Can you really train for a 70.3 or Ironman while working Full-Time? Honest answer.
- Craig Miskin
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
I often think that this is the wrong phrasing for the question the athlete is most interested in hearing the answer to. This question has a very simple answer - yes! You absolutely can train for these events whilst working full-time and this has been demonstrate time and time again. The question that should be asked is - can I follow a standard triathlon training plan? The answer to that question is usually no.
The Nuance
The reason for the no is not down to any lack of commitment on the part of the athlete. It's mainly because the plan wasn't built for them. It's built upon averages and a number of assumptions. These plans can often ask for some significant weeks of training up to 20 hours, the ability to recover well from and for the session in an otherwise easy life where training is the primary priority.
Most athletes have weeks of varying availability because commitments compete with training time. Weeks can vary from 8hours available to a wonderfully long weekend where an athlete can go bigger. More often for full-time athlets recovery is disrupted, stress from all corners impacts the individual and these challenges aren't catered for and require experience, coaching and solutions.
What about volume?
The required volume is dependent upon the goal. The minimum effective dose for 70.3 and Ironman is lower than most plans suggest but come with an impact to how your race can be planned and executed. As a reference, the 10-hour framework for 70.3 is about precision and not a compromise. For an Ironman, you cannot ignore the need to build real durability on the bike which will require going long and strategically placing sessions.
Volume can also talk to the athletes long term vision. Once a large aerobic base is built, it then requires less volume to be maintained. This creates capacity for intensity and performance. Not to be ignored or left unkept, but cultivated and maintained.
Consistency should be the underlying principle to training for these events. An athlete who can consistently deliver 10 focused hours per week over time will outperform athletes with boom and bust style weeks. This consistency variable isn't accounted for in some plans where the biggest week might coincide with real world major time demands with competing needs. Planning around competing demands first makes absolutely sense. Identifying pinch weeks and opportunities for specific blocks - here is where planning and adaptation makes the biggest impact.
What breaks first?
More often than not the structure unless the athlete is coming in undercooked for those first few weeks. A training plan that starts at 12 hours when over the previous 6 weeks, you've managed a handful of hours is a recipe for disaster and a trip to Broken City. In my experience, there are four specific ways the standard plan structure might fail a working athlete:
Volume built with ideal recovery in mind
No contingency or protocols of what to do when a session doesn't or can't happen
Intensity distribution that doesn't account for readiness to train
No acknowledgement of non-training stress on physiological and psychological load
Your plan needs to know about the project deadline, the sick child, the unscheduled work trip. Not because they are excuses but because they are the variables in life that affect recovery, adaptation and thus your quality of training.
Summary
Yes - you can train for a 70.3 or Ironman while working full-time. However, not with a plan built for someone with twice your available time and half your commitments. You absolutely can find training plans that could fit more closely to your circumstances but with the level of commitment you take to raing these events - why aim for close?
The athletes that perform well don't always train more than you. They train with a plan, an intention and an intensity that was built for their actual week - not an idealised one. This is what we focus on at CM Endurance.
Every Friday. Coaching insights, training science and honest takes on endurance sport for athletes who train around a full life. No generic fitness content. No filler.
No resets. Just evolution.
Comments