Super Simple Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Training Plan

Sometimes, the best 70.3 training plan is the simplest one. Streamline your half-Ironman training with our fan-favorite Super Simple 70.3 Training Plan from coach Matt Fitzgerald.

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Sometimes, the best 70.3 training plan is the simplest one. Streamline your half-Ironman training with one of Triathlete's fan-favorite Super Simple 70.3 Training Plan. (Photo: Hannah DeWitt/Triathlete)

Variety is overrated in triathlon training. It’s certainly important, but coaches often make it out to be more important than repetition when the opposite is true. There are only a handful of workout types that you need to include in your training program. Even in an Ironman 70.3 training plan, you can practice these basic types of workouts in all kinds of different ways, and doing so may make the training process more interesting for you, but there is no particular physiological advantage of complex training compared to basic training.

I favor simple Ironman 70.3 training plans for a few reasons. First, I find them to be less mentally stressful than complex training plans. Why make your training so complex that it is unnecessarily mentally taxing in addition to being necessarily physically taxing? Second, the results of a very basic, and highly repetitive, training plan are predictable, and predictability of effects is a major virtue in a training plan. You want to know exactly what you’re going to get out of it. When your workouts are always familiar, there’s little mystery about what they will do for you. Finally, it’s easier to measure and monitor progress in a training plan with lots of repetition. You can make apples-to-apples comparisons of your performance in difference instances of the same workout, whereas such comparisons are more difficult when you never do the same workout twice. This is important, because seeing progress inspires future progress.

Of course, an Ironman 70.3 training plan has to have some variation. First, the overall workload has to increase as it goes along. Second, the key workouts must become more race-specific. The following is a super simple 16-week training plan for half-iron-distance racing. It features nine workouts per week—three swims, three rides, and three runs—and is appropriate for “intermediate” level athletes.

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Want to take your prep to the next level by fueling the right way for your 70.3 training plan? We’ve got a three-week meal plan for triathletes, using the workouts from this training plan. Check it out: A 3-Week Meal Plan for Triathletes in 70.3 Training

Understanding the terms in your Ironman 70.3 training plan

You will find the workout descriptions of this Ironman 70.3 training plan self-explanatory for the most part, but the intensity and pacing guidelines require some explanation. Here’s a key to understanding them:

Super Simple Ironman 70.3 Training Plan

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4 (Recovery)

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8 (Recovery)

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12 (Recovery)

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16 (Race Week)