For those not in the know, a lot like me, a brick is a triathlon training technique completing 2 training sessions back-to-back - ordinarily the bike and run portions.
"Triathletes train for this phenomenon through transition workouts or "bricks": back-to-back workouts involving two disciplines, most commonly cycling and running. (The term "brick" has multiple claims of origination/derivation. Among those is the derivation from a partial anagram of Bike-Run. Also, it may simply be a descriptive term for how your legs feel for the first part of the run. Another is credited to Mark Sisson and Scott Zagarino (1988), who associated the term brick with the idea of "Just another brick in the wall"... as noted in a song by the group "Pink Floyd". Another association of this term has been claimed to originate from a New Zealand athlete by the name of Matt Brick.)" (Wikipedia (bound to be completely factual))
Now we have the definition sorted I thought I'd attempt one. So off out I head on a lovely frosty, crisp Saturday morning - I say frosty and crisp what I really mean is bloody freezing! Bearing in mind this was my first attempt at these back-to-back training sessions I decided to reign the distances in ever so slightly.
Cycling down the quieter than usual cycle path I decided early sessions are going to be the future to avoid dog walkers and all the other users of the path helping me to get into a better rhythm. I soon warmed up with the constant pumping legs although my toes and knees were still taking the brunt of the cold air as I watched parts of my legs get redder and redder. A quick jaunt into Lancaster and a modified route from normal saw me complete a total of just over 17k, now all I had to do was work my legs.
As I set off on my usual route it wasn't so much the feeling of whose legs are these as the lack of feeling in my ice block toes that hindered my start. Being unsure of where and how you are landing yet being able to see every step is quite odd. 2k out and roughly half way my kneed begins to give me a little gip, it may have actually hurt more but my knees were still relatively cold - on the upside I could no feel my toes - ish.
So just over a 17k bike and 4k run complete and I felt ace, especially after the swim session on Friday that was quite productive. All in all a good first brick session.