70.3 Bolton (UK) course review and training tips

🏊‍♂️🚴‍♂️🏃‍♂️ 70.3 Bolton Race Review | Course Breakdown, Gear Tips & Training Insights

In this video, I share my full race review of Ironman 70.3 Bolton — including an honest breakdown of the swim, bike, and run courses, race-day conditions, and key strategies for success on this course.

As an award-winning Ironman University accredited coach, I’ll also dive into:
✅ The equipment setup that works best for Bolton’s terrain
✅ Pacing and nutrition tips for race-day performance
✅ How to structure your training to handle Bolton’s climbs and weather
✅ My personal insights from racing and coaching athletes on this course

Whether you’re racing Bolton for the first time or chasing a new PB, this review will help you arrive confident, prepared, and ready to perform.

💬 Comment below: Have you raced Bolton 70.3? What was your biggest challenge on the course?

👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more Ironman training insights, gear reviews, and race previews!

🔖 Suggested Hashtags

#Ironman703 #IronmanBolton #TriathlonTraining #IronmanCoach #TriathlonTips #Bolton703 #TriathlonLife #IronmanTraining #TriCoach #TriathlonMotivation #HalfIronman #EnduranceTraining #IronmanUniversityCoach #RaceDayTips #triathloncoaching

OTHER HELPFUL VIDEOS:
70.3 nutrition: https://youtu.be/BwRIRA6U1UI?si=jl3jjnxyzd7j4Z43
Transition bags explained: https://youtu.be/Tjdllnsn5XY
Transition hints/tips: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK0Fj046_efEA37dGUFeM5bgOyPfIR832&si=5sPIwsQ-MfBfVTV8
Beginners guide to packing: https://youtu.be/0weCv9jQ_B0
What should I wear for my 1st 70.3: https://youtu.be/I1D1mUFJaV4
How to handle pre race nerves: https://youtu.be/xzbvQgbuRzA?si=S5zzXFLKMwmIUQ8O
Last min tips to ensure race day success: https://youtu.be/ntrHAGUVLDA?si=dzeuU06HxqhDUTsB

REFERENCED PRODUCTS & SUPPORTING VIDEOS
Avoid wetsuit neck rash with a neck protector: https://youtu.be/5UtXC3Hv6sg
https://geni.us/wetsuitneck

Body glide (for faster wetsuit transition) on amazon:
https://geni.us/bodyglide4triathletes

Lock tite laces for faster transitions: https://youtu.be/S58Na4d6rd8
https://geni.us/locktitelaces

Link to airtags on amazon (to track valuable tri kit)
https://geni.us/trackyourtrikit

Coach Steve’s favorite nutrition for long distance (Tasty, easy to transport & easy to consume)
https://geni.us/clifblox

Race belt to help keep your transitions speedy:
https://geni.us/racebelt

Please note as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you and I only ever recommend products I have successfully used myself). It also helps fund the channel so I can keep creating great informative content for you awesome athletes!

Are you planning on racing 70.3 Bolton? If so, this is the video for you because part of my ongoing race review city uh series, I am going to dive into Bolton based on my athletes experience and share all the info you need to know. Okay, but who am I? My name is Coach Steve or Steven Moody from Dublin, Ireland. I am a Iron Manu certified coach, a was a longtime Iron Man and 70.3 distance racer, but also now recently I’m a YouTuber who specializes in reviews of 70.3s and Iron Man’s distance races around the world. I started doing this uh capturing this information based on races I had done personally. But now I am going I reach out to my cool network of athletes, race organizers, race directors um and race announcers even a couple of times and local coaches. So I who have all the information on local races so I can talk to you about at least over 100 races around the world. So, if you want to check out other 17.3s, their link in the comments below, but today it’s all about 70.3 Bolton and let’s dive in if we excuse the pun at the swim start. Okay, so I have my notes. It is a one loop course. Um, and it is in the nice lake in Anglier or England. Um and it is from the key things to note about the uh swim start. It’s a rolling swim start which I’ll cover in the next slide about how that works and how best to seed yourself. Um it is in the lake and there will be the option of a practice swim the day before. We’ll talk about that in the time table. You do need to register. I’ll go through that on the time table. But as I said, it’s a simple enough out and back um swim was it loop. So there’s not an awful lot to it in terms of technical turns, etc. You’ve got your was it two turning points here straight and then you’ve got your swim exit. What can expect in the water? Um good news is it’s always been a wet suit legal swim. Um it will be a little bit chilly in the lake. So you expect a wet suit legal swim. The water reports are it is murky. It’s not exactly crystal clear like you’ll find in Clagenf uh where you can see the bottom of the lake etc. So the water is murky and there’s lots of weeds as well. So you you’ll find that um around this part of the swim. So expect to find a little bit of weed action here. It is a pontoon start where you’re hopping that you’re hopping in off the pontoon into the water. So again, what I would recommend is beforehand as well, get a bit of water, splash it on your face so you’re not d hopping into the water and it’s a complete shock. It will be a little bit chilly. Typically, the water has been reported as calm because it’s in a lake and it’s shelter. So there’s nothing really to worry about in terms of chop, etc. And seeing as a lake, you know, to worry about sharks and jellyfish. You might see the odd fish. Um, as I said, and just straight out in terms of sighting points, you will have all these boys here on the side. That’s one of your key sighting points. If you’re a weak swimmer, um, I would recommend going wide here and wide here. Yes, you will add on extra couple of meters, but it means you will stay out of where these points, the turning boys, they get a little bit congested and there’s a little bit of fisk. No, gets a little bit physical. And if you’re nervous, you don’t want that. Just go wide. Keep in open water. It is swim exit is upstairs and then we have a quick run into transition here. This is we’ll talk about transition and some transition tips as well. Um but it is a uh not not an awful lot to it. It’s not a a Mayorca was it? Uh or a Iron Man 70.3 Italy type transition where you’re running for like a kilometer. It’s top couple of hundred meters. So but it is a little bit muddy. So, we’ll talk a little bit about transition now and how to get through that and some tips. So, um wets suit, we’ll talk about some training sessions later on. Um if you your head does get cold, you can use the the was it use two swim capsu trick, but otherwise should be an uneventful nice calm swim for you. In terms of your time to get it done, you’ve 70 minutes. So that will be from you cross the timing mat and I’ll show you how that works in terms of the rolling or seated swim start. So Iron Man um few years back brought in this innovation because they lots of athlete feedback. The reason they wouldn’t do a 703 or an iron man distance race is because they’re nervous of the swim because they used to see the videos of Iron Man Lanza Iron Man Niece where you have all these athletes thousands of them all bailing in at once and it’s incredibly impressive but scares the be Jesus out of people. So what Arman does now is they have a rolling a seated swim start. Um but essentially this is how it works. When you come on the morning you will have different pens or corrals uh marked out and they’ll have under 30 minutes 30 to 35 minutes 35 to 40 minutes. It’s vital that you honestly seed yourself and put yourself in the time that equates to what you expect to finish the swim in. So if you swim 2 minutes in the 2 minutes per 100 in in the pool, realistically you’re going to be looking at between like a 40minut swim. So that’s where you put yourself. You put yourself in the 35 minute to 40 minute corral. Okay. And then how does that pan out? That allows Iron Man Iron Man to release the faster swimmers into the water at the start. And you can see this here where you have um that will be say the pen for the 30 to 35 minute swimmers because they’ve already started and you can see four swimmers are in the water at the moment. But the volunteers will be here and say thank you to your volunteers. They’ve given up time for you to enjoy your rather expensive hobby. Um they will literally hand their hands out like as I have here. There will be a machine that gives an audible beep every five to eight seconds. Depends on how they set it up. They’ll lift their arms and 1 2 3 4 will go into the water. Faster swimmer is at the front and off they go. So, um, your job here is simple. Be honest. See yourself and don’t make the mistake and go, “Ooh, I’m tight to 60 minutes. Maybe I’ll go in an earlier corral and give myself more time.” It doesn’t work that way. It is based on this timing chip, your chip on which you’ll have on your left um ankle from the from the day onwards that will beep and that will record your time. That’s your start time and then you’ve got 70 minutes from when you enter in there. If you put yourself in with the fish, the sub 30 minute swimmers, what will happen is they will swim over you because they’re faster, stronger, and they don’t give a crap that you’re in the wrong place. So that’s the one of the reasons why it’s a bad idea to put yourself in a two fast corral. Another reason what you’ll miss out is if you’re what you want to do in an iron man swim is draft. And that’s when you swim on someone’s hip or on their feet um and you break they break the water tension for you. It’s like when you’re swimming behind your pal in the pool. It’s easier when you’re chasing the bubbles. So if you put yourself in the in a load of swimmers are going to swim 130s and you’re a 2-minute swimmer, you’re not going to hold their feet. If you put yourself in with lots of people with who are going to swim around 2 minutes per 100 that will be your tribe. You will find their feet. You will all stick together and it will make for an easier day. So people lesson was the moral of the story is seed yourself correctly. It will set yourself up for a really good day. Seed yourself incorrectly will mean you get dunked, might lose your goggles and it’ll be a day. So that’s how your swim will start. And as I said that’s into the pontoon, but that’s how they let them in. And remember, as I said, thank your volunteers. They are very nice people. Typically, um, triathletes like ourselves. Okay, on to the transition area. Now, we’re going to talk a little bit about transition bags. If you are new to Iron Man distance racing, this is in Europe, they tend to use a what they call a clean transition um, as opposed to a traditional transition. transitional transitions where you put everything by your bike and h you put lay out your runners and your helmet etc. Iron Man because they have a couple of thousand people in a field they try to keep it as compact as possible and by doing that they control it by using what they call a clean transition system. This means you have bags um you have the blue bag which is your swim to swim to bike bag and you have your red bag which is your bike uh your bike to run bag. Now key thing with Iron Man Balden. It’s a split transition. That means you have where you transition from your swim to bike is a different location to where you will transition from your bike to run. A little bit of logistics in there, but I’ll talk through it at the end. But essentially, when you’re coming out of the transition area, and I’ll go through a little video here, I’ll do a little map of that there. You will have laid out a blue bag of which when you’re coming out of the water, you will run past and you will take your wets suit off and you will put your wets suit and your goggles and your hat into that blue bag at the same time. Well, beforehand, you will have taken out your helmet, you will have taken out your um sunglasses, if you’ve got if it’s going to be a cold day, your your your wind jacket, etc. And then that will that’s how you transition. So the blue bag and all the information you need to know what the handle is kind of here. This is part of the and there’s also if you look in the it might sound confusing but there’s a video in the comments below that actually visually lays out this is how it works and this is what you put in the blue bag. This is what you put in the red bag. This is what you put in the white bag. Oh my god. What’s white bag? Streetware. And please note at 70.3 distance there is no what they call special or personal needs bags. They’re additional bags where you can pick up on the course if you have specific nutrition needs etc. Not in 70.3 in Iron Man. That’s another video. So what I would advise is just be aware you will have for Bolton you will have the new you’ll have to pack these bags the night before the blue bag and your red bag. And because it’s a split transition in two different places, you need to drop those bags off as part of your prep the day before and I will cover that in the video as we go along. Okay, so that’s one of the key things you’ll need to know. And let’s have a look at what the transition looks like. So we will you will be uh transitioning from the swim. So this is where you’re running. And again, it’s a little bit muddy as I said, but don’t worry, there’s nothing um that look clear. It’s not going to be I got too much concrete so it’s fine. You will be running into the your change tent um and where you can actually get changed in in here. Um allows you to if you want to change into whole sort of um fresh set of clothing etc. Or if you’ve just got triuit it means that you’re just taking off the wet suit putting in the blue bag etc. taking out your helmet. Key thing you cannot touch your bike until you have your helmet fastened. If you do, that’s going to be possibly a penalty or stop go. Depends on how how they’re operating it. But in terms of your flow, you will be running through. You will have picked up your bag uh your blue bag along way. You will have run and then you will have changed the tent. And as you’re running, you’ll chuck your blue bag in here. There’ll be volunteers to hang to grab it. So that’ll be good. And then you will run out here. And as Iron Man will use a numbered racking system, you will get your actual number as you when you register and you go the night before, the day before the the uh Friday or um Saturday when you register and check in. Key tip here, the numbers are allocated now. They print them off as you as you register. So if you want to be with all your pals, register at the same time because if you’re athlete number 100, then if your pal registers behind you, they’re number 101. That means you’ll all be wrecked together. Kind of cool. But you, as part of your wrecky the day before when you drop off your blue bag, I highly recommend you walk what this route will be, take pictures of where you are. So therefore, you know your ins and outs and it won’t be a panic when you come in on on the race morning and you’re trying to find your bike. But if you’ve walked it and take taken some pictures, go like, “Oh, my bike is here, which is in line with there’s a big tree here. Apologies for the drawing. I skipped art class.” Um, you’ll know that you have to run to the last rack, run down here, and you pick up your bike, and then you’ll run out this way, come past the out here. There will be as if this mount line. You cannot get on your bike until your full entirety of your bike, both wheels pass that mountain line. Um, so that’s another key point when you’re walking the transition the day before when you’re checking in your blue bag. Make sure you walk where is the swim exit? What’s the steps? Well, where I’m going to come up those steps, what’s it what’s the run like? Where’s the change tent? And walk it and go. Okay. All right. That’s where my bag will my I chuck my blue bag. That’s where my my bike will be. That’s where it’s going to be racked. and you will rack it up the night before. There’s the mount line. Um, and so for on the day, it’s smooth, it’s controlled, and it’s easy to do. And therefore, you don’t panic. And don’t those guys who you’ll see in videos who are lost in transition and are running up and down and they’re losing um energy and they’re losing uh was it time? Whereas a good solid transition in um 70.3, it can be anything between 5 to 12 minutes. And if think about it, if you want to go under 6 hours, if you want to go under five and a half hours, if you can get your transition done in 6 minutes and then your finish time is was it uh 6:05, you’ll be raging it if you’re trans if you took 12 minutes in transition. Okay, so remember the flag system. Use a video to pack them. Walk the transition. Take lots of pictures. Was it go through it in your race strategy and go, “Okay, right. This is what I need to do. This is where we’ll come from the swim exit. Smooth and controlled. Okay. Right. So, we’ve gone through our transition. We’re about to go on the bike. Guys, I hope you’re enjoying the video and if you are, please give us a thumbs up because it helps the channel. Um, and if you are interested in a few other races coming up, we have a lot of full distance later on. Um, make sure you actually check out, subscribe to the channel because I do reviews of full distance races and also I have other training tips about Iron Man nutrition, 70.3 nutrition, transition tips, training tips, etc. So, please subscribe, check out the other channel, comment, let us know how you get on. We’d love to know. And again, got into this channel so I could help people. And just a little bit of a thumbs up would help me write back. And there’s a little bit of karma. So, okie do. Right on to the bike course. Um right as I said it’s a it is a a good bike course. Um it’s there are some loops in it which we’ll talk through now there. Um things to note which my guys have fed back on. First off the road surface is not brilliant. If you’re coming from likes to America, if you come from Europe, the road surface is not as pristine as as pristine as what you’re we will be used to. So, it’s kind of what we would call secondary road style. So, it’s good solid road, but there will be potholes and there will be sort of mixed surface. So, just be prepared for that. Key thing there, by the way, is making sure that on your bike everything is secured nicely because otherwise you don’t want your garment to bounce off. You don’t want your rear uh bottle to bounce off if if you hit a bit of a pothole. Just make sure everything’s secure. So, in terms of how the course will come out, this is our start. Um, as I said, you do this one and you do two loops of this start here, which will get you past the 20 mile part. Um, of which you will pass, I said the for one of the first age stations that are around 21 miles. We’ll talk about nutrition in a second. And then you’re on to the up the A57 and going along this course again. In terms of the elevation of this course, it isn’t as um what you call it. There’s 830 m of elevation in it. There’s no big massive hills on it like a heartbreak hill or like a Solarberg or like a um any any of them like Luke Hill and 70.3 Morca. it is undulating as in it’s a fair bit of rolling on this hill. So again, when you’re doing your training, and I give some training tips later on, make sure you include some of that sort of course profile that you’re used to staying either in a big ring or you’ve got good gear management going on that you can go up and down the gears and make sure you don’t lose too much effort. Um that said, as said, so you’re up the A 57 in the towns. By the way, um, in both in itself, one of the key bits of feedback were there are more potholes and manhole covers in these areas. So, you need to be a have your wits about you that because especially if it rains and it did in 2024, it was um quite slippy. So, when you’re in the towns, more alert on these other kind of secondary roads between joining up the potholes aren’t as prevalent. Um bum. So we’re up the uh what you call it the A57 again. It’s past the 30 mile mark. There’s another age station there. You do this other kind of outer loop. And when you come around and then you’re back onto this green loop, the A66 A676. Um coming along up here again. And you’ll have this this uh kind of dog leg again and in and then into transition two. As I said, there’s not a huge amount of elevation in terms of you have around 35 miles and 50 mi to repeat that kind of that hill there, but is that it’s not a big massive climb a huge gradient. It’s they’re they’re punchy little hills, but not something that as I said are massively um going to burn out your legs if you pace it well. Key thing with an R7.3 bike is that you’re fueling and pacing yourself the entire time. Remember, you’re not only fueling for the bike itself. You’re also fueling for the half marathon that’s coming up. Um, next question that people always ask, is this a TT or a time trial bike or a road bike? Um, if you had the option. Um, my guys have said yes, the road surface is decent. there’s not enough huge amount of hills that would actually rule against if you have a TT bike. Um, and if you have a disc wheel, use it. You will get the benefit from that. That said, as well, the way it is, there’s not a huge amount of there wasn’t it’s not historically very windy and where it is, you’re pretty sheltered. So, that if you have that option and you’re wondering, TT bike and disc bring it. Okay, so we go. Now, we finish in transition two. Um, as I said, this is I said separate. This is our separate transition from this. In order to get this done, uh you have from when you pass the swim timing mat and you go through transition, remember short and sharp. Uh the bike you have 5 and 1/2 hours to get it done. Okay, so I’ve talked a little bit about aid stations. Um now this is something that I’m big on. There are eight stations in 70.3 racing and RM racing are high high reward yet high risk. And what do I mean by this? You need to know where the aid stations are and avail of them to make sure you are fueled enough to co cover the was it 90k bike and the 20 and the 21k run. So you will need to know and you don’t want to be carrying all your fuel with you because that’s just extra weight. And if there’s aid stations which you have water, precision hydration, gels, bananas, bars, etc. Know where they’re on the course. So, and a veil on them because it will keep you fueled. But what do I mean by high risk? Now, there’s a key thing here. Um, that this aid station and there will be a start of aid station trash, end of tra aid station thrash. Sorry, I should say rubbish. I’ve been doing American videos. This is the only part on the course where you can chuck empty bottles, banana peels, gel wrappers, whatever, because if you don’t and you chuck them in the beautiful um was it UK, was it English countryside, you’ll get spotted and you’ll get a DQ. Really dumb way to get a DQ. And we really don’t appreciate it as um athletes because if we trash the local area, typically councils, locals won’t come won’t allow us to come back and we ruin it for everyone. So please, please, please, it’s an Iron Man rule. Only ditch any B any bottles, empty bottles, uh empty was it rappers, etc. at the start of the aid station, at the end of the aid station. Rant over. But back to my point about it being high risk. So think about it. It’s the only place people can throw bottles. Only way people can um chuck gel wrappers. So there’s bits and pieces moving and there’s people volunteers are stepping out and handing out bottles to people and handing out stuff and things get knocked over. So there’s lots of moving parts. There’s athletes moving in, athletes moving out. So please when you come to an aid station, know where it is. Don’t pick, oh, there’s an aid station. You know, saw the map there. Uh slow down. Communicate with your fellow athletes. I’m going into the aid station going. Don’t just suddenly veer across. Um, communicate with the volunteer. Look at them. Water, please, please, please. Again, please and cues. Good manners never go out of fashion. Even if you are racing an iron man, grab bottle. Thank you. Secure the bottle and then take out coming again to athletes coming out. Coming out and therefore like make sure that you’re aware. So, that’s really key. Um, as I said, they’re they’re located at roughly around 10 miles, 21 miles, 29 miles, and 45 miles. Easy to remember. print this off and write it on your stem. So even in when the race race brain kit hits, you’ll remember that’s you got you’ve got energy gel bars and at least this was last year, you don’t expect that to change. Precision hydration still has the contract with um Iron Man, which is great. We don’t have to suffer immortal hydration. Actually, I don’t know. I haven’t tried it yet, but apparently the Americans don’t like us. So a stations, know where they are, build it into your nutrition strategy, um and know how to use them. In terms of nutrition strategy, I have a video in the comments below that will tell you how to plan that out in terms of using an aid station. I’ve demo videos about what you need to practice in the comments below. Please check them out. Please give them a like and give me a comment and say whether or not they tell us how they helped you. I know they will help you. They’ve helped thousands of athletes already. So, I just want you guys to be the next. Okay. So, we’re now into our T2. And again, it’s different to T1. So, we’re transitioning from bike to run. So, we’re now in a red bag. Um, so this is our red bag. This is the stuff that you’re going to get in here. Um, and mainly if you’re going to put your helmet in, you’re going to put your your your runners in. Top tip here as well, you cannot take your helmet off until you’ve racked your bike. If you do, you’ll get a and you get seen by a by a marshall. You will get a penalty again. rack bike then takeoff helmet and then head. So how does the transition flow work for our um our bike to run? Okay. So we will be coming in and the bike. We are coming in on the bike. So you’re coming in on the bike here. Dismount line. You have to stop the bike entirely before you before you get off it. This is there’ll be a line here. There’ll be marshals with flags. Listen to them. You will be running in here. Um, now you remember when we’re talking about walking the trans the course beforehand. This is your ins and outs. Again, you will have walked and obviously figure out a new point where you’re going to be racking your bike, which will equate to your number 100, whatever. So, let’s just assume it’s here. You will have walked that the day before when you dropped off your your uh red bag. You would have taken a picture. It’s in line with a big Let’s just say this time it’s a porty body of doom. Okay, there you go. Um going to draw a little poo there. Right down there. My my artistic deck goes that far. Anyhow, so you will have walked that. So you’ll know that going up here. I’m 1 2 3 4 five racks up and then I come down here. I’m halfway down. It’s in line with the portaloo. Rack the bike. Then as you’re running towards the change tents, the red back racks, you can take the helmet off. Um, you will also have taken pictures of where you’ve racked your bag red bags. When you actually put your bags in the day before, you actually there’s a racking system and it will equate the number. So you’ll go to not to 100 and you won’t be at the very end and then get there and get out. Some top tips about transitioning in T2. Nothing good happens in T2. That’s a phrase we have in our squad because lots of people sit down, they’ll talk to someone and they’ll go, “Oh my, that was my bike was, you know, a little harder. I dropped my bottle.” Don’t have conversations. As soon as you get your runners on, you can move. All right? You can at that stage, you will you don’t need to be sitting there with put your baseball cap on or your your bib on or take a gel. put your runners on and start running towards the run exit because the only thing that lives in transition two are other people’s problems. You can talk to these people after you finish the race. The minute you have your runners on, get your ass in gear and start running towards the run exit here. Okay, so transition two should be a damn sight quicker than transition one. And we’re we’re deliberate on that because if we slow down and we sit down, we allow our muscles to cramp up. and he said the minute you’re moving you’re moving towards the next aid station. You’re moving towards the finish line and that is what we’re what we what we want out of life. So transition two in and out. That’s my top piece of advice to you. Okay. And now we’re on to our run section which is it is a two-loop course. Um and as I said mainly a bit of a mixed um what you call it uh the surface you will be running on cobbles in the town mainly toarmac and then um there will be there will be some sort of off-road a little bit of kind of grass in in the park and there’s some hills in the park so just be aware of that and I’ll talk how to train for them now. So where are we? We are starting here. We are transitioning here and we follow our our run course out here. [Music] Okay. So where? Okay. So we are out running along here. This will come down to where we are. One mile. Oh, I really need to tidy that up. Um second. Okay. Right. So, the the run does take you through the town and it takes you um around here. There’s a fair bit of kind of noise here because they’re near the finish line and that’s where a really good place for spectators to hang out. You will head into the park. Um and where as I said there’s a bit of elevation here at this point. Uh you can see so and just build it in. So the little bit of hill work we’re talking about in the training. But overall um what I recommend to athletes when you’re racing a uh your first half Martin off the bike break it into three kind of sections. Section one is kind of 7K or where you’re kind of getting yourself um you’re finding your legs off the bike. Um and making sure you’re kind of you don’t go out too fast because you’ve got to pace yourself and fuel this area. Section two is when you’re kind of uh from 8K onwards where I’d tell guys to get into your kind of race pace kind of your you found your legs, you’re a bit comfortable, start hitting the paces you would have hit in your long race pace runs in the buildup to this. And the last section is kind of like 14 to 21 where it’s getting really tired. Your legs are really tired. You’re kind of dropping off the pace. That’s when it really have to dig in mentally and kind of get it done. But there’s, as I said, the good news is there’s not a huge amount of elevation in this. There are hills, but there are a couple of um drags here, but they’re not massive climbs as well, so you can pace yourself well. Another tip I say is the aid stations are roughly every kind of um mile, so the way you pass them. So, do not miss an aid station. Make sure you keep fueled and topped up in terms of hydration, um, fuel, etc. And so, and make sure that you keep going until you actually hit the finish line. And the finish line is epic. In terms of getting it done, you have um, swim, T1, bike, T2, and run time. You’ve got 8 and 1/2 hours to get it done. So, little this is about the age stations for the the run. slightly different as you have water, precision, hydration, but you have Coke as well. You’ve got other food which and bars and gels and precision etc. There’s a little bit different here because there’s more variety because you can actually stop off. There’s as I said the sweets and salted snacks. Um cola I tend to hold off having cola until 11K onwards because once you kind of crack that kind of sugary badness as in you need to keep topped up and there’s only so much Coke your body can take. But it is a great kind of um kick up the ars if you’re kind of flagging. Try to, as I said, pick it at the second half of the run rather than early. This is your finish line. Great support in Bolton. They they ran a superb um full distance Iron Man here and they’re very proud of it. So there’s a lot of kind of Iron Man nuts in here and they’re very happy to help everyone out. So they will have a great finish line experience. This is what you kind of look at the day before. Visualize this. try to dig in and your last kind of as I said that last kind of 10k 8k 7k when your legs are fried and you’re kind of going oh I want to walk this is what you think about think about the crowds think about your why think about your family think about your support think about all the sacrifice you’ve made and push on you’ve only got seven six five whatever kilometers that when that kind of the little gremlin comes in your shoulder goes you can’t do this right so just a little bit on prep before we talk about the actual schedule if you are looking at this and it’s a few months out. Here’s some sort of advice I will give you if you’re training for your first Iron Man, uh, 70.3. Um, in terms of swimming base, I recommend you get two, three sessions in a week, depending on, again, this is all based on whether or not you’re a h I don’t know what athlete it might be, but if I would say to um my athletes, you train to your weaknesses and raise your strengths. So, if you’re a really strong swimmer, you don’t need three swim seconds sessions a week. Uh, you need two and you’re a weak biker. You need more bike sessions. So, this is just assuming the average athlete. But for the base where you’re kind of building up your aerobic fitness and you’re just getting into it, which you should be in um around now anyhow for not in the build swimming two to three rounds a week, one’s going to be an endurance session, one’s going to be a technic session, and one tends to be a speed session. Do hop in with a club if you have the option. build. This is where you get more race specific very make sure you practice open water swimming OWS because swimming in a lake is way different to a pool. Getting used to a wet suit, drafting in that water, sighting, example, when you’re actually like making sure you’re swimming in a straight line and not towards the coast are key skills you’ll need to do. Uh the bike again for the base I would say two to three swim two to three bikes a week. One of which would be a long bike at the weekend. These can be done indoor if the weather’s crap. But ideally what you really want to be doing at um as much as possible is getting outdoors particularly for the long bikes and you can do this with pals, training clubs, uh training partners, etc. So you get technical skills. You know how to be able to pick up your bottle and drink from your bottle. You know how to break. You know how to corner, etc. You know how to avoid a pothole. So in the base the and if you do want to use indoor smart trainers um the course the 703 built-in course is available on Ruby and by the way you can also if you use training peaks um you have the ability to upload the actual GPX file which I’ll have in the links below. So you can actually do that on training peaks virtual which is kind of cool. Um it just gives you the change the elevation and the resistance as you go along. I’ll put a video in the comments how to demonstrate that later on. Um build again you should be hitting at least was it 90 to 100k in your long bikes. Again covering climbing that kind of undulating profile as we discussed rather than big massive hills 80 uh 800 meter climbing so your legs know what it feels to run to do that on the bike. I would also say that um in the build you should do hill repeats midweek as a sort of slow long slow hard hills to actually build your climbing muscles in the build again you should actually look at fine tuning your nutrition as I said what are you going to eat how are you going to eat it when you’re going to eat it sounds a bit dafted but you need to practice this how you going to carry the food um and just practice how different options and again I talk about that in my race nutrition video test your equipment and build are you going to use a TT bike. Yes, you are. Okay, cool. Make sure you used to be going on the arrow bars. Make sure if you’re going to use a disc brakes for the first time, make sure you know it has that feel. You don’t want to turn up on race day with a brand new bike and never used it. Something will go wrong. Runwise. Um, again, base two weeks, uh, two sessions a week minimum. Three if you can, more if you’re a weak runner. Um, but one of those should be a long run. In the base, you probably should only need to build up to 14 16k. You don’t need to be doing any like half marathon each week. Um you’ll only probably get even close to that during the build phase, but just building up really nice slow easy miles that you’ve got the the legs the miles in the legs and comfortable build. I talked to guys getting the long run should be around 18 to 20k and some of that should be at race pace. What your target should be in terms of your intensity or what pace you want to hit. Um again, if you know what your zones are, etc. also be doing bricks. Even short bricks off the midweek bikes are great. Just even one 2K just gives the the body and the mind, okay, we finish cycling, now we go running. 500 meters out, 500 meters back. It’s invaluable. But off your long bike, you don’t need to be doing 10, 15k off the bike. Not at all. I would cap my guys at 3, five, 7k, depending on the level that they are they’re at with their beginner, intermediate, advanced. But again, you’ll know that yourself. And again, work out your nutrition as in what do you need to fuel on your long runs? Do you need a gel every sevenk every half an hour? Make sure you have that tail down. And also the Morton gels expensive, but that’s what’s on course. Although, and if you find out you don’t like Morton gels, bring your own and know how you’re going to carry them. Okay, guys. Uh the re the venue, it’s um some key things to note about on your race week. Um, you can register on Friday or Saturday. By the way, this is from last year’s timetable. Oh, this video is not intended to replace the um athlete guide or the race briefing. It’s meant to supplement it. So, make sure you check when the athlete guide goes out that none of this changes because this can change year to year. And also attend the athlete guide the athlete briefing because sometimes they change something on the course if there’s a a reason one of the road closed and have to shut down. There might be a no overtaking part. attend but based on previous years they’ve had the option to register on Friday and Saturday I think those times. Um now again remember you will need to drop your red bag off and your blue bag and your bike off in two different locations. So you need to kind of um build that into your logistics. So you can do the the red bag is going to be close to where the kind of registration finish line is yada yada yada. So that’s you can do that on the Friday the or the Saturday depending on your timetable. And as I said there’s the option of the practice swim. Do do this because as I said the water can be murky. There’s weeds. You kind of get a little bit of sighting points etc. The boys will be out between 11 and 1 has been historically on Saturday. You do need to register. Can’t just rock up. Saturday T1 is open where you can drop your bike and your blue bag off. You will also pick up your timing chip here. you don’t get that that registration. Um because this is our man way of making sure that you are going to turn up and race rather than hand out timing chips and they go like oh we handed out 3,000 timing chips and only 2,500 not raced because some people turn up just the bag and this the swag. But if you checked in the bike you’re gain ball. So just bear that in mind. Uh race morning transition opens between uh half 4 and closes at 6. My advice get there early. you’re not going to sleep well the night before anyhow. Something magic about transition on a race day morning. Um things will go wrong, but which if you give yourself time, plenty to fix if you go and find that you your bike is punchured overnight or someone’s knocked off your derailer, you can if you’re there at 5 and you have an hour to get it fixed, no stress. If you’re there at 10 to 6 and you’ve got 10 minutes to get it fixed, mega stress, you will kick off and you will have the time of your life from 6:15 onwards. Um, it is a super course. It is wellrun. The Brits love their iron man. Um, and you will have a super day. So, if you’ve any questions or queries, post them um in the comments below. I tend to monitor videos and answer them as much as I can. Um, and otherwise, I hope your training goes well. I hope that you will have a great race in Bolton and I hope that you’ll give the video a like and if you’re looking for other videos or you’ll tell your friends, happy to help. Otherwise, enjoy the Armen UK.