IRONMAN Recovery Plan - 3 Weeks

This is a 21 day recovery plan for after your IRONMAN race.

This plan is to enable you to recover but also keep active but without over doing it.

You’ll experience most tiredness in the first 48 hours after your race, so there is no benefit to training during this period while your muscles are sore and your body is tired. The best recovery straight after a race is total rest.

After the first 48 hours (or more) of acute fatigue, you’ll start to feel more normal. But not quite fresh enough to resume full blown training. During this phase you’ll experience a less intense, but longer lasting kind of fatigue. And it’s better to train at a low intensity until you’re fully recovered. This helps you stay fit AND recover from your race. If you train too hard during this phase you’ll only increase your recovery time.

Typical Recovery Time: 21 days plus.

- After your race take one entire week as complete rest
- After this, train in Zone 2 only (Easy or Steady) for another 14 to 30 days.
- Include further recovery days if you need to during this period.
- During the recovery period all swims should be 60 mins or less.
- During the recovery period all run workouts should be 40 mins or less.
- During the recovery period all bike workouts less than 2 hours.
- Don’t rush your recovery – for some people it can take up to 3 months to feel 100% (physically and mentally) after an IRONMAN 140.6 triathlon.

Do you prefer TrainingPeaks? Here's the plan on TrainingPeaks.

Do you prefer Final Surge? Here's the plan on Final Surge.