Half Ironman 70.3 20-Week Training Plan

In my last post, I spoke very broadly about a 70.3 training schedule and different plans you can download from the web. Today I'm sharing my 20-week plan. This is the plan I used in 2014 to train for Ironman 70.3 Augusta.



Some notes. This is a Google Doc, which means you can download it and edit it for your race. I highlighted the week I was currently in in green. I highlighted my races in red. OWS means open water swim. Pay attention to my notes. I kept track of when I bought shoes, goggles, had my bike tuned up, etc. Lastly, and most important, I am not a triathlon coach. I'm just your pal Kim sharing my training plan for you to use as a guide in creating your own.

A good rule of thumb is to do three workouts a week in each of the three sports (3 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs), with one of them being a long ride / long run. I also did strength training (at least in the beginning) and yoga. This was my schedule:

Monday:
rest

Tuesday:
bike and brick
strength training

Wednesday:
run
swim

Thursday:
bike and brick
yoga

Friday:
run
swim

Saturday:
long ride and brick

Sunday:
long run
open water swim

If that looks like a lot, that's because it is. It takes a lot of time to train for three different sports simultaneously. On average, I worked out 12 hours a week. It gets insane towards the end because you're working out for 4-5 hours on Saturday, not including the time it takes to drive to and fro Natchez Trace. My longest week of training was Week 17. I logged 15.5 hours that week.

Again, here is my 2014 Ironman 70.3 Augusta 20-Week Training Plan. And here are the instructions on how to download it so you can save it as your own and edit it for your race.

In my next post, I'll start talking about the gear you need, and don't need, to get started. There's so much stuff you need, but should borrow unless you're going to become an insane person who does one or two of these races a year. To be continued!