Q & A with Dave Scott
Dave Scott is the most recognized athlete and coach in the sport of triathlon. He is a six-time Ironman World Champion and the first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame.
Please send your questions to DaveScott@BodyHealth.com. Some will be selected for response in his MAP newsletter column.
From
Bob in NYC:
How many workouts per week do you do a brick workout, run after bike? Please give me an idea of how many bricks you would do before an Ironman and how many miles the buildup would eventually get to?
From Dave Scott:
Bob, brick sessions are beneficial primarily for three reasons:
• The brick emphasis can change throughout the year depending on your strengths and weaknesses. I.E. run bike run or bike run bike or a double brick of shorter distances.
• Bricks are optimal to teach your body to burn fuel at race pace or slightly faster than race pace.
• Bricks that are split, particularly the run (run bike run) do not have the cumulative wear and tear as a long run does consequently, intensity and recovery can be optimized.
Including 2-3 periods of 5-6 weeks per block throughout the year can be very beneficial to your year long fitness gains. An early season block that employs a bike run- bike format, allows you to have a longer day with a possibility of including higher intensity sessions on either discipline. During the early season, you could have shorter segments of 1 3 minutes at sub-lactate threshold speeds I.E. 2 sets of 12 x 2 minutes at 10 beats lower than lactate threshold or 20-50 watts below lactate threshold wattage.
A mid season brick of run bike run could emphasize hitting somewhere between half and full Ironman pace on longer blocks. I.E. Bike 3 x 20 minutes at half Ironman pace + run 3 x 10 minutes at half Ironman pace. These could be integrated into a progressive (6 week per program) program.
A late season, leading up to Ironman (up to two weeks before the race in lieu of a long bike or run session) could emphasize a steady, hard pace closer to your half Ironman pace.
Leading up to an Ironman, an example of a late season segment finishing two weeks before the race is as follows:
Week 6 R- 12 miles (60% at Half Ironman pace)
B 60 miles (60 70% at Half Ironman pace)
R 6 miles (steady aerobic pace)
Weeks 5 & 4 R 13 miles (60% at Half Ironman pace) B 75 miles (60 70% at Half Ironman pace)
R 5 miles (steady aerobic pace)
Week 3 R- 8 miles (hold all sessions at 60% of Half Ironman pace)
B 50 miles
R 10 miles
Week 2 R- 12 miles (Hold all sessions at 80% of Half Ironman pace)
B 60 miles
R 6 miles
Week 1 (two weeks before Ironman race)
R- 6 miles (All sessions HARD pace)
B 50 miles
R 5 miles
Lots of variety! Be careful about long, combined, double runs. I like to stop with approximately 16 18 miles with age grouping. Bike segments could be longer as desired. Intensity is key for a fast Ironman!!
Good luck,
Dave
Good luck,
Dave Scott
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