One last email to share:

Eric,

Nobody does a brick like you do a brick!  Just sayin...

Kate

Anyway, Cindy - was joking with the last email of course.  One of the cool things about Slowtwitch is that a lot of pro's are on there and make themselves accessible.  Jordan Rapp in particular, he is one of the purveyors of the site and makes himself readily available.

Also, Josh, after some back and forth with these guys about bricks, I have shifted my thoughts a little about bricks.  I do see where they can be of benefit, but not the way most people use them for.  They made some sense to me explaining how bricks should be race specific and done the closer you approach a race - not months in advance.  They agreed that the most benefit is for beginners and should be kept rather short, and definately not used as a "quality" run and that there is not any fitness benefit gained from bricks - but the focus should be on things like pacing immediately after getting off the bike, nutrition, and settling in.  One thing that made sense was that the more often bricks are done, it will decrease the amount of time it takes to get that "heavy" feeling out of the legs. 

Rapp also said that the "swim/bike" brick which very few people focus on is very beneficial.  

Was that from Kate Moss, Kate Middleton or Kate Hudson?

Sometimes when we are role playing, she demands that I call her Kate Middleton - or even Princess Kate if she is feeling particulary frisky.  I personally don't like being called Harry very much, but hey, whats a guy to do?