How to Build Your Own Full Distance Ironman Training Plan

You've signed up for your first Ironman, and it's pretty daunting. Where do you start? Maybe you've already spent some money on a flash TT bike, or you're still heading down that road.

I want to give you a whole lot of advice from my 20 years of racing and coaching. There's so much misinformation out there, and loads of training plans. Is it 20 hours a week, or is 10 hours enough? (If time is your limit, I cover that in Sub-10 Ironman Training on 10 Hours a Week.) This article covers what's ideal, what's a nice-to-have, and what's really important to take into your first full-distance Ironman, which is hopefully at least 16 to 20 weeks away.

I've broken it into five areas: training, body support, nutrition (the fourth discipline), equipment and mental preparation. Go through each of them and you'll have a much better idea of where you are.

1. Training: Get Your Frequency Right

Training is where you'll spend most of your time, so let's start with the nuts and bolts. I don't think going into specific sessions is that important. After so many Ironman builds myself, plus learning from the athletes I coach, consistency is the champion you want to nail. It doesn't matter a hell of a lot exactly what you do before your first Ironman, but there are some low-hanging fundamentals.

If you get your frequency right from the beginning, you have a better chance of building consistency that sticks. That comes back to how many hours you realistically have each week.

Your minimum framework

Three swims, three bikes and three runs doesn't sound like much, but that's nine sessions, plus two strength and conditioning sessions, which can be as short as 30 minutes. So your bare minimum is roughly 9 to 11 sessions a week. I've mentioned in past videos that two swims is okay, and that's all I did, but it depends where you're starting from.

Because an Ironman bike leg is 180 km (112 miles), I'd ideally make it four bikes, to give you a little extra time in the saddle. The running doesn't need much more than three sessions, depending on your outcome goals and your process goals for your first Ironman.

Swim: three sessions

The three swims could literally be turning up, getting in the pool and swimming easy and aerobic. You'll get fit, no problem. If you want to split them up, make one a technical swim, one a CSS or threshold swim, and one an endurance swim. How you slice it isn't super important. It just covers your energy systems and puts you in great shape for 3.8 km.

Bike: endurance first

The big one on the bike is endurance. In the early part of your training, depending on how far out you are from the race, you'll basically do all three rides as endurance. It also depends on your strengths and weaknesses: most of us have one discipline that's better or weaker than the others. As the plan progresses, you can't go wrong with a structure like this:

• A long endurance ride. This is your bread and butter: long volume, with a very strict and controlled heart rate.
• A hard session above threshold, in the severe-domain (VO2) intensity zone. These can be longer repetitions of more than a minute, with shorter efforts beforehand as a precursor.
• A lower-cadence, higher-torque session. This builds leg strength that carries over to both the bike and the run. Remember what we say about Ironman: it's strength that gets you through the race. You can be super fit, but without leg strength you won't finish very well.

In the beginning all three rides would probably be endurance, and you certainly wouldn't do more than two hard sessions a week across all three sports. That's one bike and one run.

Run: frequency, then volume, then intensity

The run is trickier, for obvious reasons: much more loading and a higher risk of injury. I mention this a lot because of what I've learned from the athletes I coach. Older athletes often come into Ironman quite late. They might not have a running background, or they might have been marathon runners who moved across to triathlon to put less stress on the body. Running itself doesn't give you the injuries. It's a lack of conditioning, or ramping up the mileage too much, too soon.

The traditional 10% increase in volume per week, in time or kilometres, is absolutely fine. Just running three times a week will elicit a response in your aerobic capacity, and you want to be aerobically fit, especially for a hot race, which most summer triathlons are. The fitter you are aerobically, the better you deal with heat.

You've got to run 42 km at the end, so once you're fit I'd target roughly 40 to 45 km a week. That means your body is just used to running a marathon every week, which is a great little basic way to start. It might sound like a lot, but you build up to it: 20 km, 25, 30, 35, 40. That's not a number I've pulled out of the back of my head. The race distance is a great rule of thumb, and I like to get an athlete running around a marathon each week, because it compounds.

You don't have to do a hell of a lot of running, though. Some of my best Ironman marathons have come off 50 to 60 km weeks, running a fairly low 3:10 to 3:15. Again, you only run very well if you're conditioned super well on the bike.

The order matters. Build frequency first: three runs a week, or maybe four if you're coming from a running background or have a bit more time. Then let each run creep up in volume to where you can manage and sustain all the bike and swim training and still have a social life. Only then do we start to drip in some intensity. Frequency, then volume (this is gold), then intensity.

So what do three runs look like? Here's what I'd put in:

• A hill run. I'm a big fan of hill work on the bike and the run, because the carryover is insane. You get a big boost for a lower cost of stress on the body. It's speed work in disguise: strength work. It could be reps or undulating terrain, it doesn't really matter. If you live somewhere flat, use a treadmill. Hilly work transfers to running at all distances, so always have some sort of hill run.
• A brick run, so your legs get used to running off the bike. Once or twice a week is enough, and it can be as short as 10 to 15 minutes off the bike. Build longer ones as you get closer to the race and become more specific. If you're coming from no triathlon background, the transition feels so foreign that the more often you do it, the more it gets ingrained.
• An endurance run for time on your feet, which we call zone 2 out of seven zones. If you're a little fitter with more running experience, this can become a progressive tempo run, where you get closer to (and then above) your marathon pace.

If you target those three runs as a staple week in, week out, you'll be absolutely fine. The fourth run comes in when you're trying to build a bit more volume and you aren't getting to that 40 to 45 km a week.

2. Body Support: Prevent the Niggles

From the outset, invest in some body maintenance. That doesn't mean a weekly massage and hundreds of pounds a month. If you pre-empt the niggles and keep the body happy, you avoid something flaring up every two or three weeks of an Ironman build. Invest the time and money up front, rather than paying huge bills at the physio in the last two or three weeks for something that soft-tissue maintenance could have prevented. What you need depends on your posture, your body shape and size, and your history.

Sleep

The biggest free one here is sleep quality and hygiene. It's not just "I love sleeping" or "I don't have a problem falling asleep". Is your sleep consistent? There are a lot of books on this, and experts way better than I am. I've read a lot of them, and sleep hygiene consistently comes up as huge:

• A dark, cool, quiet room that isn't cluttered.
• Stay off your iPhones and iPads late at night, and give yourself an hour to wind down before bed.
• No caffeine after 12. Up to 2pm is okay, but even if you think you're not sensitive to it, it does affect your sleep.
• Aim for roughly 7 to 9 hours. You don't sleep the whole time you're in bed, so being horizontal for around 8 to 9 hours is great.

Sleep is your biggest bang for your buck for adaptation and repair. We're designed to sleep, it's free, and we're really good at it. Some people just struggle, so work backwards from your morning.

Strength work

Body support also means doing the fundamental strength work. Don't neglect it, especially as an older athlete. You might think it's a hassle, or you don't want sore muscles, but it's non-negotiable, even if it's two lots of 20 minutes or two lots of 45 minutes a week. You need it for injury prevention and to counteract all the in-line work you'll do in one plane of motion (the sagittal plane): running and biking, pretty flexed over. So include some pulling work, a lunge pattern and a squat pattern, and a strong calf, because the back end of the marathon is where things fall apart.

If you build really good foundational strength through the winter and into the build-up, then when the training gets harder you can just drop down and maintain it, and you'll be fine. Strength work should complement your triathlon, not make it harder. You should never leave the gym feeling worse.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamin and mineral support is quite crucial, but where do you start? I'd have a blood panel done at the start of your build, and potentially towards the end, just to check where you are. You might be low in certain areas. The big bang for your buck is the classics, which are really well researched and relatively affordable:

• High-quality fish oil.
• Magnesium, which supports the whole body across over 300 processes and especially sleep and recovery from your training.
• Probably vitamin D, depending on where you live. If you're in the southern hemisphere you get a lot more sunlight at this time of year than in the northern hemisphere.

3. Nutrition: The Fourth Discipline

We all hear about the fourth discipline. It's nutrition. There are some bare minimums every athlete should do, and most of them don't actually cost anything.

Know your sweat losses

Understand your sweat losses running and biking in different environments. There's no point testing in winter when your race is in summer. We all sweat differently, and humans are amazing at sweating. It's not a problem, we just want to manage it. All you're doing in an Ironman is managing heat and fluid loss, plus, of course, energy, which is actually a little easier to handle. It's more the homeostasis of hydration, especially in a race in a warmer time of year, like Kona.

As a bare minimum, do a free online sweat test (Precision Hydration has one) to get some ideas about your three levers of hydration: sodium, fuel and fluids. Beyond that, I do a full sweat test with some of my elite athletes and regular amateurs. We spend an hour and look at your sodium losses and your sweat, and the test is all around the world with Precision Hydration. This is a vital part of finishing the race. Nutrition is the most underrated part of Ironman, and it can result in a DNF straight away.

Look after your gut

I really think athletes don't look after their gut and microbiome enough. There's huge evidence from the last five years or so coming to light about the gut-brain connection. It's crucial for health first and foremost. We do sport as a vehicle for health, and then we decide we want to do competitive long-distance triathlon or ultra-running, and we neglect the gut. I've made some really bad mistakes over the years by missing this area. Keeping a diverse microbiome is crucial for your immune system, and I never made that connection. So invest in some knowledge around gut microbiome diversity. There are some really good podcasts on it at the moment.

Protein

Understand the role of protein. Endurance athletes are traditionally quite carb-driven, and there's a lot of evidence now, and advocates who are super intelligent about nutrition and dietetics, for the role of protein. We endurance athletes just don't tend to eat enough. Get it right and you'll feel full for longer, and it supports muscle maintenance, muscle growth and hormone balance, so it's going to support your training.

A good rule of thumb is 2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. That might sound like a lot initially, so build up to it and you'll find your happy place. Animal proteins make it easier. Plant-based is also fine, it's just harder to maintain. If you're plant-based and training 15 to 20 hours a week, be aware that your B vitamins might be super low, and I'd get that checked. It's a huge area for vegetarians and vegans, who also need to get the essential amino acids that animal proteins provide from other sources.

Pick an approach and stick to it

You need to learn how to eat like a champion. There's a low-carb approach, a high-carb approach, and somewhere in the middle, and we all get to pretty much the same end point. Whichever approach you decide to take, stick to it. Don't be one of those athletes who keeps yo-yoing. Your body hates it and it disrupts your microbiome: one minute you've got high energy availability, then very low.

Your body adapts to whatever format it tends to go with. A low-carb athlete will adapt to be metabolically flexible and quite efficient at fat oxidation. A high-carb athlete will tend to demand and adapt to eating more carbohydrate. Neither view is certainly wrong or right. It's what's right for you in this moment, at your age and stage of life, and male versus female matters too. I've studied low-carb and a little around ketogenic and applied some of it, and I've also learned a different stance on carbohydrates from top scientists who advise professional athletes in our space. So I take bits of both.

Race fuelling

For race fuelling, I'd trial two to three different brands and fuel sources, across solids, semi-solids and liquids, to work out where your fuel is going to come from. That side is quite tightly regulated. Then work on hydration as a separate area, through a bit of trial and error and field testing.

4. Equipment: What's Worth Spending On

We love buying gear, don't we? Especially bikes. Here's where I'd put your money, discipline by discipline.

Swim

Start with a good-fitting wetsuit. That sounds fairly obvious, but you don't need the top-end model. Every brand makes one, mainly for high profit margins and because people want the best. I find the middle of the range is great and offers the best balance of fit and function. About 85% of Ironmans are wetsuit-legal, and most people spend over an hour in the water, with an average swim of about an hour and a quarter. Beyond that:

• Goggles that fit your face, not just a brand that sounds good because a professional athlete uses it. Have mirrored lenses for glare and clear lenses for other conditions. Some sit inside the eye socket and some sit over it, and you'll find out straight away which ones leak. Then stick to one pair that you like.
• Anti-chafe cream. Some people get really bad chafing. I personally don't, because I've been wearing wetsuits for a while, but in a salty body of water you generally can, from all the straps and in areas you're not used to. Some races are non-wetsuit swims, so you wear a swim skin. That's definitely a minority of races, with Kona the exception to the rule, and it can dig in around your armpits, so anti-chafe there is a huge gain, especially in salty water.

Bike

The big area on the bike is bike fit, which I think is the most important gain you can make. Comfort is king. You can have the best bike and the nicest equipment, but you might only hold that position for half an hour on the turbo. In an Ironman you want to hold it for 4.5 to 7 hours, and the more you're fiddling and fidgeting, the slower you go. Comfort is king for a good run, too. I'd invest the money there first.

Next up are race wheels, which are the biggest bang in terms of aero advantage, together with an aero fit. All the other bits are add-ons that cost quite a lot of money for a small return in speed. For your first Ironman, you just want a nice balance: comfortable enough that you actually finish the race, you can run rather than walk the whole marathon, and you're moving quite quickly for really minimal effort. Ironman isn't about chasing power numbers the way many people do on indoor Zwift racing.

Another essential is new tyres, and they need to be tubeless-ready, with sealant. You'll be amazed how many people turn up to a race, get a puncture, and haven't practised it in training, so they don't know what to do. I'd invest some real time, even if it means paying someone for an hour, to go through basic bike equipment management: how to change a tyre and deal with a puncture on the road. You'd be amazed how many DNFs come from not knowing how to work or service your own kit on race day.

Run

There's not a huge amount of kit besides the obvious GPS watch and a heart-rate strap, which you'll use for biking as well. I'd emphasise getting a run analysis done. It's the biggest investment you can make. There are plenty of brands out there, but you need to get the right one for your foot type, from someone experienced in a proper run shop. I've used a good one in London for over 15 to 20 years, but we're not all in London. Find somewhere you trust that will do at least a video gait analysis of you running and find the right function of shoe for your foot.

5. Mental Preparation

Number five is the most important, I think. You need to prepare yourself mentally for a few things that will unfold on race day. We don't know exactly what's going to happen, but everyone is going to suffer. No one is going to have an easy day. If it was easy, we'd all be doing it.

• Expect to suffer. You're probably going to suffer at around 20 km on the run, so be ready for it. It's okay. You might have to slow down, have a word with yourself, or see someone you love, have a smile and a quick hug, and be on your way. It's amazing what that does to the physical. Your body will tell you to stop as a governing factor, but you can push way beyond that.
• Practise race day, including all eventualities. The number of people who never practise changing a puncture, fixing their bike gears, dropping a bottle or losing their nutrition is surprising.
• Use positive self-talk throughout the day. You've got to keep telling yourself, and it really works, so try it in training.
• Look at your evidence. Looking back at the training that led into your race, you'll see all the work you've done, and when things go really bad, confidence grows with the reinforcement of that work and your positive self-talk. Race results and previous performances can help too, but you need to encourage it by actually telling yourself through training, and having a word with yourself if you struggle in the race.
• Think of others during the race, the people who have contributed to it. I use two tactics. The first is to smile every mile on the run: when you smile at someone they smile back immediately, and it lifts you up. The second is to dedicate every mile of the marathon to someone: mile one is for John, mile two is for my mum, mile three is for Auntie Liz. You run it for that person, and it works amazingly well. I use it with my marathon runners too.

Embrace it. No one said it was easy. This is a big deal, and it's going to be a 9 to 15 or even 17-hour ordeal, so prepare yourself for a big day out. A big training day with some friends is the best way to think about it.

Name your chimp

The chimp on your shoulder is going to come, probably on the marathon or potentially halfway through the bike: "You're not good enough, you should have done more training." Wait for it, because it will come. That's the irrational brain. Have a word with it, give it a name and put it in a box: "Hey George, I'm coming back to you. I knew you were coming. I've already trained for this."

Try to get to that place in training, on the long days, where you have some dark days and the monkey comes. You'll be amazed how well it works to have this conversation with your imaginary monkey. It's basic psychology, which they've worked out and called the chimp. There's a good book on it called The Chimp Paradox. For more on what to expect on the day, read 10 Brutal Ironman Truths for First-Timers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts: Make Your First Ironman Your Best

If you've stuck with this long article, you can see where the emphasis lies. There's a lot on training and body support, and equipment across the swim, bike and run. We know nutrition is crucial, but mental preparation is the other one I really wanted you to focus on. If you found it valuable, try to implement it.

If you're racing a half distance instead, I've written a version for you: Build Your Own Half Ironman (70.3) Training Plan.

And if you'd like more help making sure your first experience is the best ever and you don't run into loads of problems, get in touch and let's get chatting!