Training Week of June 29: Threshold Splits, a Flat 77km Ride, and Building Toward Tri-Cities
Three swims, three rides, three runs, and a leg day I mostly spent watching the World Cup. This was a full week heading into my build for Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities — the race where I finished 15th in my age group last year and where the goal this time is to go faster and earn a slot to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
Where this week fits
I'm following My Pro Coach's Advanced Half-Distance Training plan on TrainingPeaks — the same program I used last year heading into this exact race. The structure hasn't changed much: a swim-heavy midweek, a key threshold session, a long run, and the bike split between an indoor sub-threshold ride and one outdoor long ride when the weather cooperates. Here's the actual week as it's laid out on TrainingPeaks:
This week followed that pattern almost exactly, and it's a good example of what a normal build week looks like on the way to September.
Swim: three sessions, getting more fluid
Sunday evening opened the week with a 2,200m session titled "Smooth Day on the Water" — though I'll admit the water didn't feel as smooth as the name suggested. It was a grind more than a flow session, 41 minutes of moving time with some technical rust showing.
Wednesday was better. A 1,925m "Push Your Pace" set, done in just under 32 minutes, with fins on for some of the harder intervals. I could feel the difference — more fluid, less fighting the water, which is exactly what this block of the plan is supposed to build toward.
Thursday added a shorter 2,000m "Fast Reach & Roll" session, again with fins for parts of it. Double days in the pool aren't glamorous, but they're where the technique work actually sticks. One caveat on the numbers: the sTSS on these swims reads higher than the sessions actually felt, mostly because of how I use fins and paddles through parts of the set — worth keeping in mind if you're comparing swim load to bike or run TSS this week.
Bike: two trainer rides and a flat 77km outdoor long ride
Tuesday's trainer session was labeled an IRONMAN 70.3 Power Slope — three sub-threshold/threshold intervals, with the last one noticeably harder than the first two. I watched the second season of House of Dragons through most of it, which made the 92 minutes go by faster than it had any right to.
Friday was a longer indoor endurance ride with sub-threshold sections built in — just over two hours, and it felt genuinely good the whole way through. No red flags, no fading in the back half.
Sunday was the week's long ride, and the one I care about most: 77km outdoors on a course flat enough that elevation gain barely registered. I forgot to start the GPS for the first 5–10km, so the file undersells the actual distance, but the effort and feel were exactly where I wanted them for this point in the build. I've also picked up an EZ Gains disc wheel cover this year — it's not mounted yet, but last year's bike split at Tri-Cities was 2 hours 35 minutes, and going faster than that this time, once the disc cover is on the bike, is one of the bigger levers I'm counting on for September.
Run: a heat-soaked long run and a threshold session that bit back
The key session of the week was Monday's threshold run — five 7-minute intervals at threshold pace, working out to roughly 4:50/km on the hard reps with short jog recoveries between. Average heart rate sat at 157 bpm, climbing into the high 160s and 173 by the final rep. I'll be honest: hitting pace on that last interval was hard, and not helped by a new pair of shoes that were rubbing on my toes, or by stepping straight into a mud puddle mid-run. Small annoyances, but they added up by the fifth rep.
Wednesday — Canada Day — was the long run: 18km broken into two 50-minute loops, the first at easier Z2 and the second pushed a little harder, averaging around 5:30/km overall. Running in the early-afternoon heat made it harder than the pace numbers suggest, but it doubled as a rehearsal for half-marathon-leg nutrition, which is exactly what this run is supposed to be for at this stage of the plan.
Sunday closed the week with a short brick run off the long ride — just under 6km, faster in the first kilometre than I probably should have gone out, but a good reminder that the legs are coming around under fatigue.
And one leg day
Tuesday also included a 38-minute strength session — squats and accessory leg work, done at low intensity while I checked in on Portugal vs. Croatia between sets. Not a hard session by design; more of a maintenance dose to keep the tendons and stabilizers happy through a heavier swim-bike-run week.
Where this leaves me
Nothing about this week was a breakthrough, and that's the point — it was a solid, representative build week: three swims trending toward more fluid technique, a bike split between structured trainer work and a flat outdoor long ride where the aero setup is starting to pay off, and a threshold run that was hard in exactly the way it should be this far out from race day. Beating last year's 15th-place finish at Tri-Cities, and picking up a slot to 70.3 Worlds, is going to come down to weeks that look a lot like this one, repeated and layered through the summer.
Curious where this fitness would place you?
See how this week's training compares to the historical field at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities, or browse the race page for course and qualification detail.
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