u/ghosttsignal

Hellllooooooo, I signed up for a 70.3 recently. Specifically the Jones Beach one in September. Was wondering if any of you wonderful people have any tips/advice for me. This is my first ever triathlon race (I know a big jump). I have a pretty good history in running. Ran track in college (as a sprinter), placed 3rd in states and 6th overall in nationals. I recently converted to long distance runs and completed two half marathons in the past month and my longest bike ride is currently 15 miles.

I’m pretty confident on my running and pretty confident I can build on my cycling. Even though a lot of people say the swim is the “easiest” part out of the three, it’s the one I’m still most afraid of (I know how to swim but have a phobia of deep water).

I was wondering what’s a good start on how to structure my workouts week to week or where I could find a good start here online. If there’s anything that helped you improve on your swim as well! There’s so many videos on YouTube it gets overwhelming. Also, if there’s anything that I should buy to help my preparation (besides a bike, wetsuit, etc.), stuff that people tend to look over that they shouldn’t, basically anything that can help me prepare the next 3 months! Lol I appreciate everyone’s help and advice in advance 🙏

Sharing my success with Runna. I know this app gets a lot of criticism with injuries, AI, etc. but from my personal experience, this app helped me out tremendously to help me hit my goal and more.

Previous to using Runna, I haven’t ran anything over a mile in over 6 years. Let alone run at all. I ran track in high school and college as a sprinter. Ranked third in state and placed 6th in nationals. So I have a good background in running but have never done any serious long runs such as a half marathon.

I started using Runna in December with the Run Faster plan. I followed this plan for 9 weeks and saw significant improvement with my overall pace. Before Runna, I was running around a 10:15 to 10 flat per mile close to max effort. My longest run was 5 miles at a 9:50/mi pace with a 197 average HR.

After my 9 week training program finished, I signed up for a 5k run to really test how well my training had gone. My body felt great, and even the 10 min miles felt relatively easier than when I started out. I finished my 5k at 25:19 (8:09/mi).

Soon after, I started an 11 week half marathon program. At the beginning of my HM plan, Runna had me projected to finish my first ever HM at 2:09 (2 hrs 9 mins). As I continued my plan, my projected pace kept dropping and by the last week of my plan it had me projected to finish anywhere between 2:04 - 1:58. After seeing that I could potentially get sub 2 hours for my first ever half I had my eyes dead set at trying to go for it.

Throughout the 11 week plan, I’ve skipped 3 runs (exhaustion, muscles felt tight, etc.), ive moved my scheduled runs almost every week (catered to how my body was feeling), and did my own research on fueling, nutrition, what meals to eat, etc. because Runna is not responsible for any of those things cause you yourself know your body than anyone.

Needless to say, I finished at a 1:55 (8:49/mi pace). So I know Runna is quite a controversial app rn for a lot of people but is 2/2 for me. Thank you Runna 🙏

First Ironman 70.3