Bricks seem to be personal. Some swear by them, others feel they are not really all that necessary. I am in the "swear by them" camp. I feel that getting through IM healthy and with a respectable time had a lot to do with the longer bricks I did. Not only does your body gain some physiological adaptation, but I think it does wonders for you mentally if it's your first IM. I say add some more miles to your bricks but don't over do it. My longest brick was 102/13.1 in week 20 of a 24 week plan. Good luck in your training!

If it were me I probably wouldn't do bricks for longer tris, only because they take a lot out of you and in reality if you are racing at endurance pace, any "bike leg" you have will wear off pretty quickly. I think volume management is more key as to how you structure your weekly mileage. In other words, in prep for a half ironman have you done a 5-6 hour training day? It becomes important. For shorter tris where you are racing above endurance pace, how your body handles muscle fatigue becomes much more significant. In other words you can't run aggressively with "bike leg" even if it only lasts for short while; it impacts your time more than it would in a longer tri.

Having said that though, you do what works best for you. And you can experiment with different workouts to help you with the transition. That is just basically my opinion on bricks.

Do back to back days. One day, long bike, short Trun, the next day short bike, long run. The issue is getting use to pacing off the bike. Try to make your pace get faster and faster throughout the effort, instead of the other way around. You will need to hold back, for the first few miles.

Same goes for IM racing, you want to get faster and faster throughout the day, instead of getting slower and slower. So start training your body to do so.

The most important aspect to brick workouts in IM training is the nutrition piece. You'll know right away if you haven't fuel properly when you do a run off of a long bike. It is great feedback on how well you nailed your nutrition or not. You always fuel a workout for the next effort. Be sure to get a recovery day in before these two long sessions, and then a recovery day after.

Your legs shouldn't be tired to run on, "if" you pace your bike right!!!

Poor runs (in a tri), are usually due to not enough bike volume in your training, OR you paced the bike too fast. Long rides/Truns, and short rides/with long Truns will give you the feedback you'll need to adjust, if need be.

[quote=vjohnson]
Poor runs (in a tri), are usually due to not enough bike volume in your training, OR you paced the bike too fast. [/quote]
I would add one other source of poor runs in a tri... pacing the first part of your run too fast, which seems to be what you you are concerned about and experiencing.
I'm definitely in the "bricks are not that important" camp, especially for long course. EXCEPTION: It's a good idea to run for a couple miles off the bike to get your pacing right.

As hamlet_cat wrote, I think there's an inverse correlation between the race distance and the frequency/importance of bricks. If you're training for a Sprint, then you should probably run after every bike (granted, your bike training might only be an hour long). If you're training for a full, you could very well never do a brick. To take it to the extreme, "What's the point?" If you've done the run training, you'll have 26.2 miles to get your "run legs" under you. I know it's heretical, and I'm oversimplifying, but bricks don't help you with 26.2. Running 20-milers does, and doing so feeling strong and without it being a death march. Or, "So what if you hammer the first 5k? You still have 40k more to go." In long-course, bricks help the first 5k. No one's ever said at mile 20, "If only I'd done more bricks." No, they've said, "If only I'd done more 20-milers." You have a finite amount of training time. IMHO, you can't realistically do bricks after ever long ride and then turn around and do quality long runs the next day - weekend after weekend. Maybe two or three weekends before you taper, but that's it. If it comes down to bricks *or* quality long runs the next day, get off the bike and then run the next day. Comes down to quality over quantity.

[quote=TriSooner]No one's ever said at mile 20, "If only I'd done more bricks." No, they've said, "If only I'd done more 20-milers." [/quote]
I love you man. +1,000

Realistically, you can do a long ride, and a quality run the next day. If the prep is right, there is no reason you can't. You have to run long, after you bike, why wouldn't you practice that over and over again.

Now what is long, and what is a run after a long ride look like. I'm not advocating doing a long run, right after your ride long (I am advocating you do it the next day, after a short ride).

Does this sounds reasonable.... ride for 3 hrs, multiply 3 by 10, this is what your brick run should be in minutes...:30 You ride for 5hrs...., so you run for :50. So what ever your long ride is, multiply it by 10, and do a brick in minutes.

This will give you the sense as to what it feels like, running after a long ride (which we do in IM's). Next day, easy spin 1-2.5 hours, then long run, again depends on prep so 1:40-2:30. Take the opportunity to callous the body to the demands of what the race situation will be like, then you don't have to have regrets at mile 20. If you were training for 26.2 miles, then yes a brick would serve no purpose, but instead you are training for 26.2 miles after 114.4 miles of warming up.

All in all lonnie, I'm sure the one thing we all can agree upon is that the best plan, is the one that is followed then executed. There will be over 2000 people on the starting line, and I'm sure there will be over 2000 different means at which they all prepared. Your day will be defined by how well you execute your preparations. Respecting the volumes you did, the paces you worked at and knowing what your true potential is on that day. And of course, properly fueling that effort.

[quote=vjohnson]Realistically, you can do a long ride, and a quality run the next day. [/quote]

This is sort of meant. For example I know that I am ready to "complete" a half ironman because I can do a 4 hr bike ride/1 hour swim day followed by a 2 hr run day. And still do my harder workouts on day three. I will probably eventually do my long bike and long run (endurance WOs) on the same day before attempting a half ironman, but that is basically how I know I will be ready to "complete" one.

That to me though is different than "racing" an HIM. When you are "racing" that is when you become concerned with pacing. I think it is more difficult to structure workouts for pacing when you are "racing" long course. For example right now I am very concerned with pacing for the sprint distance. I do a transition workout once a week, where I go full out for 20K and then run as fast as possible a 5K. I know almost exactly how hard to go out on the bike and then how hard to run afterwards. I have no idea how you would do that type of training for an IM. It sounds to me like you are more concerned with "completing" as opposed to "racing." Therefore the brick workout becomes almost irrelevant. It is more so: Can you run a marathon? Can you run a marathon after biking 180K? Your test to this (IMHO) will be can you do these things on consecutive days? Your going to be doing both at endurance pace, which is the same pace you do them in training. I don't think I would go into an IM without ever having run that distance, or biking the distance (that is me though). I might run a marathon after only ever having run 35K But my prep would be different for an IM, I would definitely make sure I could do back to back days (6hr bike day 1, 4hr run day 2). The pacing would be the same as in training.