Ironman 70.3 Coeur D’Alene!
Dusted off the cobwebs after taking an almost 2-year break from triathlon to focus on the Marathon and a couple of mountain bike races. After the Boston Marathon at the end of April, I had Athletica build me a 7 week triathlon plan - it chose a high volume plan, which was different than my usual mid-volume plans. I was able to follow it consistently, however I don’t think I ever got in the 5th weekly swim. I had raced this race three other times so was familiar with the course. Weather was cool which was unusual for this race as it is normally very hot. It was 9 degrees C in am, but thankfully the water was pretty warm at 19 degrees C.
Swim - 38:19 -Lined up between the 35-37 minute swim group. Swim was a rolling start, with two athletes been sent at a time - made the swim start pretty spacious. Swim went as I expected - slightly slower than I have done in the past (thanks to the Marathon training), but I got through it
and before I knew it was at transition.
Bike: 3:00:03 - headed out of transition, hopped on my bike and noticed that my bike computer wasn’t attached! My worst nightmare!!! Continued on and then my chain fell off - oh boy, not off to a good start. Tried to stay calm and remind myself that I could ride off of feel. Unfortunately the chain fell off one more time (hadn’t happened at all before), so was a bit nervous everytime I went from small to big ring. Luckily it didn’t happen again. First hour, I was pretty cold and I didn’t move as fast as I wanted to move. As the temperatures warmed up, my legs warmed up and I felt better on the bike as the km’s went by. I got used to not looking at the data and was kind of enjoying just going by feel and trying to pick off riders ahead. Before I knew it, I was back in transition.
Run: 1:49:41 After a quick porta potty stop, I got going on the run. Immdediately I could feel my lower back seizing up and it was hard to get to my goal pace. I found some ice to put in my kit which made it feel better and pulled over to stretch. Was worried that I might have to just jog in the run. I was so happy when I noticed that my back had loosened up and I was able to get my stride back. I picked up the pace for the last half of run and was able to finish strong.
I was pleasantly surprised when my husband told me that I had placed 3rd! My total time with transitions was 5:36:47.
Not a PB on this course, but as I get older I am realizing that the PB’s are harder to come by! Now that the cobwebs are dusted, I am excited for some future triathlons and will make sure I bring a checklist for the morning transition setup! Would highly recommend this race for anyone considering it. The town of Coeur d’Alene is really pretty and the course is very scenic.
Such an amazing performance as always! Running was impressively paced! Welcome back to ironman training!
MJ
Super champ! Well done, Cindy! Way to fight off the gremlins, too!
Beyond the Wall Sprint Triathlon 2025
Set in the picturesque grounds of Castleward on the shores of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, where Game of Thrones was filmed (Winterfell for those familiar), this punchy wee sprint triathlon included a sea swim in a protected bay, a 20km hilly bike ride, and a 5km forest run.
Still dealing with the effects of Achilles tendinopathy, I took it easier on the bike and shuffled around the trail run course. I was thrilled to secure 3rd place in my age group (out of 10). The goal was to enjoy the race and have fun with friends, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much strength I still had left in my legs after Hamburg. It felt like my body had excess strength from all my Athletica training, but was slightly out of sync.
I’ve entered an Aquabike race on 12 July (no running, just a swim and a time trial bike course) and a 70.3 for 30 August. Keeping on track with my Athletica plan, I’m also incorporating some short Hyrox sessions as my strength and conditioning. This variety keeps things interesting and maintains my motivation!
Great report and happy to hear Athletica training has left you feeling strong!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing @KCamp 
MJ
Challenge Roth 2025 - 9:23:30
Let’s start with a disclaimer: I had a weeding 3 weeks before the start (mine, in Italy) - so I did not train a lot in June and I was not honestly ready for this race. I tried to treat it as bucket list and fun 
Overall this year - any bike over 3h was a struggle, any run past 15km mark was a struggle → maybe I needed that to understand how to get back to proper shape 
Swim - 1:03:40
For the first time it was a non-wetsuit swim for age groupers. I tend to think I’m not a bad swimmer and I think that the result reflect that. I did not buy swimskin because I did not want to spent 400Euro in Sailsfish just to get another minute or so
I’m happy with the swim - I did not swim a lot this year but still was able to get a pretty decent results. I will buy a swimskin but when there will be some promo 
Bike - 4:50
So the bike course it’s pretty fast but it’s swill 1500m+ of elevation. I stayed very conservative with 214AV and 227NP. It’ like 20-30W below of what I should do but this year I did not really bike ever like 4h. Sometimes I was able to do 3+ but usually it was 2-3h of riding. For long distance I think you just need to spend some time on the bike and that’s what I felt after 3,5h - I didn’t want to be on the bike anymore
I’m not very happy with that bike time but it was not a disaster either - it’s probably accurate to what I was capable to do on that day.
Run - 3:26
The first 30km of the run are pretty flat and then at 30km you have some uphills and downhills. I kept running until 16km mark and then it was walk-aid-station/run up until uphills. I run the steepest uphill but then I’ve decided to power-walk uphills and run downhills My quads even 2 days after are completely destroyed.
In here again - I rarely run over 20km this year so it is what it is
Not very happy with run either but could’ve been much worse.
Overall it was a cool to complete another full-distance triathlon. I was aiming for like 10h, so 9:23 is really good in this case.
About Challenge Roth: maybe I was just unlucky with the staff and I don’t really like a lot of crowds but I don’t really understand why people say it’s magical. Maybe when you do the first full-distance or something. T1 is in different place than T2, so it’s kind of a logistic puzzle for your family/friends. When I asked some questions to the staff they did not know how to answer or gave me wrongs answers It’s a small town so when there is 10k+ people internet on mobile phones stopped working - my wife did not know where I am, could not check the maps again, etc. Overall I’m not so impressed as others with Roth - maybe some day I’ll be back there and change my mind but for now for me it’s: never again a race where T1 and T2 are in other places.
Amazing results @Bart considering your training ! Shows what kind of engine is under the hood!
Also I think it is pretty cool that you showed up on the start line even with the shorter training than what you are used to. It takes certain kind of courage to put yourself through a torture day like long distance triathlon. Badass! Congrats on your race and wedding as well!
MJ
Congrats on the wedding and your race result!! Pretty impressive!
Race Report: Women’s Philadelphia Triathlon
Sprint Tri: 300m swim, 8 mile bike, 5K run
My background: Swimmer through high school, then sedentary until my youngest was 3 when I started working out regularly again. Started running races in 2019 and finally got back in the pool last year. I LOVE racing. My spring is always packed with my run club’s 5K series and I get sad if there isn’t a race on any given weekend because it’s part of my social calendar.
I’d picked this race as my first tri because it’s touted as very beginner friendly, and it absolutely was. Everything was laid out clearly, and it was an incredibly supportive atmosphere.
I had no idea what to expect on times, so I fed some recent data into Gemini to set goals, taking into account my 30% Whoop recovery this morning (ugh).
A Goal: 1:11:02
B Goal: 1:23:15
C Goal: Finish & Have Fun
Swim (5:19):
This was a pool swim in a 50m pool. Athletes were released two at a time every 10 seconds. After the first 100m, it got very crowded at the walls as swimmers had to duck under the lane lines. I was able to flip turn twice, and then resort to ducking. Passing within the lanes was a bit of a pain but thankfully the last 50m was a straight shot because it was a wider lane.
T1 (3:55):
Things I did not do in training: practice transition from swim to bike. There are a number of things that I just didn’t do well here, so I’m tucking that away for next time.
Bike (29:26):
I did most of my training on a Peloton bike, since I can use its power meter. While great for training, it meant I had no idea how to pace for the race since I’d really only done easy rides outside. I went by heart rate, which ended up working really well. I was averaging 17.5mph until the final hill that really did a number on me.
T2 (3:27):
My transitions at home in practice were pretty consistently closer to 2 minutes, but obviously that doesn’t take into account the distance from dismount to the rack. I also noticed my heel slipping as I started to make my way to the Run Out, so I had to stop to retie that shoe.
Run (30:25):
I am pretty consistently a sub-27 5K runner right now, so this one hurt. However, I had an inkling that this was going to happen. I was ideally shooting for something around 28:00 but my legs couldn’t get it together. I have also never raced well in the heat, so I had already mentally prepared myself for anything in the 30-32 minute range.
Final time: 1:12:30 - I really expected to be closer to my B goal, so this was a lovely surprise.
Next race is August 9, also a sprint but this time in open water. (0.25 mile, 11 mile, 5K) I’ll be working on how to fix my transitions as top priority over the next four weeks. I am officially hooked on triathlons and sad that I’ll only be able to make 2 work this calendar year.
My partner and I used Athletica to train for the World Series distance at Ötillö Whistler. It was a bit of a hack, as we trained for the event as a marathon while letting our masters’ swimming flow in separately, but I had success with this approach with athletica.ai in the past.
We had some minor issues with the learning curve as the system was improving earlier in the year, but it all worked out. We both managed to get through the training and our prep events with no overuse-related injuries (can’t blame Athletica for slips and falls!), and while I’m sure a real coach would have fired us at certain points in the year if I said to a human what I was saying to the AI, the AI coach stood by his program.
No issues completing the event and our time was as predicted. But those glacier-fed lakes were chilly!
Race Report: Ironman Swansea 70.3
This was my A race for the year, first time doing a “local” Ironman event and apart from a few off weeks (including Glastonbury Festival 2 weeks before) I felt like my training and race prep had been as good as it has been over the last couple of years
This race was also part of the Ironman Pro Series so there were a lot more people about. Got to go and listen to a live ProTriNews podcast recording on the Friday and did a little bit of a bike course recce as well (which actually did nothing to help on race day, more on that later)
I had hoped to be aiming for a sub-5 hour 70.3 time this year (my PB was 5:15ish) so that was my goal going into the race. However before I even got to race morning I had almost given up on this. The weather in the UK had hit a very unreasonable 30 degrees and also, something I hadn’t considered, the bike course had 3.5k ft of elevation in it which would considerably slow me down. So luckily I readjusted and just aimed to work on each discipline the best I could.
Swim (34.38):
Marina Swim, and due to the warm temperatures I think it was a close call as to whether we were going to be allowed to wear wetsuits or not (it was non-wetsuit for the pros) however it went ahead as normal. Seeded myself probably a little faster than I normally would due to having a bit more confidence in my swimming atm - felt good throughout, didn’t get slowed too much at the turn buoys, pushed harder efforts when I felt people around me were getting in the way. Was amazed when I got out and saw 34 mins on my watch!!! 4 min 19.km PB for me on that and definitely a sign that my pool and open water training has been going well in 2025
T1 (4:44):
Almost 0.5 mile transition from water to bike … on concrete! They allowed a bag with shoes to be dropped off but felt like that was just a waste of time and effort and glad I didn’t bother
Bike (3:08):
I had done a small bike recce on the Friday to look at some of the climbs on the course, but in reality i probably missed the biggest ones so did me no favours. Lovely closed roads, 10km flat out along the seafront but then the roads just reared up and it was relentless for the next 70km. People in TT bikes with big gearing were struggling, luckily my Argon18 has the same gearing as my road bike so I was able to punch up most of them. My downfall at the moment is my apprehension at going fast downhill, especially on my TT bike, so that lost me some time. But overall I kept my average power above 208W (my ftp is about 260Wish) and also was able to gather myself when my nutrition didn’t feel like it was working right around 30 miles in (2 bottles on the bike both with carb mix - mistake in the heat as I needed water only to cool down and drink normally). Overall happy with the time, there was no way on earth I would have been able to go under 2:40 on that course
T2 (1:43):
Impressed I got my feet out of the shoes before the dismount line! Quick run through transition, happy that I had a partially frozen soft flask drink in my bag as this was perfect in the first KM running out
Run (1:41:16):
Running is and always will be my strength in triathlon but I was interested to see how I would cope after a hard pushed bike leg and also the heat. Luckily the course was a 2 lap flat one with some shade and a sea breeze at times. I settled in immediately to running my goal power using my Stryd (320W) and felt ok. As the race went on this slowed, I stopped for a toilet break and then was sensible and walked through most of the aid stations taking on water and pouring some over myself. I’d hoped to run a 1:35 but at the end I was happy that I kept the power up above 305W and didn’t jog it in when I knew the time goals had done.
Final time: 5:36:02 - Fully happy with the effort, was wiped out at the end so don’t think I could have given much more given the circumstances!
The event organisation and especially the crowd support for this race was unbelievable, best I’ve ever seen. It felt like the whole of Wales had come out to cheer, even on the bike course which can sometimes be a bit lonely! Very impressed and would highly recommend.
One more triathlon left in me this year, T100 French Riviera at the very end of August. Need to decide my goals for that one yet, then its onto running and prep for another hit-out at the marathon in early 2026!
Race Report - Calgary 70.3
Decided to sign up for this race last minute - after racing Coeur d’Alene 70.3 in June, I was itching to have another go and to try to improve on my performance.
The day started out very wet - transition was a mudpit and the temps were cool - 10 degrees C.
Swim: 37:53- water temperature was 17 degrees C. Chilly but not too bad once we got moving - was two loops with an Aussie exit partway through. Went by fairly quick and was happy to be done and into the muddy transition.
Bike - 2:46:48 - Bike distance was short (87 km according to Garmin).
With the cool temps and rain I decided to put on arm warmers and gloves-I was happy I took the extra time to do so because the rain did not let up. The bike was fairly hilly (about 750 m) and had two loops of about 30 k. Felt strong on the bike and other than cold toes/legs the rest of my body was warm enough and before I knew it I was back in transition.
Run: 1:50:40
The majority of the run was on a golf course path - was quite crowded on the path as runners were going in both directions and there weren’t any spectators on this section, so it was litterly crickets on the course (and frogs too). Was a two lap course as well and the exit into the finish line wasn’t well marked at all - I almost missed it! Felt pretty good on the run - my lower back was a bit tight but things loosened up after 10 km.
All in all really happy with my race - felt better overall compared to Coeur d’Alene despite the miserable weather and improved my time by 14 min (although I know it’s hard to compare courses). Came 4th…out of 4** An asterick because after the race, I found out that the majority of the participants got pulled off the bike course (due to the conditions) and only completed 1 loop and were told to head back to transition to begin their run (shortened the bike by approx 30 k). Really happy that I got to do the whole course…I would been really disappointed otherwise.
The best part of the whole race was racing with my Athletica bestie - @Marjaana . Was fun to do our race recon the day before and to see each other on course.
Awe 
Great race report @cmaloney !
It was so awesome Cindy took my bait when we met for a day to train earlier in July while I was on a road trip from Van Isle to Alberta. There’s something special about actually training together in person, in stead of just our weekly HIIT sessions online!
I’ve been on vacation mode with the kids, traveling since May 30th. I’ve “trained” but not specifically for triathlon. I decided early on not to put any pressure on following a plan, but just enjoy the beautiful cool, crisp weather western Canada offered and just moved. AI Coach has not been happy with my “unplanned” sessions, or my lack of commitment to the plan
I couldn’t quite find the fire in me to on the race week- or the race day. Having Cindy there was THE best part! The weather gods always bring their best fire 
when I’m on triathlon start line. Calgary race was no different Cool temps, rain. Apparently some 30 people got hypothermia and they decided to cut the bike course short. About 250 of us made the cut to do full 70.3 course, and 400 something got cut short on the bike. Happy to have made the cut, but not happy about Ironman’s decision to give 25 slots to WC to folks who didn’t get to do the entire course. I think they really messed up there. I wasn’t in the contention to get slots anyway, but shame that really fast people who completed the entire course didn’t get what they came for.
My goal was to try to keep Cindy behind me until at least 45K mark on the bike, but she zoomed by me at 43K. Fun to see her again on the run, and give her high fives. It’s impressive how steady she is. Really well done, Cindy! Can’t wait to stand on the start line with you again someday.
MJ
First of all, still really enjoying Athletica as it took the place of a ‘human’ coach… which I’ve had few of and been left with various frustrations. One of the big ones… they’re not really focused on me necessarily, worst case is finding out they’re doling out cookie cutter plans for clients… meanwhile Athletica 100% is looking at me… so better even with the few bugs here and there.
Been a decent year with my leg/hip injuries over the last two years. Hamstring, adductor and now a calf that materialized after my recent win.. mobility as I’m finding is super important as I get older. I digress, I’ll just summarize my year vs a race report of one.
So far I’ve been on the overall podium with three wins, two seconds and one 4th place… the 4th put me 1st on the Masters podium, aka over 40. Being over 40 has its perks I suppose.
Started the year with a 2nd, then a 4th, three wins in a row and then a second. Not terrible. 
Biggest win was at the oldest currently still in existence race on the East Coast. The previous year I was off the bike in contention but had to jog the run due to just coming off a hamstring injury… satisfying to win it this year after people running by me last year.
Hoping I can string together some consecutive months of no leg injuries to have a great run to finish off my races… swimming and biking are good but my running isn’t fantastic right now… but I’m still placing well.
How do you like the Kinetic races? I’m eying their Quakertown race in May.
I’m always curious how different race directors operate.
Congratulations 
that’s is amazing results! Thank you for the comments about athletica as well, truly appreciated
MJ
I’ve not done that one so can’t speak to it personally. Overall their (Kinetic) races are well staffed, marked and great overall experience IME.
I just finished two gravel races as final preparations for U.S. gravel nationals.
The first, Core 4 in Iowa, was a 60-mile race. I did not feel great leading up to the race. I’ve been following Athletica closely, and I took a couple of easy days prior to the race due to some lingering fatigue. The course at Core4 was complicated by several inches of rain that fell the night before, leaving behind a lot of mud. It was a fun course, though, with beautiful scenic roads. The race itself was not a great experience. I got dropped from the lead group right off the bat up a hill, and then joined a good group for several miles until I was dropped from there as well. I decided at this point to just ride and enjoy the day. I still rode hard-ish but within myself and finished.
This past weekend’s ride was up in northern Wisconsin: The Coon Fork 40. It was an amazing 88-mile course with lots of fun dirt roads. I stayed with the front group for 30 minutes and felt pretty good the whole day. I joined a group of three others who all worked well together, and we powered through the last 50 miles.
The one fun thing I do for myself at every race is see how many other 60 plus riders were in my field and how I finished with them, regardless if there’s an official podium or not.
Gravel nationals is Sept. 20. I’m following Athletica’s plan, pretty much to the letter to prepare. It’s going to be a tough 74-mile course with some long, steep climbs. I’m excited about the race, but it also scares me a little! I know I can go the distance. My only goal is to put together a solid race performance.
I’ll post again after nationals!
You rock !!! Great report , thanks for sharing!
Hi Marjaana,
Do you know when the training plan for cross-country skiing will be available?
I’m primarily a cyclist, but I also run 1–2 times per week and do some strength training. Now I’m planning to participate in a major race, the 90 km Vasaloppet, and I’d like to train specifically for that.
At the same time, I’d prefer to keep at least one Zwift session per week so I don’t lose too much cycling fitness. Which training plan or setup would you recommend for this goal?
Thank you!