SEP 21 – 27, 2026 · IRONMAN 70.3 HAPPY VALLEY · 2027-05-23 · T-MINUS 244 DAYS · PHASE: BASE-1 (WEEK 8 OF ~42) · COLUMBUS HALF 2026-10-18 · 27 DAYS · RAMP WEEK 2 OF 4
Weekly Targets
SPORT
TARGET
SHAPE
Swim
1,400 m
Two sessions, Tue + Fri. Distance is no longer the question (150 and 200 m continuous last week). Tuesday is the first efficiency session: drills, push-off, stroke counting. Friday repeats the 200 at controlled pace and runs the flat-body A/B test
Bike
22 mi
Thu 12 mi easy + Sat 10 mi as the front half of the brick. Bike drops again on purpose: this is a run-ramp week and the bike is the discipline furthest ahead
Run
16 mi
Wed 4 mi easy w/ strides · Sat 3 mi off the bike · Sun 9 mi continuous — Columbus ramp step 2 (7 → 9 → 10–11 → taper). Sunday's 10 was 2 + 8 with 3.5 h between; the 9 is the first single run past 8 since Aug 15
Strength / Mobility
3+
Pushups Tue · squats Thu · upper body Mon · stretch 10 min daily — Week 7 logged zero stretching entries
Schedule
DAY
SESSION
EFFORT CAP
Mon 9/21
REST. Yesterday was a 20-mile day across two sports with a race-effort finish (HR 167–181 for the last 1.5 mi); modeled fatigue is at the program's highest point (ATL 104 vs CTL 67) and wake RHR is 63, the amber band. No training. Stretch 15 min · log food — the diet log went dark Friday · upper body only if you must move
nothing
Tue 9/22
Swim ~750 m — efficiency session. 4×25 easy, count strokes (baseline; last week 16–17 per length) · 4×25 superman glide into easy swim · 4×25 side-kick, breathe by rotating, alternate sides · 4×50 pull buoy if you have one (else 4×50 easy, counting) · 1×150 continuous at 58–60 s/length, streamlined push-off and two-count glide at every wall · 4×25 golf (seconds + strokes; beat the first set). Pushups after
no cap — technique
Wed 9/23
Skipped — right heel pain (onset Wed, three days after the 20-mile Sunday and its 1.5 mi finish at cadence 160). Rest was the right call
—
Thu 9/24
Swim ~700 m — one cue only: eyes on the bottom (moved up from Friday; no running). 4×25 easy, count strokes · 200 m continuous at 58–60 s/length · rest 3 min · 4×50 easy on 60 s rest, count strokes on the second length · 2×25 with the pull buoy · easy 25s to 700. Own goggles. Eat 45 min before
no cap · no running
Fri 9/25
Bike 12 mi easy (swapped from Thursday). Trainer; watch avg HR, not speed. Squats only if the heel is pain-free walking. Calf stretch and plantar-fascia roll twice today
avg HR ≤ 140 · no running
Sat 9/26
HEEL-TEST BRICK: bike 10 mi easy → run 3 mi easy, flat, transition ≤ 5 min. Run only if the first steps out of bed were pain-free. Stop at any heel pain above 3/10 or a changed stride; a shortened run is a pass, a limped one is a fail. Fourth time the brick is on the plan
bike ≤ 140 · run ≤ 145
Sun 9/27
Long run 9 mi continuous — only if Saturday's 3 mi and Sunday's first steps were both pain-free. Otherwise bike 20 mi easy and the 9 moves to Tue 9/29. Start before 9 AM, flat route, water, gel at ~45 and ~90 min, no fast finish
avg HR ≤ 145, ceiling 150
Morning Go / No-Go
Check wake RHR on the morning brief before training.
≤ 62 — green light, train as planned
63–66 — train, but easy only; skip strides / the A/B test that day
≥ 67 — swap to rest / stretching
Monday read 63 (amber) after 9.0 h of sleep — rest regardless. Sunday is the exposed day again: 9 mi the morning after the brick.
Amber Sunday → run 6, still capped, and the 9 moves to Tuesday 9/29. Tuesday amber → swim the drills, skip the 150.
The One Rule This Week
Bike, then run, within five minutes. The brick has been on the plan three weeks running and has been executed zero times.
Week 6's was skipped, Week 7's Saturday became a Sunday ride and a run 34 minutes later. Everything the 70.3 asks of the legs happens in
that gap: the first half-mile off the bike feels wrong, and that feeling is trained away only by doing it. Ten miles and three miles is
deliberately small. Put the run shoes next to the trainer on Friday night.
Fueling
~2,300–2,500 kcal on training days; the low end Monday
Protein ≥ 135 g every day. Week 7 hit it on 1 of 4 fully logged days (Mon, 150 g);
Tue–Thu sat at 112–117 g. One protein-centred meal closes the gap
Log all seven days. Week 7 was Mon–Thu, a partial Friday, nothing Sat or Sun — the two biggest training days
Weight 186.9 lb on the Sep 22 InBody scan (21.4% fat, 146.8 lb lean). Race weight reset to 175 (16% fat at constant lean); 12 lb of fat in 34 weeks (~0.35 lb/wk) — a modest deficit on rest days, none on long-session days
Week Checklist
[ ] Monday: rested (no training)
[ ] Two swims, 1,400 m · stroke counts written down
[ ] Wed 4 mi + strides, avg HR ≤ 145
[ ] Thu 12 mi ride, avg HR ≤ 140
[ ] Sat brick executed (bike 10 → run 3, ≤ 5 min)
[ ] Sun 9 mi continuous ≤ 145, morning, no surges
[ ] Protein ≥ 135 g · logged all 7 days
[ ] Stretching 10 min × 5+ days
Why These Numbers
Week 7 actual: 15.1 mi run / 26.0 mi bike / 1,500 m swim against 14 / 26 / 1,200 — all three volume targets met, the first week that has happened.
Tuesday's swim reached 150 m continuous and Friday's reached 200 m (both lap counts corrected from the FIT length records; the watch missed three turns
Tuesday and six Friday). Wednesday's 5 mi held avg HR 145, on the cap, in 91°F feels-like. Thursday's 16 mi trainer ride averaged 133. The Saturday brick
did not happen; Sunday became a 10 mi ride (avg 133), a 2.08 mi run at 140 cut off by a thunderstorm, and 8 mi at 2 PM in 88°F feels-like averaging 156 —
the first 5.5 mi at 151 (same pace as the morning run, 11 bpm higher), then a 1.5 mi finish at 12:25/mi and HR 167–181. Weather-adjusted, that finish is about
11:40/mi at 60°F, within ~15 s/mi of April's half-marathon race pace, on a day that already held 18.5 miles across two sports: consistent with fitness at or near
race level, moderate confidence. Easy-run efficiency (weather-adjusted) is flat over three weeks, 0.736 vs 0.728 — the aerobic base has not measurably moved yet, which is
the expected reading at five weeks. Garmin's half prediction fell to 2:35:58 (about 2:30 after its 4% bias); modeled fitness 66.9 is a program high, fatigue 104 is too,
hence Monday. Run rises to 16 because the long run must reach 10–11 mi next week; 9 continuous is the step between Sunday's 8 and that. Bike drops to 22.
Swim rises to 1,400 with a change of purpose: at 16.5 watch strokes per 25 m and SWOLF 65, stroke efficiency is now the limiter, not distance. Stretching logged zero
entries in Week 7 and pushups appeared once (15, Monday). Readiness 44%. T-minus 244 days.