Why is it called a brick? (Page 2)

Actually, it dates back to Biblical times:

Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task

-Exodus 5-19


Which, of course, means doing two workouts back to back.

Wow,
I never thought that much about it. I like the barium sulfate idea.
I also just think it is a fun colorful name.

All common misconceptions... It is thought that Abraham Lincoln would challenge others to multi-discipline events wether it be swiming, horseback riding, and running, or swimming, running, and wrestling.  This is considered by many Springfieldians to be the "start" of triathlon as we know it today.  Lincoln dominated these multi-disciplinary events such that after the second event the challenger would hurl bricks at lincoln so as to slow his progress and maybe have a chance.  However odd that seemed, the term for the transition from the second to third event was hence known as bricking.  As this is what the challenger would have to be most proficient at, hurling bricks.

The name was later simplified to doing a "brick" and has been brought into training.

Some of these explanations are hilarious!

The real story is actually a Pink Floyd reference and involves the old exec of usa triathlon (then tri-fed) Mark Sisson and a pro triathlete Scott Zagarino, who I had the fortune (or misfortune I guess)of meeting and being stitched up next to when I raced the first worlds in Avignon in '89 as a 15 yr old kid . I read the story in a magazine many, many years ago. You can read Scott's take on it here.
http://sportsgrants.org/blog/2010/03/01/a-brick-house/

just another brick in the wall...

That's a nice little story but if it had been written before I started this thread I might be more willing to believe you.  Perhaps you guys started the term "420" as well 

I'm amazed that everybody uses this term "brick" and nobody knows where it comes from...I guess it wasnt such a newbie quesiton after all.

+1 x 100000 I have heard the same...

Edited by velorider62 2010-03-02 7:49 AM

I think the timing was just coincidence. Zag was one of the early birds in our sport. If I can find the same story when Sisson wrote about it back in the early '90's I will post it up.

Here's a reference of it from circa 1996 and the old rec.sport.triathlon days
http://grove.ufl.edu/~trigator/trifaq.html

and here's a 1995 reference
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.triathlon/browse_thread/thread/37f94b1687b5ffa5/490a6ac1d49f3c6d?lnk=gst&q=brick+in+the+wall%27#490a6ac1d49f3c6d

Sorry I couldn't find anything better. Pre mainstream internet references are hard to search for.

thanks for that.  co-incidentally when i was wondering about it my two thoughts were 1) the first two letters stand for bike run and 2)bricks are building blocks so I guess my wild speculation wasn't too far off

The 1995 reference from Scott Zagarino is very interesting, indeed.  Thanks for finding those!

And we all know if it came from Usenet it must be true!

Actually I'm willing to believe this; the acronyms all seem retconned.  I'd also believe the "legs feel like bricks" explanation since mine sure do.

Cuz it's "just another brick in the wall" of training.

Nope, it's because it feels like your tri shorts are full of bricks.  But then they start to fall out.  That's way it feels better after a mile or two

It comes from the phrase "brick-a-brack" meaning a little of this and a little of that. A little cycling and a little running, a little swimming and a little cycling. Likewise, a "brickbat" is just a piece of a brick like walking from your kitchen to your garage to get your bike and go for a ride. When you do that, you complete a brickbat but some people still call that brick-a-bat and those people are just posers.

This user's post has been ignored.

Biking and running is a call a Duo....but it would be inappropiate to do a...

Never mind.