This 17-week training plan is designed for experienced triathletes targeting an ambitious sub-11:30 finish at a long distance race. The plan focuses on building bike and run fitness through threshold training while allowing flexibility to incorporate your own swim workouts.

The key elements of this plan include:

Bike Threshold Development

Progressive bike workouts building threshold/sweet spot power over multiple intervals.
Longer bike sessions focused on aerobic endurance and race pace riding.
Prescribed "Big Day" bike sessions over 5 hours to prepare for the Ironman 112 miles.

Run Threshold & Endurance

A mix of aerobic endurance runs and threshold/race pace intervals.
Progression runs building to marathon race pace by the final weeks.
Long runs topping out around 3 hours to develop ironman run endurance.

Brick Workouts

Strategically placed bike-run brick sessions to practice transition.
A 5+ hour "Big Brick" workout simulating Ironman race demands.

Periodization

The plan follows a periodized approach, building volume and intensity over the 17 weeks.
An appropriate taper is included leading into the final race week.

Flexibility

While focused on the bike and run, this plan allows you to incorporate your own swim training.
It assumes you can complete the 2.4-mile Ironman swim in under 1:20 based on current fitness.

By adhering to the prescribed bike and run workouts in this plan, multiple athletes have achieved their goal of going sub-11:30 at a full Ironman distance race.