IRONMAN 70.3 · Kraichgau · 23 May 2027
How to train for IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau
The organiser sells this race as the land of 1,000 hills, and athletes take it at its word. They spend the spring hunting climbs, arrive with climbing legs, and learn somewhere in Bad Schönborn that the hills were never the whole question.
The bike does climb. The organiser's file for the one loop from the Hardtsee gains 1086 m. But it gains it in short pieces, and after it come three laps of level road that fill 32 percent of a Trained athlete's day. The hills write the bill. The run is where you pay it.
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.
- Swim1.9 km0 m upCourse file
- Bike88.5 km1,086 m upCourse file
- Run20.5 km in 3 laps237 m upCourse file
You start in the Hardtsee at Ubstadt-Weiher, one loop of 1.9 km in a lake the organiser describes as clean and clear, with flat banks. From the swim exit it is about 100 m on foot to T1, set on a parking area beside the lake.
The bike is one loop of 90 km through woodland, vineyards and orchards. The first 9 km are dead flat. Then the road tips up and keeps changing its mind until the last few kilometres. The high point arrives at kilometre 18.6, 162 m above the start. The steepest sustained climb is 645 m at 7.4 percent near kilometre 25, another 768 m at the same gradient follows at kilometre 31, and the sharpest descent in the file drops at 10.6 percent after kilometre 69.
The run is three laps through Bad Schönborn, 21.1 km by the organiser's measure, and they call it flat. The route now takes in the redesigned Kurpark. Read from the file, each lap is a gentle 720 m fall and then 6.1 km of level road.
The organiser notes that its current maps come from the previous edition, with the 2027 maps still to follow.
Course shape by distance
- Flat 77%
- Climbing 11%
- Descending 12%
The longest stretches
- Bike, climbing0.65 km2% of the bike
- Run, flat6.12 km30% of the run
- Run, flat6.12 km30% 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.
Endurance first, then the ability to keep pressing on the pedals for hours. The demand model scores aerobic endurance at 85 and muscular endurance at 83 on the bike, with threshold capacity and threshold durability level at 70 behind them. The run carries the same top pair. Because the bike fills 55 percent of a Trained athlete's day, the seven largest demands on the whole course are bike demands, and the first run demand only arrives in eighth place.
The hills show up lower down. High-intensity capacity scores 58 on the bike against 40 on the run and 40 in the water. Strength and force reads 49 on the bike, 30 on the run and 20 in the lake. That spread is the profile talking: short rises that each ask for a minute above steady power, each one handed back by a descent. Ask the engine for a session built from this bike file and it returns twelve efforts of one minute in Zone 5 with three and a quarter minutes of easy riding between them. A dozen questions, one answer.
The swim has its own demand. Technical skill scores 69 in the Hardtsee, against 42 on the bike and 48 on the run. Open water rewards a swimmer who can hold a line without a wall to turn on.
Now the bands. A Trained athlete swims 38:08, rides 3:18:38 at 182 W and runs 1:56:24, finishing in 6:03:10. The Competitive band starts from 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg and 4:20 /km threshold pace. It rides 2:49:07, runs 1:38:54, and finishes in 5:10:59. Most of that difference is steady power held over 90 km of rolling road, and a run that survives it.
Weather is the wildcard. The organiser logged a high of 30 C in 2026, and only 17 C the year before, when the low was 8 C. The lake read 18 C in 2025 and 19 C in 2024. Pack for both ends of that range.
- Aerobic endurance85
- Muscular endurance80
- Threshold capacity70
- Technical skill69
- Aerobic durability65
- Threshold durability65
- Fueling resilience55
- High-intensity capacity40
- Anaerobic capacity25
- Strength / force20
- Environmental resilience10
- Sprint power5
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
Every demand score above has a partner on the athlete's side. Nymiva reads the course from its file and reads you from your thresholds and your connected training history, on the same twelve dimensions, and it names something a gap only when the course asks for more than you can show. Each gap is then weighted by the share of the day it fills. Here that puts the bike at the front of the queue.
Nobody's data stands behind this page, so the season on it makes the plainest assumption: your gaps sit where the demands are largest. On that basis it runs 24 weeks, with 5 developmental blocks before a two-week taper. Aerobic endurance leads the first block in all three sports. In the second, the bike turns to threshold capacity, the run to threshold durability, and the swim to technical skill, the lake earning a block of its own. Threshold work fills the third, muscular endurance leads the fourth, and aerobic endurance comes back for the last block before the taper. Your own season is built from your numbers instead, and it will not look like this one.
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, 55% of the day85 × 55%47
- 02Muscular enduranceBike leg, 55% of the day83 × 55%45
- 03Threshold capacityBike leg, 55% of the day70 × 55%38
The bike takes 55% 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 70.3 Kraichgau 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 muscular endurance, a practice block4 weeks
- 02Run aerobic endurance, a development block4 weeks
- 03Bike muscular endurance, a practice block4 weeks
- 04Bike aerobic endurance, a development block4 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 1Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike aerobic endurance
- PriorityRun aerobic endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportRun threshold durability
- Weeks 6 to 9Foundation 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike threshold capacity
- PrioritySwim technical skill
- PriorityRun threshold durability
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- Weeks 10 to 13Foundation 3Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike threshold durability
- PriorityRun threshold capacity
- PrioritySwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportRun threshold durability
- Weeks 14 to 17Event shaping 1Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike muscular endurance
- PriorityRun muscular endurance
- PrioritySwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportRun threshold durability
- Weeks 18 to 21Event shaping 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike aerobic endurance
- PriorityRun aerobic endurance
- PrioritySwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportSwim technical skill
- SupportRun threshold durability
- Weeks 22 to 23PeakPeak
The taper. Load comes down toward the race, content stays specific.
- Week 24RaceRace
Race week.
Held at maintenance between blocks
- Runmuscular endurance, aerobic endurance, aerobic durability, threshold capacity, threshold durability
- Bikemuscular endurance, aerobic endurance, aerobic durability, threshold capacity, threshold durability
- Swimaerobic endurance, aerobic durability, threshold capacity, threshold durability, 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 1 · Weeks 2 to 575 to 240 min
150 to 210 min at Zone 2
BikePower, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 540 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 535 to 120 min
90 min at Zone 2
RunPace, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 550 min
4 x 1.5 min at Zone 3, 6 min easy between
RunHeart rate, Zone 3Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 545 to 51 min
4 x 8 min at Zone 2, 1 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 2Trains aerobic capacity - Foundation 1 · Weeks 2 to 547 to 81 min
3 x 1000 m at Zone 3, 0.3 min easy between
SwimPace, Zone 3Trains aerobic capacity
12× rolling-course surges
1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 5, then 1 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
- 73 min
- Trains threshold durability
- Supports muscular endurance
- Supports high intensity capacity
24 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
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 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 | 0:45:00 | 3:43:00 | 2:19:59 | 6:57:59 |
| Trained1:51 /100m critical swim speed · 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg · 5:06 /km threshold pace | 0:38:08 | 3:18:38 | 1:56:24 | 6:03:10 |
| Competitive1:36 /100m critical swim speed · 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg · 4:20 /km threshold pace | 0:32:58 | 2:49:07 | 1:38:54 | 5:10:59 |
| Elite1:26 /100m critical swim speed · 5.27 W/kg at 75 kg · 3:50 /km threshold pace | 0:29:32 | 2:34:27 | 1:27:30 | 4:41:29 |
Pacing plan
- 0 km0%30.8 km/h17:27
- 8.96 km3.6%16.2 km/h1:20
- 9.32 km0.6%27.9 km/h8:32
- 13.3 km6.4%10.6 km/h3:41
- 13.9 km-1.2%36.8 km/h1:14
- 14.7 km5.3%12.3 km/h1:11
- 14.9 km1.9%22.1 km/h3:02
- 16.1 km-3.7%48.5 km/h0:24
95 more segments in the full plan.
- Run: reach 4:20 /km and this course gives back 52:11.
Where it is decided
On the run, three times, with the terms set on the bike.
No single hill here is worth a race. The steepest climb in the file takes 2.3 percent of the bike leg. What matters is the sum of them. Every rise between kilometre 9 and kilometre 84 invites a surge, and each surge feels free because the next descent is so close. Answer enough of them out of the saddle and you have not ridden 182 W, whatever your average says at the dismount line.
Bad Schönborn collects. Each lap's long level stretch is 30 percent of the run leg on its own, and you run three of them. There is no hill to blame and no descent to recover on. A Trained athlete covers the run in 1:56:24, the Competitive band in 1:38:54, and almost all of the difference is made on those flat kilometres. Arrive with legs left and the third lap is the one where you pass people. Arrive without them and you find out on the second.
Getting it wrong
Training for the brochure comes first. Kraichgau reads as a climber's race, so athletes build climbing strength it barely asks for. Strength and force scores 49 on the bike, a long way behind muscular endurance at 83. What pays here is steady power across a loop that never settles, which is a different thing to train.
Then the opening 9 km. They are flat, the field is fresh from the Hardtsee, and nothing on the road tells you how hard you are going. Take them at the power you would climb at and you meet the first rise already over your number, with the whole rolling middle still ahead.
Last, the weather. The high was 30 C in 2026 and 17 C in 2025. A run pace rehearsed through a cool spring does not hold on a hot day in Bad Schönborn, and the thousands of spectators the organiser promises along the course will not slow you down on lap one. Set the first lap by the day you have, not the one you trained for.
Conditions on the day
- 2026high 30 C, low 13 C
- 2025high 17 C, low 8 Cwater 18 C
- 2024high 19 C, low 10 Cwater 19 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 70.3 Kraichgau 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
- 6:03:10
- Of the day on the bike
- 55%
- Dimensions scored per leg
- 12
- Season runway shown
- 24 wk
Questions people ask
- How hilly is the IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau bike course?
- The organiser calls it hilly, and its file for the one-loop 90 km course climbs 1086 m. The climbing comes in short pieces. The first 9 km out of the Hardtsee are flat, and the steepest sustained climb is 645 m at 7.4 percent near kilometre 25.
- Where is the swim at IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau, and how warm is the water?
- One loop of 1.9 km in the Hardtsee at Ubstadt-Weiher, a lake the organiser describes as clean and clear with flat banks. It logged the water at 18 C in 2025 and 19 C in 2024. The wetsuit rule is not on the course page, so check it in race week.
- Is the IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau run course flat?
- Yes. The organiser describes a flat course of three laps through Bad Schönborn, 21.1 km in all, which now passes through the redesigned Kurpark. Each lap reads as a gentle 720 m fall followed by 6.1 km of level road.
- How hot does IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau get?
- The three editions the organiser publishes span a high of 17 C in 2025 and a high of 30 C in 2026, with lows between 8 C and 13 C. Prepare for either end of that range.
Course data from the organiser’s published files, analysed 24 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.