IRONMAN · Vichy · 22 Aug 2027
How to train for IRONMAN Vichy
People come to Vichy expecting one big climb. The organiser names La Guillermie as the highest point of the course, and it is the landmark every rider studies. It is also steady and shaded, and it is not where the bike does its damage. That happens later, in the rolling country beyond Lapalisse, on legs that have already done most of the day's work.
The numbers show a mixed course, not a mountain one. The engine reads 83.4 percent of the whole course as flat, with 1657 m of climbing packed into the rest of a 181 km bike. The steepest sustained piece is 516 m at 7.2 percent, and it holds 1 percent of the bike leg. Vichy asks for a rider who can keep making the same effort through hours of small hills, and then run four flat loops.
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.
- Swim3.8 kmDistance only
- Bike181 km1,657 m upCourse file
- Run41.6 km156 m upCourse file
The swim is one loop of 3.8 km in the Allier River, starting in the first light of the morning, with transition on the Parking sablé du Plan d'eau.
The bike leaves along the Allier Lake. Past Bellerive it crosses the Limagne plain, which the organiser calls a fast section for settling into the aero position. The road chicanes of Puy-Guillaume lead into the Livradois-Forez and the village of Châteldon. Then comes the climb to La Guillermie, a two-part descent to Ferrières-sur-Sichon and a long false flat down the Sichon River to Cusset, where the organiser points you at the crowd outside the Les Montagnards bar-restaurant. The second half runs past Bost and Billezois to Lapalisse and its château, over the rolling ground from La Bruyère to La Croix Rouge, up to Châtel-Montagne and on towards Mayet-de-Montagne before dropping back into the Sichon valley. A careful descent on the Route de Creuzier brings you home.
The run is four loops around the Lac d'Allier and the parks, for 156 m across 41.6 km. Each loop has one short drop in the file and little else.
The profile matches the organiser's words closely. The first 31.6 km, out across the Limagne plain, are the longest flat stretch on the bike and hold 16 percent of the leg. After that the file breaks into dozens of short climbs and descents, and no single one of them holds more than a sliver of the time.
Course shape by distance
- Flat 83%
- Climbing 9%
- Descending 8%
The longest stretches
- Bike, flat31.6 km16% of the bike
- Bike, climbing0.52 km1% of the bike
- Run, flat10.1 km25% 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.
At 95, aerobic endurance leads every leg. On the bike, aerobic durability follows at 93 and muscular endurance at 92. Threshold durability scores 84 on the bike, above the 80 it holds on the run. That is the rolling terrain showing up in the reading. Each short rise asks for a little more than steady power. Then the next one asks again, for hours.
Strength reads 53 and technical skill 47 on the bike. Neither is the headline, and both are real. The organiser flags a tricky entry into Ferrières-sur-Sichon, technical sections around Arronnes and a careful descent at the end. The course-matched session on this page is twelve climbs that run straight into a false flat, which is the organiser's own description of the middle of this bike turned into a workout.
A Trained reference athlete finishes in 12:30:46 from an input of 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg, spending 6:47:57 on the bike at 159 W. That is 54 percent of the day. The Competitive band finishes in 10:45:50, riding 5:51:50 at 218 W and running 3:34:55 against 4:12:56. These are reference times for a 75 kg reference athlete. They say what the course does to a stated rider, not what it will do to you.
August in the Auvergne is not one kind of day. The organiser recorded a high of 28 C and a low of 8 C in 2024, and a high of 23 C with a low of 15 C in 2025.
- Aerobic endurance95
- Aerobic durability90
- Muscular endurance90
- Fueling resilience85
- Threshold durability80
- Technical skill60
- Threshold capacity55
- High-intensity capacity25
- Strength / force25
- Environmental resilience20
- Anaerobic capacity15
- Sprint power0
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
In Nymiva, two sets of twelve scores are held up against each other. The course's come from its file. An athlete's come from their thresholds and connected history, and every one of them says how it was read and how confident that reading is. A gap is where the course's score is higher than the athlete's. Weight that gap by how much of the day its leg takes and you know what to train first, which on this course means the bike.
This page carries none of your data. The season on this page assumes your gaps sit on Vichy's biggest demands and spreads 5 developmental blocks over 28 weeks. Aerobic endurance opens and closes the developmental run. Fueling resilience comes second, muscular endurance takes the middle, and aerobic durability leads the block before the last. Built from your own numbers, the order would follow your gaps instead.
Train the bike to protect the run
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.
- 01Aerobic enduranceBike leg, 54% of the day95 × 54%52
- 02Aerobic durabilityBike leg, 54% of the day93 × 54%51
- 03Muscular enduranceBike leg, 54% of the day92 × 54%50
The bike takes 54% of the Trained reference band’s day, so its demands carry the most race weight. What the bike leaves in the legs is what the run gets.
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 IRONMAN Vichy 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 aerobic endurance, a development block4 weeks
- 02Bike muscular endurance, a practice block4 weeks
- 03Bike aerobic durability, a practice block6 weeks
- 04Bike aerobic endurance, 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 9Foundation 1Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike aerobic endurance
- PriorityRun aerobic endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic durability
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic durability
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike fueling resilience
- SupportRun fueling resilience
- SupportSwim fueling resilience
- Weeks 10 to 13Foundation 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike fueling resilience
- PriorityRun fueling resilience
- PrioritySwim fueling resilience
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic durability
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic durability
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- Weeks 14 to 17Foundation 3Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike muscular endurance
- PriorityRun muscular endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic durability
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic durability
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike fueling resilience
- SupportRun fueling resilience
- SupportSwim fueling resilience
- Weeks 18 to 21Event shaping 1Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityRun aerobic durability
- PriorityBike aerobic durability
- PrioritySwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic durability
- SupportBike fueling resilience
- SupportRun fueling resilience
- SupportSwim fueling resilience
- Weeks 22 to 25Event shaping 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike aerobic endurance
- PriorityRun aerobic endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic durability
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic durability
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike fueling resilience
- SupportRun fueling resilience
- SupportSwim fueling resilience
- Weeks 26 to 27PeakPeak
The taper. Load comes down toward the race, content stays specific.
- Week 28RaceRace
Race week.
Held at maintenance between blocks
- Runaerobic endurance, aerobic durability, threshold durability, muscular endurance, technical skill, fueling resilience
- Bikemuscular endurance, aerobic durability, aerobic endurance, threshold durability, fueling resilience
- Swimaerobic endurance, aerobic durability, threshold durability, muscular endurance, technical skill, fueling resilience
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 1 · Weeks 2 to 975 to 240 min
150 to 210 min at Zone 2
BikePower, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 940 to 270 min
180 to 210 min at Zone 3, then 30 min at Zone 4
BikePower, Zone 3Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 935 to 120 min
90 min at Zone 2
RunPace, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 950 min
4 x 1.5 min at Zone 3, 6 min easy between
RunHeart rate, Zone 3Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 945 to 51 min
4 x 8 min at Zone 2, 1 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 947 to 81 min
3 x 1000 m at Zone 3, 0.3 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 3Trains aerobic capacity
12× climb-to-false-flat repeats
1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, then 1.5 min at Zone 5, then 1.3 min at Zone 4, 0.5 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
- 64 min
- Trains muscular endurance
- Supports strength force
- Supports high intensity capacity
- Supports threshold durability
28 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.
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- 28
- 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 | 1:34:17 | 7:34:25 | 5:04:11 | 14:22:53 |
| Trained1:51 /100m critical swim speed · 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg · 5:06 /km threshold pace | 1:19:53 | 6:47:57 | 4:12:56 | 12:30:46 |
| Competitive1:36 /100m critical swim speed · 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg · 4:20 /km threshold pace | 1:09:05 | 5:51:50 | 3:34:55 | 10:45:50 |
| Elite1:26 /100m critical swim speed · 5.27 W/kg at 75 kg · 3:50 /km threshold pace | 1:01:54 | 5:21:00 | 3:10:07 | 9:43:01 |
Pacing plan
- 0 km0.2%28.2 km/h1:07:15
- 31.6 km6.4%9.3 km/h3:02
- 32 km0.4%27.2 km/h4:51
- 34.2 km3%16.2 km/h1:28
- 34.6 km-5.8%56.7 km/h1:01
- 35.6 km0.9%24.7 km/h0:48
- 35.9 km7.1%8.5 km/h3:17
- 36.4 km0.9%24.7 km/h4:14
83 more segments in the full plan.
- Run: reach 4:20 /km and this course gives back 1:44:56.
Where it is decided
Between Lapalisse and the Sichon valley, in the second half of the bike.
By then the Trained rider has been out for hours at 159 W. The organiser is blunt about the stretch from La Bruyère to La Croix Rouge: rolling toboggan terrain, a rougher road surface, very little shade, tougher than it looks. Then comes a sustained climb to Châtel-Montagne and more hills towards Mayet-de-Montagne. Nothing there is steep enough to frighten anyone. It is the repetition, late, that costs.
Aerobic durability at 93 and threshold durability at 84 are the engine's names for that problem. A rider who rode La Guillermie as the crux arrives at Lapalisse with the reserve already spent, and the run gets whatever is left. It is 34 percent of the Trained day on flat ground, and its longest unbroken stretch of 10.1 km holds a quarter of the leg. The run is honest. It only reports what the back half of the bike did.
Getting it wrong
The Limagne plain comes first. The organiser calls it ideal for a strong, steady rhythm, and riders hear strong. Those 31.6 km are the easiest of the day, and every watt spent there is missing at La Croix Rouge.
The second mistake is training for La Guillermie. It is the highest point and it gets the attention, but a steady, shaded climb is the part of this course most riders handle well. Hours of short rises and false flats are harder to prepare for, and they are what the second half is made of.
The third is the demand the organiser names outright. From La Bruyère to La Croix Rouge, it warns, do not underestimate the energy cost. Fueling resilience scores 85 on the bike, and an athlete who stopped eating on the fast return down the Sichon finds out why on the toboggan beyond Lapalisse.
Conditions on the day
- 2026high 25 C, low 12 C
- 2025high 23 C, low 15 C
- 2024high 28 C, low 8 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 aerobic endurance moves from your baseline to a stated target by the end of Foundation 1
- 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 IRONMAN Vichy 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
- 12:30:46
- Of the day on the bike
- 54%
- Dimensions scored per leg
- 12
- Season runway shown
- 28 wk
Questions people ask
- How hilly is the IRONMAN Vichy bike course?
- The organiser labels it hilly, and the file climbs 1657 m across 181 km. The highest point is La Guillermie, but the steepest sustained piece the engine finds is 516 m at 7.2 percent, and the organiser warns that the rolling stretch from La Bruyère to La Croix Rouge is tougher than it looks.
- Where is the IRONMAN Vichy swim?
- In the Allier River, one loop of 3.8 km that starts as the sun comes up. Transition sits on the Parking sablé du Plan d'eau. The organiser publishes no water temperature history for the swim.
- Is the IRONMAN Vichy run flat?
- Yes. It is four loops around the Lac d'Allier and the city's parks, and the file measures 156 m of climbing across 41.6 km. The organiser calls it flat and fast.
- How many weeks should an IRONMAN Vichy training plan last?
- At least 28 weeks, which is the shortest runway Nymiva builds for a full-distance triathlon, and the season on this page carries 5 developmental blocks. A more ambitious target makes the runway longer.
Course data from the organiser’s published files, analysed 23 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 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.