Build your Victoria 70.3 plan
Your coach opens with the Victoria 70.3 set for May 30, 2027, 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 31 weeks to go.
Start your Victoria 70.3 plan- Formats
- 70.3
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Taper starts
- May 18, 2027
Victoria 70.3 distances
- 70.3 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike, 21.1 km run
Course
The Victoria 70.3 course
Everything starts and finishes at Hamsterley Beach on Elk Lake, in Saanich just north of Victoria. The swim is a single loop in the freshwater lake with a rolling start, heading south with buoys on your right before turning back to shore.
Read the full course notes
The 90 km bike is one loop through Saanich, Central Saanich, North Saanich and Sidney, with views of Haro Strait, the Coast Mountains and Saanich Inlet; the official profile shows 838 m of climbing, and the back half is harder, including an out-and-back on Willis Point Road late in the ride. The run is two laps on the packed trails around Elk and Beaver Lake, largely shaded, with 189 m of climbing before the finish on the beach.
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Formats
- 70.3
- Race-day conditions
- IRONMAN lists an average water temperature of 19 °C for Elk Lake, and the 2024 reading was 16 °C. Wetsuits are allowed up to and including 24.5 °C, so expect a wetsuit swim. Air temperatures are usually mild for racing: IRONMAN lists highs around 13 °C, and recent editions peaked at 12–16 °C, so bring arm warmers or a vest for the bike in case the morning is cool.
What to train for
The bike back-loads its climbing, so pace the flatter first half conservatively and save your strength for the climbs after 60 km, including Willis Point.
Do weekly long rides of 2.5–3.5 hours on rolling roads with the hilliest section in the final hour, and follow them with a 20–30 minute brick run.
Do some of your runs on trails to adapt to the packed-dirt surface and short rises around the lakes, and do a few open-water swims in a wetsuit in cool water before race day.
Sample week
A sample Victoria 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
Your build to race day
Taper
Tapering for the Victoria 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 rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week. With the race on May 30, 2027, your taper starts around May 18, 2027.
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 Victoria on May 30, 2027. I train about [hours] hours a week, [days] days a week.
Victoria 70.3 training questions
How long should I train for the Victoria 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 Victoria 70.3 course like?
Rolling. Everything starts and finishes at Hamsterley Beach on Elk Lake, in Saanich just north of Victoria.
How cold is the water at the Victoria 70.3?
IRONMAN lists an average water temperature of 19 °C for Elk Lake, and the 2024 reading was 16 °C. Wetsuits are allowed up to and including 24.5 °C, so expect a wetsuit swim. Air temperatures are usually mild for racing: IRONMAN lists highs around 13 °C, and recent editions peaked at 12–16 °C, so bring arm warmers or a vest for the bike in case the morning is cool.
When should I start tapering for the Victoria 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 rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week. With the race on May 30, 2027, your taper starts around May 18, 2027.
Do I need an account to get a Victoria 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.