Bike-run bricks with SUF: General advice needed

As I might have mentioned in one of my former posts, I’m a runner with some 20 years of experience, but fairly new to triathlon (and generally to everything that involves a bike).

I did do 2 or 3 brick workouts last summer, but they were very much unstructured and merely for testing myself and for having some fun. And fun they were! The first time I jumped off that bike and into my running shoes I found myself literally laughing out loud after a few hundred meters, because that robotic feeling in my legs was one of the most awkward things I had experienced in all my runner’s life.

Now that said, I would like to integrate bike-run bricks into my regular plan. But I have no real idea which of the SUF workouts are good for adding a run right after and which are not.

I don’t expect anybody to put a list together for me. I’d rather like to understand the basic principles of brick sessions based on bike workouts from the SUF universe. Of course I can read books or the internet to get a general idea of how brick sessions work etc, but so far I found nothing that really helped me.

I would probably never attempt a run after a technique drill on the bike. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
So, rather after an endurance session? Tempo? HIIT?

And, as a more concrete example: I will have some time on hand this Saturday. My plan says I’ll do SUF Idol. How about a short tempo run right after? Some 7 km?

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts!

Hey @RenAn ,
The length and intensity of your bricks will be dependent on race distance you are training for and where you are in your training plan.
That said, Saturday’s are an excellent day for a brick. Typically tempo, sub threshold and above threshold medium to longer rides in the app with a 30-45 min runs are reasonable. Vary it up see what works best for you. Does that help?

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Hey @Coach.Spencer.R
it sure does!
I’m quite used to testing things out to see what works for me. As a runner I’ve written my own training plans for a decade, with a lot of trials and plenty of errors. So all I really need is a good point to start from.
It’s perfectly clear to me that if you wanted to explain me all there is about brick workouts you’d be writing a book :wink:

As to where I am in my plan, well, let’s say I’m in month 3 of a 5 - 7 year plan for a full distance (which is part one of the 10 year plan to Hawaii :joy:).
I’m really brand new to this business, hence my naive questions.

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