I am doing an article on the training required to do a 70.3 in under 5:00
I will be using peoples training data as my research.
Things I was to see are:
-Peoples training schedule (weekly, monthly, yearly progression, etc…)
Do you train with Heart Rate, do you train with power? FTP? etc…
What paces are you training at vs racing, how much “easy” training vs hard training, etc…
Ideally looking at the athletes training peaks would be great. I can sync you as one of my athletes and just peak in provided its well filled out. If you are willing to be part of this, please let me know.
hey I have an ST athlete on here who’s goals are to go in the sub 4:40 by end of year. He’s done a few halfs in the 5:20ish range, and this year (he is recent college grad) we are looking to go sub 5 hours. BryanD is his handle, ping him and i’ll tell him if he wants to share his data. He’s training roughly 14 hours a week at the moment, some more, some less.
ETA: He uses TP
I don’t have training peaks but you are welcome to check out my Strava or Garmin Connect. I raced a 4:55 on a hilly Lake Stevens course averaging around 3-4 hours per week w/ limited swimming. Trained with HR and power
It depends on your overall ability/talent as much as anything. I could probably do 5 hours on just 6-8 hours per week. I did 4:25 on 10-14 hours. I hope to hit 4:15 this year on an average of about 17 hours (18-22 hours 3 out of 4 weeks + 1 recovery week). Considering that my IM goal is around 9:45, a 5:00 70.3 would be a nice relaxing afternoon with a long run thrown in, probably easier than racing an Olympic Distance.
For others, 5 hours might represent the maximum of their ability and require a very focused 16-20 hours of training to build the bike speed needed.
If you 60 years old, at 5 hours, you’re at the pointy end and one of the fastest in your age group.
Jr National team rower in HS. Spent 15 years doing nothing but bad things for me (smoking, drinking and many other things that weren’t very good for me) and gain about 50-60lbs from my HS weight. Wife had a kid in 2011, decided I needed to turn things around. Lost 40lbs and raced a 5:16 on injured feet and beat up legs at Lake Stevens in 2012. 2013 focused on Lake Stevens. Had a two or three 6 hour weeks, one 7 hour week and one 9 hour week. The rest were 2, 3 and 4 hour weeks (starting Jan 2013).
My race at Lake Stevens was decent but my foot was a little sore so I backed off on the run to ensure it didn’t blow up. Probably should have been around 4:50-4:52 had I race the whole run.
I’m 34, 6’3", 197lbs. If I can get my weight down into the low 180’s I should be significantly faster. Plus a bike with a better fit would help as well.
I went 5:05 a few weeks after being hit by a motorbike while cycling last year. I’m pretty damn sure sub 5 was in the cards otherwise. Not sure if that qualifies me to comment but I’ll do it anyway =).
Swim: 2 masters classes a week. Around 6k weekly mileage. I like this because I don’t have to think. I just show up on time at the pool and do the workout while the coach pushes and gives instruction. My swims for 70.3 are pretty consistently at or just under 30 minutes.
Bike: 2-3 bikes a week. One long ride (rides were getting up in the 160k range as I was building for IMC) done around IM pace. The other two rides were of around 1hr in duration and pretty hard. The odd one I’d follow up with a hard 3k run. I actually felt like that hard brick made a difference as I felt no sluggishness at all off the bike at the start of my run. My time was a pretty weak 2:56 or something. Part of that could have been due to the whole bike wreck thing, but all in all cycling is my weakest discipline.
Run: 3-4 runs a week. Mostly done easy with one hard session (either tempo or hills or something) and one easy long run (16-30k). Ran 1:36.
I would make sure I had one day off a week, and an easy week every 3 or 4 weeks. Pretty unstructured, low tech training on the whole (no PM, heart rate or anything. I track my rides with Strava on my phone for looking at afterwards, and use a garmin for pacing my runs).
I’ve broken 5hrs twice on a hilly course with an average of 9-10 hrs per week. About 75mi per week bike, 5-7k swim, 22-25mi per week run. Those are my overall averages for the last 5 years or so on TP. I tend to take a month or two off completely every winter and took a complete break from racing last year. I’m a 48 yo male.
I use a power meter and have had a Training Peaks account for five years or so.
I went 4:58 in my first HIM last May after starting training the prior November. At the time I trained using virtual power. I have detailed logs available. If you’re interested in seeing them PM me.
4 months of consistent 9-12 hours/week training brought me to 4:52 on hilly course. During this 4 month block the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the workouts were aimed at frequency of training instead of volume, which shifted for the last 1/2 to 1/3 to longer more race specific scenarios.
I think that with maintained consistency of around 10 hours/week it should be a pretty manageable goal.
Jr National team rower in HS. Spent 15 years doing nothing but bad things for me (smoking, drinking and many other things that weren’t very good for me) and gain about 50-60lbs from my HS weight. Wife had a kid in 2011, decided I needed to turn things around. Lost 40lbs and raced a 5:16 on injured feet and beat up legs at Lake Stevens in 2012. 2013 focused on Lake Stevens. Had a two or three 6 hour weeks, one 7 hour week and one 9 hour week. The rest were 2, 3 and 4 hour weeks (starting Jan 2013).
My race at Lake Stevens was decent but my foot was a little sore so I backed off on the run to ensure it didn’t blow up. Probably should have been around 4:50-4:52 had I race the whole run.
I’m 34, 6’3", 197lbs. If I can get my weight down into the low 180’s I should be significantly faster. Plus a bike with a better fit would help as well.
You have become my new Idol!! I eventually want to get to sub 5 while weighing 195lbs. I am currently 6’1 210lbs.
I don’t have training peaks but you are welcome to check out my Strava or Garmin Connect. I raced a 4:55 on a hilly Lake Stevens course averaging around 3-4 hours per week w/ limited swimming. Trained with HR and power
There are much better people to look up to… I had good genetics early and squandered them. So much potential but got caught up with the wrong crowd and made some dumb choices…
The one thing I still have going for me is the understanding how to focus on getting the most out of my work while training and racing…
In my second tri year, I did BSLT in 4:36 and Boulder 70.3 in 4:26. Didn’t race a 70.3 at all my first year. Probably trained 8-10 hours on average. I think that was the first year I used power, probably wasn’t using HR at the time. Most of the bike intervals I was doing were hard threshold intervals. Mostly easy running with a weekly tempo run. I might have power files if they’d be of interest. Could even send weekly training if it would help.
I did a 4:59 in my first 70.3 with about 6 months of triathlon training. I guess I did about 5-7 hour weeks because I was still lifting weights. I’m guesstimating FTP was around 210 or 2.8w/kg. Running threshold maybe 4:45. My splits were 35/2:43/1:40.
Find a flat course, do some consistent weeks and you are there in 6 months if you are not totally lost. When I started triathlon training I was in decent shape with a 1:23 sprint with 22/35/25 as a first triathlon that got me hooked.
I don’t use TP but like others I have all my garmin connect data for S/B/R. PM me and ill send you whatever you need. Im shooting for sub 5:00 this year. fastest HIM was 5:17 on tired legs 3 weeks after IMLP. let me know
There are much better people to look up to… I had good genetics early and squandered them. So much potential but got caught up with the wrong crowd and made some dumb choices…
The one thing I still have going for me is the understanding how to focus on getting the most out of my work while training and racing…
You NEVER lose good genetics. Ever.
I’ve seen a few guys who were ex-15 min 5k guys in high school, then not train at all for literally 25 years, and basically doubling their body weight to essentially obese. You’d never thought they were remotely an athlete. Then they decide at age 48-50 that they should start training casually again, and within a year they’ve lost all the weight and are throwing down 16:xx 5ks again. Hate you guys!