I am utterly unqualified at this point to put together a training plan for a race of this distance, so, what you will find here is a summary of my actual training to prepare for my Half Ironman. I was honestly a bit overwhelmed by the whole process and opted to put together just about a simple a plan as I could.
The end result was a finish, but, left a lot to be desired. I am sure there are athletes that could follow this same plan and do much better or, maybe even worse. A friend of mine ran the race with me on much less training and beat me by about an hour. He did swim competitively in high school, is a fast runner and does not sit at a desk to earn a living. So, as with everything, your mileage may vary. I include this more as a case study rather than a how to (or how not to).
The one thing that I do know, is that the most significant change with moving up to this distance is that the cutoff times are somewhat rigourous. Sprint and Olympic cutoff times are generally structured so that 99+% of your participants can complete the race. Not the case with half and full iron distance races. Check the results for any of these races and you will see a fair amount of DNFs, so, train accordingly.
| Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 1 | Swim 800 yards moderate | Bike 40 minutes moderate | Strength | Run 2 Mile | Swim 800 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate | Strength | Run 3 miles | Swim 800 yards | Bike 20 miles moderate | Run 3 miles moderate |
| 2 | Swim 1,000 yards moderate | Bike 40 minutes moderate | Strength | Run 2 Mile | Swim 850 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 5 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3 miles moderate | Swim 850 yards | Bike 25 miles moderate | Run 4 miles moderate |
| 3 | Swim 1,200 yards moderate | Bike 40 minutes | Strength | Run 3 Miles | Swim 900 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 8 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3 miles moderate | Swim 900 yards | Bike 30 miles moderate | Run 5 miles moderate |
| 4 | Swim 1,000 yards moderate | Bike 40 minutes | Strength | Run 2 Mile | Swim 800 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 5 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3 miles moderate | Swim 800 yards | Bike 25 miles moderate | Run 4 miles moderate |
| 5 | Swim 1,400 yards moderate. | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 3 Miles | Swim 1,000 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 8 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3.5 miles | Swim 1,000 yards | Bike 35 miles moderate + 10-minute transition run at moderate pace | Run 6 miles moderate |
| 6 | Swim 1,600 yards | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 3 Miles | Swim 1,100 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 10 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3.5 miles | Swim 1,100 yards | Bike 40 miles moderate | Run 7 miles moderate |
| 7 | Swim 1,800 yards moderate | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 1,200 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 12 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3.5 miles | Swim 1,200 yards | Bike 45 miles moderate + 15-minute transition run at moderate pace | Run 8 miles moderate |
| 8 | Swim 1,400 yards moderate | Bike 40 minutes | Strength | Run 3 Miles | Swim 1,000 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 8 minutes comfortably hard. | Strength | Run 3.5 miles | Swim 1,000 yards | Bike 35 miles moderate | Run 6 miles moderate |
| 9 | Swim 2,000 yards | Bike 50 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 1,300 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 15 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 4 miles | Swim 1,300 yards | Bike 50 miles moderate + 20-minute transition run at moderate pace | Run 9 miles moderate |
| 10 | Swim 2,000 yards | Bike 50 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 1,400 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 18 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 4 miles | Swim 1,400 yards | Bike 55 miles moderate | Run 10 miles moderate |
| 11 | Swim 2,200 yards | Bike 55 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 1,500 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 20 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 4 miles | Swim 1,500 yards | Bike 60 miles moderate | Run 11 miles moderate |
| 12 | Swim 2,000 yards moderate | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 3 Miles | Swim 1,300 yards | Bike 40 minutes moderate + 10 minutes comfortably hard | Strength | Run 3 miles | Swim 1,300 yards | Bike 45 miles moderate | Run 7 miles moderate |
| 13 | Bike 50 Min Easy | Run 3 Miles | Bike 40 min easy | Easy Swim | Off | 20 min bike and 10 min run | RACE! - Pleasant Prairie Olympic Tri |
| 14 | Swim 2,400 yards | Bike 60 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 1,800 yards | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 4 miles | Swim 1,600 yards | Bike 60 miles moderate | Run 10 miles moderate |
| 15 | Swim 2,400 yards | Bike 60 minutes | Strength | Run 4 Miles | Swim 2,000 yards | Bike 45 minutes | Strength | Run 4 miles | Swim 1,600 yards | Bike 50 miles moderate + 10-minute transition run at race pace | Run 10 miles moderate |
| 16 | Swim 800 yards | Bike 10 minutes easy, 10 minutes comfortably hard, 10 minutes easy | Run 3 Miles | Bike 40 minutes easy | Easy Swim | Off | 20 minute bike and 10 minute run | Race! - Racine 70.3 |
Here is where things get interesting. This plan was to prepare for the Racine 70.3 which was unfortunately plagued by thunderstorms causing the swim to be cancelled and bike shortened to 31 miles. You can read more about it in my race report. So, below are the results for that race which I am fairly satisfied with, however it was not the full 70.3, so, we will never know exactly how I would have performed.
Bike (31.4 Miles): 1:54:50 - 16.4 mph
T2: 4:15
Run (13.1 Miles): 2:28:31 - 11:20 min/mile
Total Time: 4:27:36
Since I had put in all the training, I figured I should make an attempt at the full distance which was a month later. So, I had to try and fill the gap as best I could and basically repeated the last 4 weeks of the plan with the results below.
Swim: 56:09 - 2:40/100 yards
T1: 9:37
Bike: 3:46:34 - 14.83 mph
T2: 6:43
Run (13.1 Miles): 2:48:29 - 12:51 min/mile
Total Time: 7:47:32
My current training is very different and I hope to have some comparative data and stories to share. Some of the biggest differences between this plan and my current training is the addition of heart rate and zones, bigger difference in easy days and hard days, addition of professional coaching, much more varied and purposeful training sessions.