What Makes a Well-Balanced Half Ironman 70.3 Program?

Podcast

August 3, 2020

What makes a well-balanced half Ironman 70.3 program: how to split your training and which sessions matter most. Get Fast Podcast, Ep 35.

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 35, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

A well-balanced 70.3 program is built around what the race asks of you. Split your training across the three sports in about the same proportions as the race, give the most weight to your endurance and ride-run sessions, and use variety so you keep improving.

How should you split your training across swim, bike and run?

Start with the event: a 1900 m swim, a 90 km ride and a half marathon run. Looking back over years of coaching results, Gerard says the race breaks down to roughly 15% swimming, 50% riding and 35% running. Training follows about the same percentages.

A weak runner might go closer to 40% on the run. A strong runner might drop to the low 30s and work more on the swim and ride.

Should a weak swimmer swim more?

Usually not. Unless you're a full-time athlete, extra swims take away from your riding and running. Gerard's question is what value they give you. In his rough example, more swim sessions might save two or three minutes, while the same focus on your run could save 10. "Which are you going to choose, three minutes or ten?"

He encourages extra swims if you have the time, as long as your rides and runs don't suffer. Fatigue counts too, because swimming with poor technique is very tiring. The aim is to be competent enough to get through the swim without being exhausted.

Do some sessions matter more than others?

Yes. Every session has a weight, and endurance carries the most. Gerard says it's the part of a program that "can't be compromised".

A 20-week program gives you about 16 weeks to practise your endurance. These sessions are also hard to catch up, because athletes with full-time jobs can only fit them on days off. Work out how to fit them around your work and family, so they don't get missed.

Beginners and mid-packers are on the course longer than the fast athletes. It's a longer event for them, so they need more endurance.

What does missing a key session cost you?

Jordan explains it with made-up fitness values. A high-intensity session might score 10, an endurance run 15 and a recovery session 5, with a full week worth 100. Do the big sessions and miss some small ones, and you might score 80. Do the small ones and miss the big ones, and you might score 50.

Over 20 weeks, that's 1600 against 1000. Fitness shows in the back half of the half marathon, where you want to hold the pace you started with.

Why should you run off the bike so often?

The race has no gaps between legs, so the ride-run combination gets the next most weight. Gerard treats it as "almost not negotiable".

Aim to follow at least two bike sessions a week with a run. Three is ideal and four is fantastic. His maths over 16 weeks: one a week gives you 16 runs off the bike, and four a week gives you 64. The midweek ones are very short and not that hard. A short run off the bike at race pace then shows you what race day feels like.

Why not train at race pace every day?

Repeat the same sessions and, in Gerard's words, "we'll stay the same athlete". Each sport gets one session a week that replicates race effort. The other days are different, because you need overload to improve.

Harder sessions also make race effort feel more comfortable on the day.

How do you know the balance is right?

You run the whole run. TriVelo's goal is that triathletes shouldn't have to walk in a triathlon, because a good enough program makes them fit enough to run the whole way.

Gerard tells of an athlete who swam well, had the second-fastest bike split, then had to walk. His response: "you might as well go and do a cycling event".

You also have to execute. Build each leg and start conservatively, because walking at the end costs far more than a slower first 5 km.