Triathlete Challenge: At Home Brick Workout #1
Six-time Ironman world champion Mark Allen has the perfect brick workout for you to ensure you’re in great shape for our end-of-month Challenge.
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This brick session is the first of three workouts we have lined up for you from six-time Ironman world champion turned coach Mark Allen. As a coach to scores of age-group and professional triathletes, Allen knows how to dial in workouts to get optimal results. He says: “Each of these three workouts are designed to help you be ready for an Olympic distance race or virtual challenge. The first one is an aerobic workout that will help your body get used to doing a run off of the bike.”
The bike workout is 60 minutes and the run is ~30 minutes for a total time of approximately 90 minutes. Be sure to warm up well and transition to running as smoothly and as quickly as possible.
Allen typically prescribes workouts by heart rate zones, with zones and correlating RPE (rate of perceived exertion) as follows:
Z1: 50-60% of maximum heart rate, RPE 4/10
Z2: 60-70% of maximum heart rate, RPE 5-6/10
Z3: 70-80% of maximum heart rate, RPE 7/10
Z4: 80-90% maximum heart rate, RPE 8-9/10
Z5: 90-100% maximum heart rate, RPE 10/10
At Home Brick Workout #1
Bike:
Warm-Up
10 min easy spinning
Main Set
4 x 5 min at lower zone 3 (RPE 7/10) with an easy 2-min recovery after each 5-min segment done at zone 2.
3 x 3 min at 40K race pace with easy 1-minute spin after each 3-min segment.
Steady in mid-range of zone 3 (RPE 7/10) until you reach 60 min.
Brick run:
1 x 5 min. building into lower zone 3 (RPE 7/10) by the final minute.
1 x 15 min. continuing in mid to upper range of zone 3 (RPE 7/10) holding a steady pace. This should be just a bit slower than your 10K race pace that you would hold in an Olympic distance triathlon.
Cool-Down
5-10 min gradual cool-down