage a different set of leg muscles for the run. Some triathletes say it feels like you’re running like a duck or you have bricks in your legs.

So in training, triathletes need to do “brick” workouts. Coach Ani de Leon Brown recommends the following for a long distance triathlon — such as the 60k bike then 15k run of the upcoming TriUnited 2.

1. The Long Brick – On your weekend long ride, ride 40 to 5 kilometers and then immediately run 1 hour. Getting this done in training will help get you to the finish line for a 60k bike and 15k run.

2. Multiple Short Bricks – To get used to the physical transition from running to biking, you can do this workout: bike for 15 minutes then run for 10 mins and then get back on the bike for 10 mins and run for 5. Do this set 2 times to get a total a good 80 minute workout. – Rappler.com