Beyond the Brick: 2 Super-Charged Triathlon Workouts

If you're training for a triathlon, you'll have to accept a few changes in your life.

No matter what you do, your skin and hair will smell like chlorine for days following a swim workout. Like it or not, you'll have to get used to wearing spandex. And unless you plan to quit after the swim and bike portion of the race, be prepared to start your run on wobbly legs. 

More: How to Balance Your Training Volume

When making the change from cycling to running, you can expect a dip in energy levels and compromised running mechanics. 

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In the time it takes you to trade your cycling cleats for running shoes, your brain is attempting to regulate your breathing, heart rate, blood flow and muscular recruitment.

Brick workouts, which build endurance for race day, have become a mainstay in triathlon training programs. 

More: Are Brick Runs Overrated?

Typically, the bike-to-run brick involves completing a cycling workout and then immediately transitioning to the run. The exact time, distance, heart rate and intensity are determined by exercise experience and race distance.

To better prepare for the bike-to-run transition, swap your brick for a cinder block session.  A cinder block is just like a brick, only heavier and more versatile. While there is nothing wrong with a brick workout, a cinder block session brings weight-bearing cardio and strength training into the training mix. 

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Instead of simply biking and running back to back, cinderblock sessions use kettlebells, a weighted sled or an erg to engage the core, strength the lower body and improve hip extension and flexion. 

This level of training will fatigue the legs and cardiovascular system, while strengthening the lower body and core, allowing you to power through the run portion of your triathlon.

More: Benefits of Kettlebell Training for Triathletes

The brick workout adheres to the old school endurance paradigm that says volume is king. You're knowingly fatiguing your body in order to find out what it feels like to run with or through compromised form. By pairing functional training tools like the kettlebell with running, a cinderblock session shifts the focus from enduring pain to improving fitness. 

Add variety to your training program, improve total body strength and reduce the risk of overuse injuries by trading your brick workout for a cinderblock session.

 

Kettlebell

The kettlebell is a versatile training tool that can be used to develop total body strength and cardiovascular conditioning. 

Unlike typical strength training circuits and stationary exercise machines, the asymmetrical construction of the kettlebell requires core engagement throughout every repetition. 

More: 10 Lifestyle Factors That Affect Training

Exercises like the kettlebell swing develop explosive hip drive and improve lower body strength, allowing a triathlete to train harder, longer. For example, a triathlete who trains with kettlebells will experience improvements in running posture, power output on the bike, and increased propulsion through the water during the swim.

Weighted Sled

The weighted sled is a training tool that can be used to improve both aerobic and anaerobic fitness, using a variety of exercises to train muscular endurance, strength, speed and power. 

More: Your Exercise Recovery Protocol

Pushing, pulling or dragging a weighted sled will aid in the development of hip flexion and extension.  Performing resisted running drills and exercises like bear crawls will improve your ability to apply maximum force to the ground and create forward movement. 

The ability to generate greater force will improve leg strength and acceleration, bridging the gap between a set of strong legs and being able to express that strength by running faster.  

Erg

The indoor rower, or erg, which strengthens multiple muscle groups and provides a cardiovascular workout, will fatigue your entire energy system leaving your lungs breathless and muscles burning.

More: Can You Control Fatigue?

It may seem as though the upper body is pulling the body through the exercise, the initial drive demands maximum power from the legs and engagement of the lower back and core. The erg allows an athlete to complete steady state and anaerobic threshold work, or more intense interval and sprint work.

More: Set Weekly Goals to Balance Your Act

If you are unfamiliar with the erg, seek out an experienced rower to assist you with your technique.  Resist the urge to just hop on the seat and pull away with your arms. 

Beyond the Brick Workout 1

Four rounds of:

• Row 500m
• 25x Kettlebell Swing
• Run 400m

Beyond the Brick Workout 2

Three to five rounds of:

• Weighted Sled Push @ 50 yards
• Run 400m
• Weighted Sled Pull @ 50 yards
• Run 400m
• Weighted Sled Bear Crawl @ 50 yards
• Run 400m
• Weighted Sled Backwards Drag
• Run 400m

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