Training for a triathlon

IntervalCoach plans for a triathlon the same way it plans for any goal race: it counts back from race day and builds your weeks across swim, bike and run.

Set a triathlon as your goal race

Pick a triathlon from the race calendar (IRONMAN, 70.3 and many others are listed under the Triathlon category) and adopt it, or create your own race and set its type to Triathlon. Make it an A race and select it as your goal. You can also ask Coach+ to add it for you and tell it the start time.

Your plan then builds toward that date across all three sports: base, build, peak and taper, with the weekly load shared out between swimming, cycling and running. You can see the whole road to race day on the Training Plan page.

Make sure swimming is allowed on your training days

A triathlon goal brings swim sessions into your plan on days where you have not limited the sport. If you have set specific sports per day, open the Training Plan page, go to Training Volume and tick Swim on the days you can get to the pool. A day you set to bike only stays bike only.

For brick sessions, mark a day as Brick (bike + run). The plan then schedules a ride followed by a short run on that day, uploaded back to back with a short transition.

How swim sessions are written

Every swim step, warm-up and cool-down included, is a distance in whole 50s with a pace per 100 m worked out from your CSS (critical swim speed). That way you count lengths against the pace clock instead of converting percentages in the pool. If your account uses imperial units, you get yards and a pace per 100 yards instead.

Set your threshold swim pace in your Intervals.icu swim settings so those paces fit you. The coach can also schedule a CSS test.

Race-specific bricks before the big day

If your primary sport is set to Both Sports, brick days in the last three weeks before your A race switch to a race-pace ride into a race-pace run, so your final bricks rehearse how race intensity feels. Race week itself stays light: openers only.

Adjusting along the way

Ask Coach+ to move a swim, add an extra session or change which sports a day allows. You can also swap a single planned session for another sport straight from the calendar with Swap. Train Now builds one-off swim, bike, run or brick sessions whenever you want something outside the plan.