This 13-Week training plan is for experienced triathletes looking to comfortably complete their first ironman distance event (2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and 26.2 miles of running.) This famous training plan, Thirteen Weeks to a Thirteen-Hour Ironman, has helped countless athletes successfully complete their first ironman event. This plan is for the experienced triathlete, who has completed several sprint and Olympic distance races.

You can currently swim three times per week for about an hour, estimating a race swim pace of 1:45 to 2:00 per 100 yards. You are currently doing a long bike ride at about 90-minutes and you estimate an average of 15 to 18 miles per hour for the race. You can currently do a long run that is 75- to 90-minutes long. Weekday training needs to be light, but weekend training hours are more available. The total training hours for the first week of the plan are 8:45 and the biggest week of training, Week 11, is 13:15 hours.

In Week 11 are your longest workouts. On Saturday you have a 1:30 swim workout and a 5:00 bike ride. Sunday is a 3:00 run. Volume tapers significantly the final two weeks of the plan to have you rested and ready for race day.

Originally appeared in the June 1999 issue of “Triathlete” magazine

Plan is available in the book “Training Plans for Multisport Athletes”

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Training volume: