Half-Distance Triathlon (70.3) — Training plan

The legs of the race

These are the standard distances of the format. When the event you name has a course of its own, Leo reads its legs instead and sizes the plan on those — the standard distances are the fallback, not the rule.

Sessions per discipline

No discipline goes beyond 4 sessions a week and the week never exceeds 10. If you tell Leo how many sessions your life allows, that number wins over everything above: the disciplines your race actually contains are simply served first.

Who this format is for

Athletes with an olympic or two behind them, and runners with a half marathon in the legs who ride regularly. This is the first format where the weekly hours, not the sessions, become the real constraint.

How the bike is written

A half-distance bike leg is raced at tempo, at the low end of the moderate range, and the plan reflects that: the key ride is a sustained tempo effort rather than the threshold work a shorter race would demand. Riding it a notch too hard is the single most common way this race is lost.

The long ride

The long ride is the backbone of the block and climbs toward a ceiling set by the format — noticeably beyond what an olympic asks, and still short of a full distance. It starts from your own longest recent ride and never jumps by more than a quarter at a time, so the progression is one your week can absorb.

Where the bricks sit

The long ride becomes a brick every other week early on, then every week across the closing eight, with a longer run off the bike than a short-course athlete would do. The point is to find out what your race-day run pace really is with ninety kilometres in the legs — which is never your standalone half-marathon pace.

The swim, in metres

Two swims a week is the floor, more if that is already your habit. Once a two-distance pool test is on file, your sets are written around your critical speed — easy, aerobic, threshold and faster repeats each have their own target per 100 m instead of a vague instruction to swim steady.

The last weeks

Two weeks or so, and deeper than a short-course taper because the block that precedes it is heavier. Volume drops hard across all three sports, the long ride loses a large slice of its length, the bricks stop, and a little intensity stays in each discipline so you do not arrive flat.

What you need

A watch that records the three sports and takes structured sessions, regular pool access, and a bike you can spend long hours on. A power meter is optional but earns its keep here: pacing a long bike leg by watts is easier than by feel.

Frequently asked questions