◂ ALL REPORTSTHE ROAD TO 70.3

WEEK 9 TRAINING PLAN — SHORT, EASY, PORTABLE

SEP 28 – OCT 4, 2026  ·  IRONMAN 70.3 HAPPY VALLEY · 2027-05-23  ·  T-MINUS 237 DAYS  ·  PHASE: BASE-1 (WEEK 9 OF ~42)  ·  COLUMBUS HALF 2026-10-18 · 20 DAYS  ·  HOTEL THU–SUN · TOKYO FROM SUN 10/4

Weekly Targets

SPORTTARGETSHAPE
Swim1,700 mMon 800 + Thu 900, both at home before the trip. Still one cue: eyes on the bottom, water line at the crown. Thursday adds the second cue (push off and glide) only if the first held Monday
Bike15 miOne ride: Wed brick, bike 15 → run 2. Last bike until you are back from Tokyo; the bike is the discipline furthest ahead and absorbs the squeeze
Run10 miWed 2 off the bike · Fri 3 hotel · Sat 5 hotel (Tue 4 dropped: calf/quad soreness). No long run this week. The 10–11 mi peak does not fit before a 13-hour eastward flight; it moves to Tokyo week (if the week allows it) or is dropped
Strength / Mobility4+Pushups Mon + Thu · hotel-room squats + pushups Fri/Sat · stretch 10 min daily; Week 8 logged 6 minutes total

Schedule

DAYSESSIONEFFORT CAP
Mon 9/28Swim ~800 m, one cue: eyes on the bottom. 4×25 easy, count strokes · 200 continuous at 58–60 s/length · 3 min rest · 4×50 easy on 60 s rest, count strokes on length 2 · easy 25s to 800. No running: two leg days in a row (ride Sat, 8.2 mi Sun). Pushups after · stretch 15 minno cap · no running
Tue 9/29No run: calves and quads sore 48 h after Sunday. Upper-body lift + stretch 15 min (calves, quads, hip flexors). Do not make up the 4 miles later in the weekno leg work
Wed 9/30BRICK: bike 15 mi easy → run 2 mi easy, transition ≤ 5 min. Old shoes. Run only if first steps are heel-pain-free; soreness that fades in the first 10 min is fine, sharp or one-sided pain is a stop. Two miles is the whole point; it is not a test of anything but the transition. No squats until the soreness is gonebike ≤ 140 · run ≤ 145
Thu 10/1Swim ~900 m before leaving. Monday's set, then 4×25 with a streamlined push-off and a two-count glide before the first stroke (second cue, only if eyes-down held Monday). Pushups. Pack: both pairs, gels, protein, a lacrosse ballno cap · no running
Fri 10/2Hotel: run 3 mi easy, morning. Unfamiliar route: out 1.5, back 1.5. Hotel-room squats + pushups · stretch 10 minavg HR ≤ 145
Sat 10/3Hotel: run 5 mi easy, morning. Longest run of the week and the last before Tokyo. Out 2.5, back 2.5, even effort the whole way. Stretch 10 minavg HR ≤ 145, ceiling 150
Sun 10/4TRAVEL → TOKYO (13 h ahead). Rest. Watch and meals to Tokyo time at boarding · ~250 ml water per flight hour, no alcohol · walk the aisle and 20 calf raises every hour · compression socks if you own them. Week 10 is set once you know the Tokyo run/swim optionsnothing

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 and cut run distance by a third
  • ≥ 67 — swap to rest / stretching
Sunday read 64 (amber), the week's high, before the run that produced the month's worst efficiency number. Heel: any pain on first steps → that day's run becomes a ride (Tue/Wed) or a 30 min walk (Fri/Sat). Hotel beds and new shoes are both reasons it might come back.

The One Rule This Week

No run ends faster than it started. Two Sundays running, the plan said no surges and no fast finish, and the last 30–40 minutes went to 11–14 min/mi at HR 160–181. Sunday's 155 average is not “elevated HR on an easy run”; it is an easy run for 60 minutes and a tempo run for the last 35. Every run this week is short enough that the temptation is gone; hold the cap to the last step.

Fueling

  • Protein ≥ 135 g every day. Week 8 never reached it: logged days ran 37–91 g
  • Log all seven days, travel included. Week 8 logged Mon–Fri at 536–1,911 kcal and nothing Sat/Sun. Either the log is incomplete or intake is well under what 8 mi runs require; both make the numbers useless
  • Hotel: eggs + Greek yogurt at breakfast; carry protein bars/jerky. Eat before Friday and Saturday runs
  • Flight: eat on Tokyo time, not on the airline's schedule

Week Checklist

  • [ ] Mon swim 800 m · no running
  • [ ] Tue: arms + stretch, no running
  • [ ] Wed brick executed (bike 15 → run 2, ≤ 5 min)
  • [ ] Thu swim 900 m · bags packed
  • [ ] Fri 3 mi + Sat 5 mi, even effort
  • [ ] Protein ≥ 135 g · logged all 7 days
  • [ ] Stretching 10 min × 5+ days
  • [ ] Sun: watch on Tokyo time at boarding

Why These Numbers

Week 8 actual: 8.2 mi run / 10.0 mi bike / 1,500 m swim against 16 / 22 / 1,400. The heel took Wednesday's run; Friday's ride did not happen; Saturday's ride did, the run off it did not (the brick is now 0 for 4). Sunday's 8.22 mi started at 1:07 PM in 69°F feels-like, the mildest long-run weather in a month: mile 1 at 16:47/mi and HR 137, mile 4 at 16:51 and 159, same pace, +22 bpm. From ~95 minutes the pace went to ~13:40–14:15/mi at HR 160–170, which carried the average to 155. Weather-adjusted efficiency 0.652, the lowest of the recent runs and 11% under the three-week easy baseline (0.736). Candidate causes, not separable from one run: wake RHR 64 that morning, fatigue (ATL 104 vs CTL 69, TSB −35), logged intake far below the training load, new shoes (cadence 146 vs 147–153), afternoon start. One run is not a fitness verdict; moderate confidence it reflects fatigue and under-fueling rather than lost fitness. Garmin's half prediction barely moved (2:35:58 → 2:36:31). Run falls to 14 because the week ends with back-to-back hotel runs and a 13-hour flight; a 10–11 mi run on Wed or Thu would land three days after a run that already over-stressed the system. For a B-race run to plan (controlled through mile 9, then pick up), the 8.2 is adequate as the longest run (moderate confidence); a 9–10 in Tokyo is a bonus, not a requirement. Swim rises to 1,700 because the pool disappears after Thursday. Readiness 41%. T-minus 237 days.