5150 · Iquique · Last raced 28 Jun 2026
How to train for 5150 Iquique
The organiser sums up 5150 Iquique in three words: ocean, rolling, flat. The middle word is the one people get wrong. They read "rolling" and go looking for long climbs to train on. There are none. The bike file measures 40.5 km with 258 m of climbing, and not one rise on it runs longer than 380 m.
What the word actually describes is eleven short kicks separated by long stretches of flat coastal road. A Trained reference athlete finishes in 2:49:54, and nearly all of that time is spent on the flat, close to threshold. The race is decided by the number you hold between the rises, not on them. It was last raced on 2026-06-28, and the organiser has not yet published the next date.
By Kian Briel, founder. Analysed by engine 1, updated
What is actually on the road
The organiser's own course files, drawn the way the Event Analyzer draws a member's race.
- Swim1.51 km4 m upCourse file
- Bike40.5 km258 m upCourse file
- Run10.2 km26 m upCourse file
You start with one loop of 1.5 km off Playa Cavancha, a beach the organiser calls Blue Flag certified, in the open Pacific. Then comes the bike, one ride of 40.5 km along what the organiser describes as wide coastal roads. The run covers 10.2 km and climbs 26 m, with the Atacama Desert and the golden dunes of Cerro Dragón as the backdrop the organiser promises.
The profile is simple to read once you know the pattern. The bike opens with about 3 km of flat road. Then a cluster of short rises, the longest of them 380 m at 3.4 percent, lifts you a few dozen metres and hands it straight back on the descents. After that the road goes flat again for more than 6 km. The same shape comes round four times, and the fourth cluster leaves you a final 3.2 km of flat road back to transition. Across the whole course, 90.6 percent of the distance reads as flat.
The engine picks out two places on the bike. The steepest rise, 224 m at 4.9 percent a little past halfway, costs 1.4 percent of the leg. The flat stretch of 7.4 km that follows the third cluster costs 18 percent of it, the largest single block of time in the ride. The run is one flat segment from start to finish.
Course shape by distance
- Flat 91%
- Climbing 5%
- Descending 5%
The longest stretches
- Bike, climbing0.22 km1% of the bike
- Bike, flat7.44 km18% of the bike
- Run, flat10.2 km100% of the run
Each row is one unbroken stretch of the course that keeps the same shape the whole way. The number is how much of that leg you spend inside it, and it comes out the same whether you are fast or slow.
What this course asks of each leg
Twelve training dimensions scored for each leg against its own course, the way the Event Analyzer scores a member's race.
Threshold capacity scores 90 on the swim, on the bike and on the run, the highest reading anywhere on this course. That is what an Olympic-distance triathlon asks for, and nothing here softens it. The bike then adds something of its own. High-intensity capacity reads 87 on the bike against 70 on the other two legs, and the difference is those eleven rises. Each is short enough to answer with a burst, and the course asks the question eleven times.
Once the scores are weighted by how much of the day each leg fills, the bike's threshold and high-intensity demands sit first and second on the whole course. Aerobic endurance follows at 70 on every leg. Muscular endurance reads 62 on the bike and 61 on the swim and the run. In the water, technical skill reads 65, far above its reading on either leg on land. Fueling resilience reads 20 and aerobic durability no more than 36. The day is too short for either to matter much.
Put the bands beside those scores. A Trained athlete swims 29:20, rides 1:17:40 at 200 W and runs 52:54. The bike alone is 46 percent of that day. The Competitive band finishes in 2:29:09 from 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg and 4:20 /km threshold pace, nearly nine minutes quicker on the bike and eight on the run. It does not find that time on the rises. The rises are too short to hold much time at all. It finds it by holding 274 W on the flat roads between them.
Ask the engine for one session shaped by this bike file and it returns about an hour on the bike with eleven half-minute efforts in Zone 5, each followed by a little over three minutes of easy spinning. Short and sharp, then settle, eleven times. That is the ride in miniature, with the flat roads left out.
The weather is mild. The organiser logged highs of 18 C in 2025, 17 C in 2024 and 21 C in 2023, and it describes clear skies and stable weather. Environmental resilience scores 10 on every leg. The low in 2024 was 13 C, worth remembering before an ocean swim.
- Threshold capacity90
- Aerobic endurance70
- High-intensity capacity70
- Technical skill65
- Muscular endurance61
- Anaerobic capacity55
- Threshold durability45
- Aerobic durability35
- Fueling resilience20
- Sprint power20
- Strength / force15
- Environmental resilience10
Nymiva reads what you can already show, from your own data
Connect your training history and the Focus Lab scores the same twelve dimensions this course demands against where you sit today. The gap between the two is what you train.
- MeasuredFrom your thresholds and testsThreshold power, threshold pace, critical swim speed and field tests you have done. The dimensions they can carry are scored directly.
- EstimatedFrom your training historyConnected activities are read for what they prove: long efforts, late-session fade, repeated hard work, fueling on long days. Each score says how it was read.
- ProxyFrom a stand-in, and named as oneWhere only an indirect signal exists, the score carries the proxy it came from and a lower confidence, never a number dressed as a measurement.
- UnmeasuredHonestly blankA dimension nothing in your data can answer stays unmeasured. It is never a zero, and the plan does not pretend to know it.
Every dimension ends in one word
- Develop the course asks more than you can show
- Maintain close enough to hold at the minimum dose
- Covered nothing to build here
- Unmeasured the course needs it, your data cannot say yet
Nymiva reads twelve dimensions off the course file and the same twelve off the athlete, from their thresholds and their connected training history. Each athlete score carries a note on what it was built from and how much weight it can bear. A dimension becomes a gap only where the course asks for more than the athlete can show, and gaps are then weighted by the share of the day they touch. Here the bike is close to half the day, so a bike gap outranks a swim gap of the same size by a wide margin.
This page holds none of your data. Its season takes the plain assumption that your gaps sit where the demands are highest and lays out 16 weeks with 3 developmental blocks. Threshold capacity leads the first block in all three sports. In the second, technical skill leads in the water while muscular endurance leads on the bike and on foot. In the third, high-intensity capacity leads on the bike and aerobic endurance leads the swim and the run, before two weeks of taper and race week. A member's season is drawn from their own numbers and will choose its priorities differently.
What this course asks for first
Which demands matter most across the whole race. A leg's demand counts for as much of the day as that leg takes, so a score of 85 on the bike outweighs the same score on the swim.
- 01Threshold capacityBike leg, 46% of the day90 × 46%41
- 02High-intensity capacityBike leg, 46% of the day87 × 46%40
- 03Aerobic enduranceBike leg, 46% of the day70 × 46%32
Which demand gets a block, and when
The engine freezes one lead focus per sport on every developmental block, holds the rest at maintenance, and verifies before it reprioritises.
An illustration, not your plan. This page has none of your data, so the season below is the engine’s answer to one stated assumption: that your gaps line up with what 5150 Iquique demands. Your own season is built from your history, your thresholds, the days you can train and the races you have entered, and it will differ from this in its priorities, its sessions and its load.
- 01Run threshold capacity, a development block3 weeks
- 02Bike high-intensity capacity, a development block2 weeks
- 03Bike threshold capacity, a development block5 weeks
In the order the allocator places them, general first, most race-like last.
- Week 1PrepPrep
A lead-in week. It develops nothing by design.
- Weeks 2 to 5Foundation 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike threshold capacity
- PriorityRun threshold capacity
- PrioritySwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- Weeks 6 to 9Event shaping 1Closes with a recovery week
- PrioritySwim technical skill
- PriorityBike muscular endurance
- PriorityRun muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike high-intensity capacity
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportRun high-intensity capacity
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim high-intensity capacity
- Weeks 10 to 13Event shaping 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike high-intensity capacity
- PriorityRun aerobic endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun high-intensity capacity
- SupportSwim high-intensity capacity
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- Weeks 14 to 15PeakPeak
The taper. Load comes down toward the race, content stays specific.
- Week 16RaceRace
Race week.
Held at maintenance between blocks
- Runthreshold capacity, aerobic endurance, high-intensity capacity, muscular endurance
- Bikehigh-intensity capacity, threshold capacity, aerobic endurance, muscular endurance
- Swimaerobic endurance, threshold capacity, high-intensity capacity, muscular endurance, technical skill
Touches scheduled by each capability’s own decay, at a fraction of its development dose, so earlier work is still there on race day.
The sessions the blocks are built from
One entry per kind of work the block trains, at the intensity that work is meant to be done at. Where the same work runs at several lengths, the entry shows the span it grows across rather than one entry per length.
- Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 553 to 167 min
4 x 10 min at Zone 4, then 20 min at Zone 4, then 10 x 0.2 min at Zone 7, then 30 min at Zone 3, 5 min easy between
BikePower, Zone 4Trains threshold capacity - Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 576 to 135 min
5 x 1 min at Zone 1, then 2 x 20 min at Zone 4, then 45 min at Zone 3, 1 min easy between
BikePower, Zone 1Trains threshold capacity - Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 552 to 62 min
3 x 8 min at Zone 4, 3 min easy between
RunPace, Zone 4Trains threshold capacity - Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 560 min
3 x 8 min at Zone 3, then 3 x 7 min at Zone 4
RunPace, Zone 3Trains threshold capacity - Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 532 to 44 min
12 x 100 m at Zone 4, 0.3 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 4Trains threshold capacity - Foundation 2 · Weeks 2 to 546 to 59 min
10 x 200 m at Zone 3, 0.3 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 3Trains threshold capacity
11× rolling-course surges
0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, then 0.5 min at Zone 5, 3.3 min easy between
Compiled by the deterministic course compiler from the organiser’s file: the course’s one repeatable requirement, rehearsed at a dose the progression allows.
- Bike
- 63 min
- Trains threshold durability
- Supports muscular endurance
- Supports high intensity capacity
16 weeks, laid out backwards from race day
The shortest runway Nymiva builds for this event type, with its blocks, recovery weeks, taper and race week in place.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- Prep
- Foundation
- Event shaping
- Peak
- Race
- Recovery week
Your own season carries these same phases on your own dates, with the load solved from your fitness and the days you can train, and it changes when your data does.
What each level does on the day
Reference finish times per peer band, the pacing plan the model holds each band to, and where the day is decided.
| Band | Swim | Bike | Run | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recreational2:11 /100m critical swim speed · 2.47 W/kg at 75 kg · 6:08 /km threshold pace | 0:34:37 | 1:24:10 | 1:03:37 | 3:12:24 |
| Trained1:51 /100m critical swim speed · 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg · 5:06 /km threshold pace | 0:29:20 | 1:17:40 | 0:52:54 | 2:49:54 |
| Competitive1:36 /100m critical swim speed · 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg · 4:20 /km threshold pace | 0:25:22 | 1:08:50 | 0:44:57 | 2:29:09 |
| Elite1:26 /100m critical swim speed · 5.27 W/kg at 75 kg · 3:50 /km threshold pace | 0:22:43 | 1:02:57 | 0:39:46 | 2:15:26 |
Pacing plan
- 0 km0.3%30.6 km/h6:16
- 3.2 km3.4%18.1 km/h1:15
- 3.57 km2.1%22.6 km/h0:30
- 3.76 km4.5%15.2 km/h1:03
- 4.03 km0.2%31 km/h1:05
- 4.59 km-3.8%49.7 km/h0:13
- 4.77 km-0.4%33.9 km/h1:36
- 5.67 km3.2%18.7 km/h0:36
33 more segments in the full plan.
- Run: reach 4:20 /km and this course gives back 20:45.
Where it is decided
On the flat roads, in the minutes after each cluster of rises.
The rises themselves are cheap. The steepest takes 1.4 percent of the leg, and even all eleven together are a small slice of a Trained rider's ride. What they do is break your rhythm. Over the top of each one the road falls away, the speed comes up on the descent, and the long flat that follows feels easy for the first kilometre. A rider who relaxes there, or who is still recovering from a burst on the last kick, gives back far more time than any climb could take.
The biggest of those flats is the 7.4 km after the third cluster, 18 percent of the leg on its own. A Trained rider needs 200 W there, the same number as everywhere else. Riders who hold it arrive at the last cluster with their legs intact. Riders who sprinted every rise arrive at the flat already spent and sit a few watts under target for the whole stretch without noticing.
The run settles what the bike started. It is one flat segment of 10.2 km, and a Trained runner needs 52:54 from an input of 5:06 /km threshold pace. With nothing on the road to slow you or speed you up, the run shows exactly how much the bike cost.
Getting it wrong
At Iquique, the first mistake is made months before race day. "Rolling" sounds like hills, so athletes spend their spring on long climbs. Strength and force reads 39 on the bike and 25 on the run, far behind threshold capacity at 90. The rides that matter for Iquique are long, steady efforts close to threshold with short, hard kicks placed inside them.
Next comes the first rise. It comes after about 3 km of flat road, when the swim is still in your legs and the field is still close together. Stand up and chase the wheel ahead and you have spent the opening minutes of the ride above the power you planned for the next hour. Take it seated at the same number and let the speed fall.
The last is the run. It is flat, and the organiser's history puts the highs between 17 C and 21 C, so it feels fast from the first step. That feeling is the trap. Hold the pace you trained for through the first half, keep the dunes of Cerro Dragón in view for the second, and pass the people who believed the first kilometre.
Conditions on the day
- 2025high 18 C, low 14 C
- 2024high 17 C, low 13 C
- 2023high 21 C, low 18 C
From the organiser’s own records. Not a forecast.
Every session is a claim, every block is a test
A plan is not a calendar. Each key session states what it trains and how that is checked, and each block ends with a public verdict before the next one is chosen.
What a block promises
Bike threshold capacity moves from your baseline to a stated target by the end of Foundation 2
- The baseline is your measured score when the block starts. The target is the score the model predicts for it.
- Verified at the block’s recovery week, by a field test or a refresh of the supply read from your history.
- Confidence rises by agreement between independent signals, never by one metric crossing a line.
- A block that misses its target is a public miss. The next block is chosen from what was proven, not from what was planned.
- 01Stimulus achievedThe work landed in the zone the session named, for the dose it named.
- 02Partially achievedSome of the work landed. The session banks what it can prove.
- 03Not achievedThe load may have been there. The stimulus was not, so nothing is banked.
- 04Data insufficientNo usable stream. The session is neither credited nor blamed.
- Session verified
- Progression banked
- Block verified
- Priority reassessed
- Plan adapted
Your numbers, this course
Analyze 5150 Iquique against my fitness
The same simulation and the same Focus Lab read, on your thresholds instead of a band’s. Three numbers give a finish estimate and a partial read. A connected history gives the whole table.
The first 14 days are free.
- Trained band finish
- 2:49:54
- Of the day on the bike
- 46%
- Dimensions scored per leg
- 12
- Season runway shown
- 16 wk
Questions people ask
- How hilly is the 5150 Iquique bike course?
- The organiser calls it rolling, and the file shows what that means. It measures 40.5 km with 258 m of climbing, spread over eleven short rises of 3 percent or more. The steepest is 224 m at 4.9 percent, and long flat stretches of coastal road sit between them.
- Where is the 5150 Iquique swim?
- At Playa Cavancha, a beach the organiser describes as Blue Flag certified, in the Pacific. It is one loop of 1.5 km. The organiser's weather history carries no water readings and the wetsuit rule is not on the course page, so check both in race week.
- Is the 5150 Iquique run flat?
- Yes. The organiser labels it flat, and its 10.2 km climbs 26 m in total. The engine reads the whole run as a single flat segment, with the Atacama Desert and the dunes of Cerro Dragón behind it.
- When is the next 5150 Iquique?
- The organiser has not yet published the next date. The course and the training it asks for are set out on this page, and the season shown runs 16 weeks with three developmental blocks.
Course data from the organiser’s published files, analysed 25 Sept 2026 by engine 1, demand model 4. Reference times are simulated for a peer band at a stated reference athlete and are not a prediction for anyone. Nothing on this page is medical advice.
IRONMAN® and IRONMAN 70.3® are registered trademarks, and 5150 is a trademark, of World Triathlon Corporation. Nymiva is an independent training platform and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by World Triathlon Corporation. Course data is read from the organiser’s public course pages for the purpose of describing the event.