Ironman 70.3 Oman 2026: 6 week check-in
20205-11-30Tag: Personal
It has been 6 weeks since I started officially training for the Ironman 70.3 Oman event happening on 14th Feb 2026. I am now 10 weeks (2.5 months out), and am still getting there on core capabilities across the three sports.
Progress on swimming (feeling 3/10)
This is my weakest link, the last 4 weeks have felt like I’ve been taking 1 step forward, 2 steps back. I landed on breast stroke but after the insistence of a few folks in Trizones (my coaching group), I was told that freestyle is a no-brainer, especially given that I’m a beginner and can choose to learn either.
So far, I can do about 100m continuous in freestyle and that’s with a very wonky posture. With the ‘right’ posture, I’ve gotten max upto 50m before I gas out. I have a long way to go with swimming
Progress on biking (feeling 6/10)
Bike has been progressing well despite the initial few days of hiccups with the indoor trainer. So far I think I’m able to do rolling hills, some small climbs and generally have the ability to hold decent power (FTP currently is ~160, which is not great)
Couple of weeks back, I went out with a few friends to cycle on STRR, that was pretty good, we did a ~70K in about 2.5 hours (we got lost a bunch and had to stop to navigate). Where I did get cooked was the run
Progress on running (feeling 7/10)
While running is my strongest sport of the 3, belting a half marathon post bike is something else. My knees and thighs were cooked, my ankle muscles were off and my neck wasn’t doing too well (pause).
Now is the tense position in the prep where I am below average on all 3 - my initial plan was to choose to move to an event at a later date if I felt unprepared by end of December, but now I feel like I should full send it and give it a shot.
So far I have not seen material progress towards being able to complete the Ironman but I am sticking with it. It’s definitely been helping me get stronger, which is always a pro. I will check-in again 3 weeks from now (with measured bike FTP, time trial 5K and 1K swim timing)