Do you guys/girls do strength training? Why asking? Because I don’t do any of that stuff. Just did cycling the past 5 years only. On my tri journey that started 2 months ago for 70.3 in '25. Do now 3 runs a week of 35min…building slowly and 3 swims.
Next week start more dedicated (am doing zwift FRR stage racing so more bike work) with main focus run, swim and also start strength work, or is it not necessary?
Free time will be for cycling. 3 times (maybe 4) a week. But how should I maintain my bike fitness? (because I normally do 12h cycling a week). Z2, sweetspot, LT1? I don’t want to loose that much bike fitness…
I’m traveling down from Washington to Phoenix next weekend and hoping to get down to Tucson for a day to climb Mount Lemmon. Planning to drive down in the morning and start by LeBuzz. Is there a good place I can get changed into my kit? Is there anywhere to fill water bottles on the climb? Or do I need to plan on carrying everything from the start? Are there any restrooms on the route?
Thanks!
Strength can be hard to include in a busy schedule particularly heavy lifting.
I would focus on swim bike run as you’re new and get that down, solid and consistent.
If you have other specific reasons for wanting to include strength, I’d look at doing some body weight before or after an SBR workout; planks before a swim, eccentric calf raises after a run, lunges before a bike.
For heavy lifting I’d look to get into that in your off season.
Was training for a self supported 70.3 on the day of the Kona IMWC. Blasted calf strain. Hurt it two weeks ago and just blew it up again on a really short tentative run now.
My running has been even worse than usual this year, I give up!
I’ll ramp up cycling to end off the season then switch to strength, maybe I can put in a big ride effort to see if any progression at all has been made this year.
Completed my first full distance IM, IM California!
Swim - water was reported to be 60*. Long sleeve suit felt fine, a bit chilly at first but comfortable during the swim. I lined up in the 105-110 group. The swim felt great. Focused on pacing and used the current to my advantage. Finished the swim in 52:22. A bit slower than a couple months ago during the practice swim. The water flow on the American River was reported to be down. Got out feeling really good.
T1 - Easy. Kept the HR down, just jogged through. Took advantage of the wetsuit strippers (loved that). Time was 5:43.
Bike - Weather conditions on the bike were excellent. I worked on holding 150w, .68 IF. Ended up holding 146 NP, .65 IF. Averaged 20.3 mph. Really happy with that. The first lap was super fast. Caught a nasty headwind on the way out during the second lap. Had that wind to my back for the return of that lap. Ended up finishing in 5:31, nearly 30 minutes under my estimated time of 6 hours. Nutrition went well. 2 scoops of Roctain and 1 Gu per hour (80 g carbs) with .5 packet of LMNT for electrolyte (500mg) mixed in seems to work really well for me.
T2 - Easy. Sat down to change my socks and put on calf compression sleeves. Took my time making sure I did everything I needed to do. TIme was 3 minutes even.
Run - Things got interesting. I didn’t care for Maurten gels during training. Knowing this was being served on course I carried my own for the bike and figured I would just gut it out with on course nutrition for the run. This was a big mistake. At about 8 miles and 2 gels into the run my stomach started getting bad. Gas and cramps. Mostly cramps. I sipped water or Mortal electrolyte through each aid station. Even that was giving me stomach pains. After missing nutrition for multiple aid stations I took another gel. Ate about ⅓ of it, just couldn’t stomach it. Grapes gave me stomach issues as well. Most of the run was miserable. Had to walk stretches because my stomach was hurting so bad. Took on some chicken broth around mile 20. Walked with it until I finished it and my stomach calmed down. This gave me a second wind. I was able to start running a bit more consistently. Ended up getting through the run. Finished in 4:52:22. About 30 minutes slower than I hoped for, but still happy with that time.
Overall time was 11:31:58. I’m SUPER happy with that finish time. It would be fun to see if I could break 11 hours if I had a good run. I was quite beat up after the race, starting to feel better now a few days out. Walked for 45 minutes yesterday with my wife, even got on the trainer for a 45 minute spin today.
Missed it by a day, but it’s time for our second to last roll call of the year. Good luck to @pstalley and @teetopmlp, who are racing Ironman Florida today. For everyone else, how’s training going this month?
For me, things are chill, took an easy month in October. I’m going through one of the new TR personalized plans with an “increase FTP” goal, and it’s going pretty well despite the high volume and intensity. I seem to be able to handle the high intensity workouts way better than I can in the triathlon plans despite having three of them each week, but maybe it’s just because I’m keeping my running and swim volume pretty low. I’m going to start increasing my running each week and see if I can handle the extra volume, but if I can I might just stick to this plan instead of going back to a tri plan next year.
Took a chill week after IMCA. I’m spending the rest of this year focusing on lifting 3x per week, running 12-15 miles (doing whatever my garmin suggests) and trying out the new plan builder. I selected maintain fitness LV, which gave me a TH, VO2max during the week and I’ll do a 2-3 hours ride on the weekends. I really want to keep what I have while gaining some strength going into next year. I’ll have 2 months at the beginning of next year before I start “training” for IM Santa Cruz (anyone done this one, I’d love some feedback?). My local pool closes until February (lame) so I won’t worry about swimming until then.
I didn’t do IM Florida 140.6 last Sunday; had decided a few months ago not to due to family reasons. Instead I’m doing the 70.3 in Haines City in December. Maybe next year for a full!
October was a lighter month due to work and family travel, and oh year, a hurricane! Not as much volume but more intensity, typically 1 TH and VO2 ride per week, and tempo and threshold run intervals. Now transitioning into longer steady tempo rides to prep for December. Volume will pick up in November. Stats:
Hi, I’m trying to plan 2025 using the plan builder. The plan is 3 half in april/june and a full late October.
Plan builder puts me on Half base plan then on a full one.
Having a close look at it, half and full plan are pretty similar except a long endurance wo instead of a sweet spot one for the 4th wo.
So, my though so far is that the full base would be more manageable and efficient at same time. Does anuone have any experience with this?
The full distance plan certainly puts you in a good place for half distance but I wouldn’t say optimal.
If I get a plan output that doesn’t suit me then I change my priorities - two or three months is enough for me on the long distance plan to be ready so I might spend the previous three months focussed on an A race say Olympic or half - and keep the available hours the same.
We’re all different but 3 half iron races in three months is pretty demanding, I’d set the last as an A race have a month easy work then get back into it August on the full distance plan
For my first 70.3, would any of the folks here say the TR plans are sufficient or I’d benefit more from a different source?
Goal is to feel strong about prep and the race. No clue on times. I’ve run marathons and done many triple digit bike rides. Swimming… we’re starting from basically scratch. I’m targeting 70.3 in June.
TR tri plans are unsurprisingly “bike heavy” which works for just about everyone, and multiple other respectable coaches would advise you to get your intensity in the bike anyway.
Swim - you just need to bite the bullet, and sooner rather than later. Get in water as much as you can, for any reason.
Have you done much indoor training/are you planning to train indoors or outdoors?
I’ve done two formal indoor blocks on the bike. One was just a random Zwift FTP builder that i managed to be extremely consistent with. Another was a full blown roadrace plan for a 206 mile fondo in the 95 degree summer heat. I built and tapered for that event with a ton of success. i’m in the minority that loves the indoor trainer for workouts. When its nice, i’ll get out and do unstructured rides with a few intervals mixed in. I’ve done 4 formal running build plans in the past varying from 14-18 weeks in length.
I hear you on the pool front. I’ve been stuck between two approaches; perhaps you have some guidance.
Go to the local pool, hyperventilate my way through an 1/1.5 hours worth of crawling laps while i slowly increase my ability to actually swim laps without gasping for air. Once i’m at the point of swimming something like 300m sustained, get in touch with a coach for some 1:1 work to understand how to improve my stroke and form. being mindful that teaching myself through youtube and trial/error will likely result in forming some bad habits. (this is evident by my golf swing)
Get a coach or join a masters group now and just listen listen listen and swim swim swim.
From a 70.3 perspective I might be a bit presumptuous though I feel with todays fitness I could wake up and smash the bike/run combo without a ton of issue. The run would be slower than my dedicated HM races, but thats a given.
The fun for me is attempting to peak these three different disciplines at the same time. Swim i’d be happy with just feeling OK out of the water, bike i’d like to put down some power numbers I can be proud of, and run i’d like to know I tried.
so this thread is for this years training regardless of when the race is 
