Anyone who has crossed a 70.3 finish line will wonder how IRONMAN training is different to 70.3 training.
The short answer? Not all that different. There is obviously going to be more of it, and the intensity distribution may be different (depending on how seriously you have been racing 70.3), but all in all, it’s not actually that different. Let’s take a deeper look at what makes ironman training different to 70.3 training.
The length of your long sessions
The single biggest difference will be the length of your longest sessions. Where over the 70.3 distance we won’t be going much over four hours during our longest ride, we may be closer to 6-7 hours for IRONMAN, depending on your fitness.
Our long runs will also be longer, but not quite as long proportionally. It’s rare that I set a run that’s close to three hours long. The reason for this is that this creates an enormous amount of fatigue and the injury risk is high.
Your long sessions need to be longer, but we have to build up to this carefully. If you are coming straight off of a 70.3 finish and pivoting to IRONMAN this will be a natural progression. If you have taken a break after a 70.3 and are getting back to training, then you will likely need to start off much shorter and build up carefully to avoid burning out.
Intensity distribution
A 70.3 is a shorter event, so can be raced at a higher intensity. This won’t be news to many of you. This may have an effect on your intensity distribution, which is a big reason IRONMAN training is different to 70.3 training.
An athlete who has been racing 70.3 for a couple of years or more will start doing more in the way of training and racing in low zone 3 (of a five zone system). This will allow them to race their event and perform well, rather than simply aiming to complete the event.
If you have just finished your first 70.3, the chances are you were just trying to complete your race at a low intensity. If you tried to push hard and chase a time goal, there’s a good chance you blew up and did a lot of walking on the run course.
An IRONMAN will be completed at a low intensity. Even the very best pros will be racing at around 75% of their max, relative to a 70.3 where they may be around 85%. This means a lot of our training will be done at a slow, easy intensity. There will of course be hard intensity session, but these will normally be focused on VO2 max to improve your maximal oxygen uptake, rather than to build your FTP. A higher FTP is great and it will slowly improve over the course of your training, but an extra 20W onto your FTP won’t matter one bit if you’re walking the marathon.
Double Sessions
You do not need to train more than once a day to get round a 70.3 And you don’t need to train more than once a day to complete an IRONMAN, although this is much more common. Don’t listen to the gatekeepers who tell you that you need to train for 15 hours a week with several double sessions to complete an IRONMAN. This just isn’t true.
However, double sessions are far more popular with IRONMAN athletes than those training for 70.3. There’s only so much we can sandwich into the weekend before it get silly. We can bump up our weekly volume up quite nicely by squeezing a second session in.
This is most commonly just a 30 minute run or ride on the same day as a strength session or a swim. There is no obligation to include double sessions, but many IRONMAN athletes will in the final few months of prep to maximise the training they can fit into their week.
Conclusion
When all’s said and done, IRONMAN training isn’t that different to 70.3 training. The sessions will be longer, might be slightly easier and you may choose to include more in the way of double sessions, but that’s it really.
You will probably need another 3-4 hours of free time each week to train, but if you are a 70.3 finisher you already have a fantastic aerobic base, and stepping up to the full IRONMAN is achievable.
To learn more about stepping up from IRONMAN to 70.3, watch my free webinar here: https://phazontriathlon.mykajabi.com/step-up-to-ironman-opt-in
