Planning for Marathon (running) and Ironman in the same year

Training
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Hello friends. I am trying to piece together an annual plan for 2025 and for the rest of this year.

38yo male. Coming back to triathlon and running after a few year hiatus. In 2025, I want to

  1. Complete a marathon (Goal #1: get to starting line injury free, Goal #2: Finish, Goal #3: Finish in < 4 hours)
  2. Complete an Ironman (Goal #1: get to the starting line injury free, Goal #2: Finish, Goal #3: Finish in <12 hours)

These are my “A” races. In support of the two events above, I have a half ironman event and a half marathon event selected. Here’s how these events are spread out through the year.

Event Date Importance Weeks Between Races
Half Marathon 2025-03-08 B
Marathon 2025-04-26 A 7.0
Ironman 70.3 (Muncie) 2025-07-12 B (maybe A minus) 11.0
Ironman 140.6 (Floriday) 2025-11-01 A 16.0

So, I guess my questions are:

  • How would you plan your training for these events?
  • Any suggestions on how much cycling / swimming to include in the marathon training? I don’t want to diminish the prep for the marathon, although I also want to be ready with discipline-specific fitness for the 11-week gap (more like 9-10 weeks assuming some recovery time) before the IM 70.3.
  • What plans would best support this.

I’m used to using Trainer Road for triathlon and cycling training, but not sure how to prioritize a run event. I’ve looked at trying to combine a Hal Higdon plans for the marathon training, but I worry that only 1 cross training session (which would probably be cycling) would be insufficient base to be ready for the triathlon training thereafter.
Thanks in advance!

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Welcome to the forums @bdone and let me be the first to say “don’t”, as any tri coach would say.

Then, let me say “me too”, as it’s quite common even though it is a bad idea. There is nothing similar about racing a marathon and Ironman, and marathon training will limit your triathlon ability, has a high injury risk and a high recovery need. If you want to race your best Ironman, train as a triathlete all year use the marathon to practise your long run nutrition not to set a PB.

As you already have your heart set, and races booked, the spacing looks good - but are you up to a full year committed to training?

Then think about your IM splits, where are your weaknesses as a triathlete - that’s where you should focus in the first half of the year.

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Most often the guidance is to do 70.3 then do marathon, in the reverse situation you need to decide if you are doing

A) a marathon plan with cross training (which is all easy effort) or
B) you are doing a multisport plan with a marathon as a training race

If A then one swim and one easy bike. Obvs this will not put you in a great place for starting the 70.3 plan 2 weeks after your marathon but I start earlier on just swim and bike and get up to speed on the run after about 4 weeks.

If B you can either do Olympic or 70.3 and extend the long run progressively. Again this is imperfect for marathon, but the half should go well and you’ll be in a great place to start the Full Distance plan.

I have tried doing a marathon on the Full Distance plan, this didn’t work for me I believe as a heavy and relatively weak runner. If you’re slim and a good runner, I suspect it’s fine. On your schedule I’d skip the intense bike workouts and think hard about the total volume for the year.

Check out the Ironman Training threads we have.

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Hey @bdone,

Welcome to the forum! :partying_face:

This is a great question, and the answer will depend a bit on your personal preferences and available time.

First off, the full-distance triathlon TrainerRoad plans are pretty solid and could be a good starting point for you. I’m sure we could work out a variation of that plan to work well for your needs. For reference, if you’re not familiar, a “stock” mid-volume full-distance plan includes three swims, four runs, and four bike workouts each week. As I mentioned before though, this can be highly customized to your needs.

When I hear about people training for Ironmans and marathons specifically, my mind typically goes to running as the main priority because the demands on your body are more unique and extreme than those of swimming and cycling. It’s not that running necessarily requires more fitness per se, but running is a much more high-impact sport that requires highly conditioned muscles and tendons in order to survive an effort of the same duration in the water or on a bike.

A typical rule of thumb for marathon training is that you should be running at least 40-50 miles a week in order to condition yourself to be able to make it through a marathon in one piece. Of course, there are no guarantees, and pacing/effort does play a role here as well, but this is a great starting point. Aerobically you could do much less volume to have the fitness to perform well in the run, ride, or swim, but it’s really the musculoskeletal resiliency that you’re training for the demands of a marathon. :muscle:

My advice here would be to prioritize getting in this much running volume if possible and filling in the rest of your training time with swimming technique and easy time in the saddle. You’ll likely have good aerobic fitness regardless given the amount of training you’ll be doing, but running should be a high priority to keep your body used to the demands of pounding the pavement. :motorway:

Being comfortable in the water is another high priority, so focusing some time on your swimming technique would be my #2.

The bike leg might be the least concerning here so I’d focus your time on getting your bike set up in a way that’s going to be sustainable throughout the entirety of your ride. Bike fit is really important for comfort and power production, so make sure that you’re feeling really good about things before your event. Even one long-ish ride each week to make sure that you’re comfortable in the saddle for over an hour or two could be all you need to make it through your event successfully. Again, this is all dependent on how much time you have available. More time on the bike obviously won’t hurt, but my focus would be on running and swimming first.

Ultimately, you need to figure out how many hours you can spend sustainably training week over week and start to fill in those hours as you see fit.

What does your ideal training week look like volume-wise?

Let me know if this helps at all and if you’d like to chat some more. I’m sure we could get something set up for you that would work well!

Best of luck! :handshake:

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