Triathlon & Ironman Training
Triathlon demands mastery of three disciplines and the ability to transition between them under fatigue. These 15 sessions cover every aspect of multi-sport training — from open water swim confidence and bike power development to brick workouts that teach your legs to run after riding. Whether you are preparing for a sprint triathlon or a full Ironman, browse the workouts below and open them in Fiz to track your sessions, log split times, and build toward race day.
Training for Every Distance
Triathlon racing spans four primary distances, each demanding a different balance of speed and endurance. The Sprint triathlon — typically a 750m swim, 20km bike, and 5km run — rewards raw speed and the ability to hold high intensity across a short race. The Olympic distance doubles the volume to 1.5km, 40km, and 10km, introducing pacing strategy and nutrition timing. The Half Ironman (70.3) at 1.9km swim, 90km bike, and 21.1km run is a true endurance test where fueling and mental resilience become as important as fitness. And the full Ironman — 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km marathon — is one of the most demanding single-day endurance events in sport.
What makes triathlon training unique is the brick workout: sessions that stack two disciplines back-to-back to simulate race conditions. Running immediately after a long bike ride is a fundamentally different experience than running fresh — your legs feel heavy, your heart rate is elevated, and your proprioception is off. The only way to prepare for that sensation is to practice it repeatedly. The workouts in this collection include bike-to-run bricks, swim-to-bike bricks, and full multi-discipline simulations designed to build the specific adaptations you need on race day.
Fiz covers all four triathlon distances with structured sessions for each. Whether you are a first-time sprint triathlete working on T1 and T2 transitions or an experienced Ironman athlete building sustained bike power for a 180km ride, these workouts give you a framework to follow. Log your sessions on Fiz, track your split times across disciplines, and see how your brick performance improves as race day approaches.
All Triathlon & Ironman Workouts
Tap any workout to view the full breakdown, submit your score, and see the leaderboard in the Fiz app.
Ironman Brick: Bike to Run
The classic Ironman brick session. Extended bike effort followed by immediate run off the bike. Train your legs to transition between disciplines. This is the most important session in any Ironman training plan — the bike-to-run transition is where races are won and lost. The bike portion builds sustained aerobic power at race intensity, and the run that follows teaches your neuromuscular system to fire efficiently on fatigued legs. Practice this session regularly to eliminate the dead-leg feeling on race day and find your run rhythm within the first kilometer off the bike.
Open Water Swim Prep
Open water swim-specific session. Sighting drills, drafting practice, and sustained freestyle effort. Essential for race-day confidence. Pool swimming and open water swimming are fundamentally different — there are no lane lines, no black line on the bottom, no walls to push off. This session builds the skills that matter in race conditions: lifting your head to sight buoys without losing momentum, drafting off other swimmers to conserve energy, handling contact in a pack, and maintaining a straight line in murky or choppy water. A non-negotiable session for any triathlete racing in open water.
Olympic Tri Simulation
Full Olympic distance simulation: 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run. Practice pacing and transitions at race intensity. The Olympic distance is the sweet spot of triathlon — long enough to demand genuine aerobic fitness and pacing strategy, short enough to race at a meaningfully hard intensity. This simulation session lets you rehearse the entire race experience: the swim start, the T1 changeover, finding your bike rhythm, the T2 transition, and running hard on tired legs. Use it to dial in your nutrition plan, test your gear setup, and build confidence that you can hold your target splits across all three disciplines.
Sprint Tri Speed Session
Sprint distance work at high intensity. Short, fast efforts across all three disciplines to build top-end speed. The sprint triathlon rewards athletes who can go hard from the gun and sustain a high output across a compact race. This session features interval work in each discipline — fast repeats in the pool, high-power bike efforts, and tempo running — all designed to push your lactate threshold higher and improve your ability to produce speed under fatigue. If you race sprint distance, this session is where you build the engine to go fast when it hurts.
Ironman Run Endurance
Long run session focused on Ironman marathon pace. Build the endurance to run 42.2km after swimming and biking. The Ironman marathon is unlike any standalone marathon — you arrive at T2 with 6+ hours of racing already in your legs. This session builds the specific muscular endurance and mental resilience needed to run a marathon as the third discipline. The pace is deliberately controlled, training your body to maintain efficient running form when glycogen is depleted and your legs are carrying the accumulated fatigue of 3.8km of swimming and 180km of cycling.
Triathlon T1/T2 Practice
Dedicated transition practice. Swim-to-bike (T1) and bike-to-run (T2) changeover drills to minimize transition time. Transitions are the fourth discipline of triathlon, and minutes can be saved or lost in the transition area. This session drills every aspect of a fast changeover: wetsuit removal on the move, locating your rack in a crowded transition area, helmet and shoe mounting, flying mount and dismount techniques, and the mental checklist that prevents costly mistakes under race pressure. Practice until the sequence is automatic — on race day, you want zero thinking in transition.
Ironman Bike Power Intervals
Structured bike intervals at Ironman race pace and above. Build the sustained power for a 180km ride. The Ironman bike leg is 180km of sustained effort where you need to produce consistent power while conserving enough energy for the marathon that follows. This session alternates between race-pace intervals and above-threshold efforts to build your functional threshold power (FTP) and train your body to hold a strong, aerodynamic position for hours. The intervals also practice the discipline of staying within your power targets — going too hard on the bike is the single most common mistake in Ironman racing.
Half Ironman Brick
70.3-specific brick session. Moderate bike followed by half-marathon pace run. Essential for 70.3 race prep. The half Ironman is the fastest-growing distance in triathlon, demanding a unique blend of endurance and speed. This brick session replicates the critical bike-to-run transition at 70.3 intensity — harder than Ironman pace but sustained over a significant duration. The bike portion builds race-specific fitness at your target watts, and the run teaches you to lock into half-marathon rhythm on legs that are carrying 90km of cycling fatigue. A cornerstone session for any 70.3 training block.
Swim-Bike Brick
Swim-to-bike transition training. Open water swim effort followed by immediate bike session. Master the T1 transition. While the bike-to-run brick gets most of the attention, the swim-to-bike transition presents its own unique challenges. Exiting the water with an elevated heart rate, stripping a wetsuit, and immediately producing power on the bike requires practice. This session builds the specific fitness for a strong T1 — maintaining composure as you switch from horizontal to vertical, managing the blood pressure shift, and finding your cycling cadence quickly after sustained swimming effort.
Run Off The Bike
Short bike effort followed by extended run at descending pace. Learn to find your run legs quickly after cycling. The first 1-2 kilometers of a triathlon run are always the hardest — your quads are loaded from the bike, your running muscles have not been recruited for hours, and your proprioception feels off. This session specifically trains that transition period, teaching you to start conservatively and progressively increase your pace as your body adapts to the new movement pattern. The descending pace structure builds confidence that the heavy-leg feeling is temporary and that your run pace will come if you stay patient.
Triathlon Threshold Session
Threshold-intensity work across all three disciplines. Build your lactate threshold for sustained race-day performance. Your lactate threshold is the single most important physiological marker for triathlon performance — it determines the intensity you can sustain for the duration of your race. This session works at and around threshold in each discipline: critical swim speed intervals in the pool, FTP-range efforts on the bike, and tempo running at lactate threshold pace. By training all three thresholds in a single session, you build the metabolic fitness that underpins fast racing at every distance.
Recovery Spin & Swim
Easy recovery session combining a gentle spin with easy swimming. Active recovery between hard training days. Triathlon training volume is high, and recovery is where adaptation actually happens. This session keeps you moving on easy days without adding stress — a low-intensity spin to flush the legs followed by relaxed swimming that promotes upper body recovery and loosens tight shoulders. The effort should be genuinely easy: conversational pace, low heart rate, zero intensity. This is not a workout to push through — it is a deliberate recovery tool that accelerates your readiness for the next hard session.
Triathlon Hill Repeats
Hill-focused bike and run session. Build the power and resilience for hilly course profiles. Not every triathlon course is flat — hilly courses like Ironman Lanzarote, Challenge Roth, or local Olympic-distance races with elevation demand specific preparation. This session combines hill repeat intervals on the bike with uphill running to build the strength and climbing technique needed for undulating courses. The bike efforts develop the ability to manage power output on climbs without blowing up, while the hill running builds the specific muscular endurance for attacking inclines late in a race when fatigue is high.
Race Week Sharpener
Pre-race sharpening session. Short, sharp efforts across all disciplines to prime the body without creating fatigue. The week before a triathlon is not the time to build fitness — it is the time to sharpen what you have. This session includes brief, high-intensity openers in each discipline: a few fast 50m swim sprints, short above-threshold bike efforts, and crisp running strides. The total volume is deliberately low, but the intensity touches race pace and above to keep your neuromuscular system primed and responsive. Do this session 2-3 days before race day to arrive at the start line feeling sharp, rested, and ready to execute.
70.3 Race Simulation
Full half Ironman simulation: 1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run. Practice nutrition, pacing, and mental strategy. The half Ironman race simulation is the ultimate dress rehearsal — a full-distance effort that tests every system: your fitness, your equipment, your nutrition plan, your pacing strategy, and your mental game. This session should be performed 3-4 weeks before race day, giving you time to absorb the training load and adjust your plan based on what you learn. Treat it as a race: use your race-day gear, practice your fueling schedule, rehearse your transitions, and execute your target power and pace splits from start to finish.
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