Build your Buckeye Triathlon plan
Your coach opens with the Buckeye Triathlon set for May (an estimate until the date is announced), asks about your week and your fitness, then writes every session of your Olympic-distance triathlon plan. Free, and you can start as a guest. About 29 weeks to go.
Start your Buckeye Triathlon plan- Formats
- Sprint, Olympic, 1/3 Iron, Beginner
- Terrain
- Rolling
Buckeye Triathlon distances
- Sprint 0.5 mi swim, 13 mi bike, 3.1 mi run
- Olympic 0.9 mi swim, 26 mi bike, 6.2 mi run
- 1/3 Iron 1.2 mi swim, 39 mi bike, 9.3 mi run
- Beginner 0.1 mi swim, 6.5 mi bike, 1.5 mi run
Course
The Buckeye Triathlon course
The festival is based at the beachfront of Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, between Cincinnati and Dayton, with packet pickup, start and finish all in one spot. The swim is a clockwise course in Caesar Creek Lake with buoys on your right: the sprint swims one 750 m loop (820 yards), the Olympic two, the 1/3 Iron a 500 m half lap plus two loops, and beginners swim 200 m along the beach in water shallow enough to stand.
Read the full course notes
After the swim you run up the hill to the transition and finish area. The bike leaves the park on paved roads (North Pole Road and Furnas-Oglesby Road to a turnaround at New Burlington Road) on a 13-mile out-and-back with rolling hills and about 541 feet of climbing, ridden once for the sprint, twice for the Olympic and three times for the 1/3 Iron. The 5K run is mostly flat, about 83 feet of gain on sidewalk, paved path, gravel and park road, slightly uphill out to the end of the levee and downhill back, repeated for the longer races.
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Formats
- Sprint, Olympic, 1/3 Iron, Beginner
- Race-day conditions
- Late May near Waynesville typically brings highs around 77 °F and lows around 58 °F, so the 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. starts are cool and pleasant. May is the wettest month of the year here, and around the end of the month there is about a 39% chance of a wet day, so pack dry clothes for transition. Muggy days are uncommon at this point (about 17%). The race guide says the swim is wetsuit legal when the water is below 78 °F, so bring yours. Sunrise is around 6:11 a.m., and the course closes at 12:30 p.m.
What to train for
The rolling bike rewards steady power on short climbs, so ride hilly routes with 6 to 10 repeats of 2 to 4 minutes at race effort, staying seated and smooth over each crest.
Because the roads stay open to traffic with deputies at the corners, practise holding a straight line near the white line and staying alert in a group.
The run includes gravel, so do some of your easy runs on trails or gravel paths. A weekly brick of 45 to 60 minutes riding straight into 15 to 20 minutes running at goal pace prepares your legs for the gentle uphill start of the run, and a few open-water swims help you settle into the lake.
Sample week
A sample Buckeye Triathlon training week
A week from the middle of the build, about six weeks out. Your plan sets the real distances and paces from your own fitness and adjusts them every week as you train.
- Monday
- Swim, 45 min: drills and technique
- Tuesday Key session
- Bike, 1 h with threshold intervals
- Wednesday
- Swim, 45 min: steady intervals at race effort
- Easy run, 40 min
- Thursday Key session
- Run, 40 min with tempo segments
- Friday
- Rest, or 20 minutes of mobility
- Saturday Key session
- Long ride, 1 h 30 min, then a 20 min run off the bike
- Sunday
- Long run, 1 h easy
Taper
Tapering for the Buckeye Triathlon
Start the taper seven to ten days before race day. Trim the volume in all three sports, keep short race-pace efforts in each, and do one last short brick so running off the bike still feels familiar. The course rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Also in Claude
Ask Claude for this plan
Add AthleteSpace to Claude once, then paste this prompt and put in your own numbers.
Build me a Olympic-distance triathlon season for the Buckeye Triathlon & Multisport Festival in May. I train about [hours] hours a week, [days] days a week.
Buckeye Triathlon training questions
How long should I train for the Buckeye Triathlon?
Most athletes give a Olympic-distance triathlon twelve to sixteen weeks of focused training on top of an existing base. The coach counts back from your actual race date, so if you have less time than that it builds the best plan the remaining weeks allow rather than pretending you have longer.
What is the Buckeye Triathlon course like?
Rolling. The festival is based at the beachfront of Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, between Cincinnati and Dayton, with packet pickup, start and finish all in one spot.
How cold is the water at the Buckeye Triathlon?
Late May near Waynesville typically brings highs around 77 °F and lows around 58 °F, so the 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. starts are cool and pleasant. May is the wettest month of the year here, and around the end of the month there is about a 39% chance of a wet day, so pack dry clothes for transition. Muggy days are uncommon at this point (about 17%). The race guide says the swim is wetsuit legal when the water is below 78 °F, so bring yours. Sunrise is around 6:11 a.m., and the course closes at 12:30 p.m.
When should I start tapering for the Buckeye Triathlon?
Start the taper seven to ten days before race day. Trim the volume in all three sports, keep short race-pace efforts in each, and do one last short brick so running off the bike still feels familiar. The course rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Do I need an account to get a Buckeye Triathlon training plan?
Start as a guest and save a free account later. Your coach writes your Olympic-distance triathlon plan and adapts it every week as you log your training. No card.