The Triathlon/Ironman Training Thread 2025

Training
323

Time for an update. Been absent from the forum for past couple of months. May and June were relatively low volume months due to lots of work and personal travel…can’t complain as got to hike for a few weeks in Norway but it did impact training a bit.

May (total of 42:55:00)

  • Swim: 4:41:00 - 14327 yards
  • Bike: 14:15:00 - 375 km
  • Run: 13:26:00 - 116 km
  • Gym: 1:23:00
  • Walk/Hike: 9:09:00 - 34 km

June (total of 39:31:00)

  • Swim: 1:55:00 - 5725 yards
  • Bike: 16:08:00 - 439 km
  • Run: 7:28:00 - 64 km
  • Gym: 1:30:00
  • Walk/Hike: 12:28:00 - 50km

Races upcoming:

  • Aug 24: International Distance
  • October 19: International Distance
  • October 25: IM North Carolina 70.3

Undecided:

  • November 1: IM Florida 140.6, or
  • December 14: IM Florida 70.3

Good luck with training and racing everyone!

324

Signed up for my official first and second Tri events.

July 12th - Whatcom county - Olympic
July 20th - Seafair Tri - Sprint

Putting in about 3 more days of ‘big’ training then reducing volume and throwing a few days of short intensity. I find that I feel my best swimming the third day of a [rest, swim, swim] situation so i’ll plan to do a swim and a light 2 mile shakeout the day before.

Training this month was low because I much like @teetopmlp was in Norway hiking and drinking (mostly the latter)(Sogndal and Halhjem for me) for 8 days.

image

Hit a new 8 min power PB on the bike which confirms fitness is going in the right direction but wish I had some more volume in me going into these races.

Transitions will be interesting considering i’ve just done mock changes in my garage. Any wisdom from the group?

I’ll swim in a one piece tri suit with sleeveless wetsuit on top. Will throw socks on in T1 and have a gel or 2 while I guzzle down water and get my helmet on. Bottle 1 will have ~100g carbs for the 25 mile ride and the other big boy bottle will just be water. Extra gel with caf in my pockets. I’m thinking of driving out to preride the bike course to get an idea of the shade coverage to gauge how hot it will be and if I need to rig up a third bottle. T2 should be quite simple with just a helmet swapped for a hat, a caf gel, shoes, and stuff my pocket with another gel or 2.

325

Pretty decent month for me.

Workouts Time Distance
Swim 6 3:56 11 km
Bike 16 24:26 730 km
Run 8 10:52 124 km

I got some work and life stress going on that’s gotten in the way of my training so my volume went down a little, but I still managed to race a decent half marathon at the Grand Teton Half Marathon, and got a personal best at Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene. I’m tentatively racing Ironman 70.3 Boise at the end of the month, we’ll see how that goes. I’m expecting it to be super hot, but hopefully the wildfire smoke cooperates.

  1. Checklists, checklists, checklists.
  2. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
  3. Practice putting on socks on wet feet like this: https://youtu.be/yc754UrViQY?t=168
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326

Golden, Thank you!

327

Good luck! Did my first (sprint) race a couple weeks ago and the process/plan you’ve mentally thought through (and practiced in garage) sounds solid to me. Based on a single race experience lol. Except maybe you’re carrying too much? Obviously needs vary, but I took a gel before the swim and then a swig of Gatorade during the run and otherwise didn’t carry any water/mix/gels with me. Finished in ~1:08.

My only other unsolicited two cents is to (seriously!) practice visualizing the chaos of the open water swim. I have never had a panic attack before, but it was my first OWS (/mass start) and I needed to roll over, talk myself down, slowly stop hyperventilating, and let the race open up. Not sure where you’re at with the swimming but it really was more stressful than I imagined. Sharing this not to add stress but because I think some amount of visualization/prep can be useful.

Good luck!

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328

I genuinely appreciate the OWS advice and guidance on gels. I’d rather over fuel on the bike so i can get into the run with no doubt of bonking. - to your point, i likely wont need to take much during the run but love having the insurance of a gel in my pocket. When things hurt in a running race my RPE goes down a notch when i take a gel just because of placebo that carbs are helping.

I did a mile straight in open water in 34 minutes yesterday. Bang on 1:98/100m. The Oly distance only has 300 participants and the start is waved in pretty weird age groups, so I don’t expect to be starting with a TON of people, but i’ve told myself that i’m okay starting at the back of my pack and avoiding as much of the chaos as possible. For the sprint - hopefully this Oly experience will better prepare me for a mass start, because that is likely going to be insanity as you’ve described.

Congrats on finishing in 1:08!

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329

I’d say try biking and running sprint distance without socks if you can? I did sprint and olympic without socks. Much easier and less stressful in transition!!

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330

If I was on the pointy edge and thinking i’d win the thing, i’d consider it - my comfort is well worth the time loss of throwing socks on though.

331

Let us know how it goes!

I’m racing Muskoka 70.3 this weekend but stuck in a few months cycle of injury — too little rest – too fast back to intensity – injury, so we’ll see how it goes.

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332

Good luck!

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334

How did Muskoka go?

335

Sharing my story here, because I’ve finally taken the leap and registered for my first-ever triathlon.
And @JoeX told me in another older thread to share my story here!

Background I’ve been a cyclist for about four years now—mostly MTB and gravel events. At the start of this year, I began running more regularly after getting roped into a 10-mile race in April. Doing a 70.3 has been on my bucket list for ages (maybe even a full one someday), but time constraints always got in the way.

Why now? Our house renovations were supposed to start in July, but permit delays pushed them to mid-September. That means I’ve got extra time this summer to train.

About Me 28 years old Semi-serious cyclist for a few years Peaked at 4W/kg last year

The Event – August 24th
It’s a non-standard distance triathlon:

  • 1000m swim
  • 75km bike
  • 10km run

The swim and run distances seem manageable, and the longer bike leg is right up my alley.

The Swim
Back in high school, we swam weekly for an hour—but that was almost a decade ago. I still feel comfortable in the water, although I’ve never done more than 100 meters in open water.

In the past two weeks, I went to the pool twice:

  • 1400m at 2:15/100m
  • 1500m at 2:05/100m (both in repeats of 100m and 200m with rest)

My longest set so far is 250m, but I get pretty out of breathe towards the end. Plan: swim twice a week throughout the summer. The swim is my biggest concern at the moment.

The Bike
This is my strongest discipline. I normally ride 8–10 hours a week, but during tri prep, I’ll scale that down slightly to 6–8 hours. I’m setting aside my bike geek/elitism and using my road bike for the event.
If I enjoy this triathlon, a TT bike could be in my future. I would also love to do standalone TT-events

The Run
I’ve been steadily building my running volume, mostly at Z2 pace (~6:00/km). I’m up to about 15km per week.

My only faster run was a 10-mile race in April. I ran 1:24:12, wich is a 5:12 min/km pace. The whole run was a big negative split, with a 10km (51m52sec) and 5km PB (25min37sec) in the latter half of the race.
I’ve never done a standalone 5km or 10km PB effort. Should I attempt one before race day to dial in my expected pace for the tri?

Any tips, insights, or tri wisdom—I’d really appreciate it.

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336

As a beginner who’s fighting this same battle, I’ll tell you what EVERY SINGLE source has told me multiple times:

Try to go slower in training. Work primarily and ABOVE ALL on your balance. Swimming is not about going faster, it’s about improving your technique to swim easier with less effort. Forget the time for a while, and focus only on better form, better balance, better technique so you need less rest and get less winded.

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337

Overall, pretty happy with the race. I had mentally prepared to treat it as a swim-bike due to a niggling hip injury, but finished!

My swim was probably (shockingly!) the highlight, and the three person mini wave start was far less chaotic than my only other panic inducing mass start. Finished 5 mins faster than I expected. Still struggling with sighting, but feel like the work in the pool is starting to pay off?

Bike was also strong, though the low 30s and VERY humid temp was starting to catch up with me and I ended up riding significantly less than even my target IM power, but did finish top 20 overall on the bike. Pretty uncomfortable by the end, though, and struggling to hold position (despite the many hills giving me a bit of a respite), which I’ll need to address before my first IM in Ottawa in a month.

And then things kind of fell apart on the run. I ran about 500m before getting pretty awful full on abdo cramps that forced me to walk/Run the first five km, and basically kept me at a high z2 effort – and a good 15mins longer than I’d hoped.

I’m not sure what to make of those cramps, which were new for me. I had no GI upset, but did take in more carbs than usual on the bike. Abs are still a bit achey, and so I actually feel more like it was due to the strain from holding an uncomfortable TT position? Have been doing brick runs (albeit shorter) without this issue. Plus I was dehydrated. Plus it was hilly hilly hilly. And so hot and humid.

All in all, a humbling and wonderful experience until the death march! In some ways feeling more and less prepared for Ottawa in a month, now, though :upside_down_face:

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338

Olympic distance Tri went great. Got there an hour before my wave started and got my number and transition set up. Had no real idea what i was setting up so just matched what I saw around me.

Wetsuit went on and got in the water for the gun to go off with the first group of swimmers. .9 mile swim in ~33 min. Sighting was pretty difficult because the buoys were nearly invisible on the horizon. They only had 2 and we swam a large narrow triangle so seeing basically half a mile down the lake with other swimmers in pink caps (orange buoy) was hard. I just followed others and made sure when I took a breath I was parallel with others direction. That worked well enough. Finished very mid pack.

T1 felt quick enough. Not shooting for good or anything but 2:30 including the time to figure out where I even go to start the bike. Got the suit off quick and socks on thanks to @giventotri sock video suggestion.

Bike, just started stomping. Felt really good. I had preridden the course the weekend prior and got a new 1hr power PR from that ride. Knew where to brake and where to keep climbing. I passed what felt like every swimmer that had gotten out of the water before me. 1:16 for the 25 miles. I was 10th fastest bike of the day.

T2 was sub 1 min - bike racked. Swapped hat/helmet and shoes were tied and ready.

Run - it fell apart here. I walk ran constantly. When running held somewhere in then 7:30 to 8:00 min mile pace and then just mentally lost the battle and would walk until somebody would pass me and I’d start running again. This kept up for all 6 miles. Run was 56min high.

For running reference, my 5k pr is at a 7:19/mi pace so the 10k pace was likely too hot but the effort felt right at the time.

Hydration and fueling felt fine as I got both bottles mostly down the bike and took a gel at mile 3 on the run just because it was in my pocket.

Overall amazing experience. Pos 30/170 for the overall and I’ll absolutely be doing more. I have a sprint scheduled for this weekend but my mid back has been killing me. I didn’t do any swim/bike brick workouts and I think my aero bars are 40-60mm too low for a realistic setup. Also couldn’t get totally comfortable on the saddle after the swim which caused me to sit up a fair bit and ride drops. I’d ridden that position through all of training but never soaking wet in the tri suit. Now I know.

The top cyclists were running full trek, canyon and, quintanaroo TT bikes with disk wheels and ‘only’ put 4 minutes into my bike time which made me feel pretty good about my clip on aero bar effort. Obviously they saved some gas for the run where I probably did 20% more power for a worse time…

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339

Hi all,

I’m on low volume HIM tri plan and I wonder how do you guys (and gals) deal with the prescirbed intensity? In the build phase it’s not uncommon to have 5 intensity days in a week (1x vo2max & 2x threshold on the bike + 1x threshold or above run intervals + 1x race pace run), inevitably some back to back.

Am I the only weakling here and I need to HTFU or this is too much for you as well?

best, m