Build your North Carolina 70.3 plan
Your coach opens with the North Carolina 70.3 set for October (an estimate until the date is announced), asks about your week and your fitness, then writes every session of your 70.3 triathlon plan. Free, and you can start as a guest. About 51 weeks to go.
Start your North Carolina 70.3 plan- Formats
- 70.3
- Terrain
- Flat
North Carolina 70.3 distances
- 70.3 1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mi run
Course
The North Carolina 70.3 course
This is a point-to-point course from beach to battleship. The 1.2-mile swim starts at Wrightsville Beach with a rolling start, in a saltwater channel off the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway rather than the open ocean, and is timed with the incoming tide so you swim with the current.
Read the full course notes
The 56-mile bike is a single flat loop on rural country roads, crossing the Cape Fear River on the return and finishing near the riverfront in historic downtown Wilmington. The 13.1-mile run is a two-lap lollipop on roads and boardwalk, with two shaded loops of Greenfield Lake, before a red-carpet finish downtown facing the Battleship North Carolina. Mind the posted no-passing zones on the Wrightsville Beach drawbridge and the Isabel Holmes Bridge.
- Terrain
- Flat
- Formats
- 70.3
- Race-day conditions
- Mid-October mornings in Wilmington are cool: IRONMAN lists typical lows of about 43 °F and highs of 68 °F, and 2023–2025 were very similar (42–45 °F lows, 65–70 °F highs). The water is usually in the upper 60s to low 70s °F (67–70 °F recently), comfortably wetsuit legal. Pack arm warmers or a vest for the early bike, and expect near-ideal running temperatures.
What to train for
A tide-assisted swim and a flat bike make this a pacing race, so the work is holding steady aero power for 56 miles.
Ride 2.5 to 3 hours mostly in the aerobars at target half-iron effort, with no climbs to break the rhythm, and practice coming out of aero smoothly for bridges.
Follow key rides with 30 to 45 minute runs at goal pace, since you start a mostly flat half marathon on tired legs. Swim in a wetsuit in open water as often as you can, sighting on buoys while a current carries you.
Sample week
A sample North Carolina 70.3 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, 1 h: drills and technique
- Tuesday Key session
- Bike, 1 h 15 min with threshold intervals
- Wednesday
- Swim, 1 h: steady intervals at race effort
- Easy run, 50 min
- Thursday Key session
- Run, 50 min with tempo segments
- Friday
- Rest, or 20 minutes of mobility
- Saturday Key session
- Long ride, 3 h, then a 30 min run off the bike
- Sunday
- Long run, 1 h 30 min easy
Taper
Tapering for the North Carolina 70.3
Start the taper ten to fourteen 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 is flat, so pacing decides the day: rehearse your goal pace in short segments during race 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 70.3 triathlon season for the IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina in October. I train about [hours] hours a week, [days] days a week.
North Carolina 70.3 training questions
How long should I train for the North Carolina 70.3?
Most athletes give a 70.3 triathlon sixteen to twenty 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 North Carolina 70.3 course like?
Flat. This is a point-to-point course from beach to battleship.
How cold is the water at the North Carolina 70.3?
Mid-October mornings in Wilmington are cool: IRONMAN lists typical lows of about 43 °F and highs of 68 °F, and 2023–2025 were very similar (42–45 °F lows, 65–70 °F highs). The water is usually in the upper 60s to low 70s °F (67–70 °F recently), comfortably wetsuit legal. Pack arm warmers or a vest for the early bike, and expect near-ideal running temperatures.
When should I start tapering for the North Carolina 70.3?
Start the taper ten to fourteen 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 is flat, so pacing decides the day: rehearse your goal pace in short segments during race week.
Do I need an account to get a North Carolina 70.3 training plan?
Start as a guest and save a free account later. Your coach writes your 70.3 triathlon plan and adapts it every week as you log your training. No card.