I’m off to South America in late November with the aim of climbing Mt Aconcagua, South America’s highest peak, in January. Aconcagua also so happens to be the highest mountain in the Southern & Western Hemisphere’s, as well as the highest mountain outside the Himalaya, at just under 7,000 metres. It will be one hell of a challenge and I need to ensure my fitness is up to par.

Living in Perth, one of the flattest cities on Earth, training by climbing mountains is a little difficult.. For Mt Elbrus, I did a lot of stair climbing, but that got very stale very quickly. This time round I’ve decided on a new challenge to keep the fitness and motivation high, an Ironman 70.3.

The Ironman 70.3 used to be called a half Ironman but the organisation decided the name simply didn’t do it justice and changed it. It works out to a total distance of 70.3 miles, a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile ride and 13.1 mile run. For us in the modern world, that’s a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and 21.1km run.

Now I’ve never done anything resembling a triathlon before. I hate running and I haven’t swum properly since I was 10. The only riding I’ve done was a long slog up the interior of Vietnam on mountain bikes with large bags strapped to the back, being harassed constantly by drunk locals. I think that was good prep. To top it off, I’ve given myself only 12 weeks to prepare. Should be quite the challenge.

Training wise, I’m doing weekly:

3 swim sessions

3 running sessions

2 bike sessions

2 strength workouts

Building up to a total of around 12-13 hours a week. I’ll post the routine I’m following in a little while, once I’ve got into the flow of it.

Time wise, my goal is 6 hours. According to a study of more than 67,000 finishers, that was the average time. With not a whole lot of preperation time, I’ll be happy with just beating the average. That means the following times for each event;

Swim: 0:45

Bike: 3:00

Run 2:15

I’d say that should be manageable. First I need to make sure I can actually swim that far without drowning.. Let the fun begin!