BUILDING WITH BRICKS

It’s coming up to the the business end of the season and as we gear up for January qualification races and state championships I thought it was a good time to shed a little light on the purpose behind adding structured key brick sessions to your training and the do’s and don’ts so we can sharpen up these sessions to gain maximum performance growth.

WHAT IS A BRICK SESSION?

A brick session is a combination of two or three disciplines linked together to simulate race feel and adjust the body to the changes of the physical feel in the body and more importantly the mental acceptance in the mind whether it’s a change of water to land or bike to pavement.

We all need to practice and replicate raceday to be able to adjust to the changes in the body and be confident in knowing that the body has gone through these motions before so there’s no suprises and you can deliver your best possible performance.

WHEN IS A BRICK SESSION NEEDED?

For the athletes I work with we make sure that brick sessions are crafted into their personal programmes when needed as everybody responds differently. I personally will add brick sessions heading into the end of the winter months as the triathlon season gets closer, or once a week five weeks out from a key race and make sure that the session is a key session of the week.

WHAT IS A KEY SESSION?

A key brick session is the one session of the week that you’re going to replicate race simulation and feel in order to practice heading into a race. A key session has many great positives as it allows the mind to know that it is capable of doing the chosen discipline at a specific speed. It brings confidence on race day as the body can accept the feel and the mind does not start to doubt that things are feeling different or foreign within the body. Confidence on race day is the result of you replicating quality brick sessions in training.

Race day should not feel any different to what you have practised except that your shoes are lighter, you have race wheels on, you are rested and friends and family are on the side line cheering you on and giving you extra energy to push that little bit harder.

DO’S

Do test yourself and explore pushing the boundaries in training, if you don’t try you won’t know.

Do train on the same foods and hydration as race day. You want to be able to test fuelling and hydration so we know exactly what we need come race day.

Everybody needs different amounts of fuel and hydration. There is no magic number even if the man in the expo is telling you something we stiII need to work closely with our coaches on fuelling the engine to get the opt imum effect from these sessions.

Do make sure that you have an easy training session the day before your brick session just like in racing so you can bleed maximum performance out of the body. The more energy you have in your key brick session the more benefit you will get out of it.

DON’TS

Don’t train a brick at 70% – it’s supposed to be hard – they are to simulate race day feel and need to be done at intensity and with a commitment to the session.

Don’t get caught up with what other people are doing in this session – stick to the plan. Race your friends on race day not to the coffee shop. Race day results are forever and the fastest bike split to the coffee shop is short lived.

Don’t get angry at your coach if they are pushing you on this session. They are trying to get the most out of you and you will thank them for it in the long run.

A brick session below for you to have a crack at over the holiday season

Happy Training,

ADSY