Building To Ironman

Building To Ironman

I met up with an athlete recently to discuss the year ahead.

This athlete is racing his first Ironman in 2025 and is working with me to help him prepare for it. We met up to discuss what training might be like in the months ahead, what types of work we will be doing, areas we need to focus on.

We have nine months until race day. Our simple plan is to split the nine months into 3 x 3 month blocks.

First Three Months

This will be November to January. In this period we are doing work that won’t be particularly specific to the race he is preparing for. Other than a weekly endurance ride, much of the work will be:

• Short and sharp interval work
• Strength work – in the gym and on the bike
• Weekly endurance ride – whichever bike he chooses!
• Run consistency – short and frequent
• Building habits
• Stacking weeks

Second Three Months

February to April. We are looking to build big fitness in this period.

• Weekend bike and run sessions become longer
• Big bike miles
• Bring intensity down slightly and increase interval lengths
• Endurance blocks introduced

Third Three Months

May to July. This period is about race preparation.

• Longer intervals, with pace becoming more like race day
• Brick sessions
• Open water swimming
• Build up races
• Peaking & Taper

Other Stuff

Amongst a million different things, we also discussed:

• Goals
• Training time
• Training priorities (bike strength, run durability, swim power, overall strength development)
• Build up races
• The importance of self-care and looking after himself

Plan & Execute!

We have the overall plan.

We have the weekly and monthly blocks designed to fit within each of the bigger blocks.

We know what we are doing and where we are going, we just need to execute now!

Building To Ironman

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