IRONMAN 70.3 · Alcúdia · 8 May 2027
How to train for IRONMAN 70.3 Alcúdia-Mallorca
The organiser labels this bike hilly, and for once the label and the file agree. The route leaves the Bay of Alcúdia, climbs into the Serra de Tramuntana past the Coll de Femenia and tops out at the Coll de la Batalla, 576 m above sea level at kilometre 35. People train for that climb all winter. It deserves it.
What they forget is the rest of the day. The climb and the descent that follows fill 30 km. The other 60 km of the bike are flat road, and after them comes a flat run of three loops along the bay. A Trained athlete's 6:04:41 depends on the mountain, and it depends just as much on what the mountain leaves you for the road home.
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.
- Swim1.91 km0 m upCourse file
- Bike90.1 km839 m upCourse file
- Run21.1 km159 m upCourse file
The swim is one loop of 1.9 km inside the Bay of Alcúdia, which the organiser describes as well protected from the high seas. You start and finish at Playa d'Alcudia. The water read 18 C in 2026 and 18 C in 2025. From the water it is about 150 m on foot to the start of T1, which runs some 450 m along Artá Street.
The bike is a single loop of 90.1 km with 839 m of climbing. For its first 21.9 km it is flat, and that opening stretch holds 23 percent of the bike leg. Then the road rises: 4.5 km at 6.3 percent, the longest single block of climbing on the course, and a broken series of ramps at 5 to 5.6 percent up to the high point near kilometre 35.8. The descent is long and fast, with 1.9 km at 5.9 percent and 4.7 km at 5.5 percent, and it is interrupted by two sharp rises, the steepest of them 298 m at 6.4 percent near kilometre 51. From kilometre 52.4 to the line the road is flat apart from one 753 m rise at 3.6 percent, through the inland villages back to Transition 2.
The run is three loops in Alcúdia, crossing bridges and canals with the bay beside you. The file measures 159 m of climbing across 21.1 km, and the final 14.5 km read as a single flat segment holding 69 percent of the run leg. The finish is on the beach, about 50 m from where the swim began.
Course shape by distance
- Flat 81%
- Climbing 9%
- Descending 10%
The longest stretches
- Bike, flat21.9 km23% of the bike
- Bike, climbing0.3 km1% of the bike
- Run, flat14.5 km69% 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.
On the bike, aerobic endurance scores 85 and muscular endurance 82, with threshold capacity at 70. The bike fills 54 percent of a Trained athlete's day, so the eight largest demands on the course all belong to it. The run's first entry is ninth.
Look past the top of the list and the mountain shows up. Technical skill scores 59 on the bike, which is the descent talking. High-intensity capacity scores 55 and strength and force 47. Ask for a session built from this file and you get ten climbs of a minute and three quarters in Zone 5, each carried straight into a minute in Zone 4. That is the honest shape of the ramps above kilometre 27: a pitch, a false flat you are tempted to recover on, and another pitch.
A Trained athlete swims 38:23, rides 3:17:00 at 182 W and runs 1:59:18. The Competitive band comes home in 5:12:44 from 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg and 4:20 /km threshold pace, roughly 29 minutes quicker on the bike and 18 quicker on the run. About half of that bike gap opens on the 30 km of mountain between kilometre 21.9 and kilometre 52.4. The rest opens on flat road.
May in Mallorca is mild. The organiser logged highs of 20 C, 22 C and 23 C over the last three editions, with a low of 11 C in 2025.
- Aerobic endurance85
- Muscular endurance80
- Threshold capacity70
- Aerobic durability65
- Threshold durability65
- Technical skill62
- Fueling resilience55
- High-intensity capacity40
- Anaerobic capacity25
- Strength / force20
- Environmental resilience15
- 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
On one side sits the course, scored on twelve dimensions from the organiser's file. On the other sits the athlete, scored on the same twelve from thresholds and connected training, with each score saying where it came from and how much to trust it. A gap is the distance between the two, and only where the course asks for more. Each gap is then weighted by the share of the day it covers, so on this course the bike's gaps carry about five times the weight of the swim's.
The page has no athlete behind it, so the season below starts from the simplest case, gaps that sit exactly where the demands are biggest. It spans 24 weeks with 5 developmental blocks and a two-week taper, which for 8 May puts the first week in late November. The opening block builds aerobic endurance in every sport. The second works on aerobic durability in the water and on the bike and on threshold durability on the run. Threshold capacity takes the third block, muscular endurance the fourth. Aerobic endurance comes back for the last block before the taper, closest to the race and most like it. Your own season is built from your numbers, not these.
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 day85 × 54%46
- 02Muscular enduranceBike leg, 54% of the day82 × 54%44
- 03Threshold capacityBike leg, 54% of the day70 × 54%38
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 70.3 Alcúdia-Mallorca 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
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportRun threshold durability
- SupportSwim aerobic durability
- Weeks 6 to 9Foundation 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike aerobic durability
- PriorityRun threshold durability
- PrioritySwim aerobic durability
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- Weeks 10 to 13Foundation 3Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike threshold capacity
- 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 aerobic durability
- SupportRun threshold durability
- SupportSwim aerobic 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
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportRun threshold durability
- SupportSwim aerobic 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
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic durability
- SupportRun threshold durability
- SupportSwim aerobic 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
10× climb-to-false-flat repeats
1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, then 1.8 min at Zone 5, then 1 min at Zone 4, 1.3 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
- 64 min
- Trains muscular endurance
- Supports strength force
- Supports high intensity capacity
- Supports threshold durability
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 | 0:45:18 | 3:39:50 | 2:23:28 | 6:58:36 |
| Trained1:51 /100m critical swim speed · 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg · 5:06 /km threshold pace | 0:38:23 | 3:17:00 | 1:59:18 | 6:04:41 |
| Competitive1:36 /100m critical swim speed · 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg · 4:20 /km threshold pace | 0:33:12 | 2:48:10 | 1:41:22 | 5:12:44 |
| Elite1:26 /100m critical swim speed · 5.27 W/kg at 75 kg · 3:50 /km threshold pace | 0:29:45 | 2:33:11 | 1:29:40 | 4:42:36 |
Pacing plan
- 0 km0.5%28.4 km/h46:14
- 21.9 km6.3%10.7 km/h24:58
- 26.3 km1.8%22.5 km/h1:58
- 27.1 km5.4%12.2 km/h2:38
- 27.6 km2.5%19.7 km/h1:12
- 28 km5.6%11.8 km/h7:06
- 29.4 km0.3%29.3 km/h0:45
- 29.8 km-3.2%46.3 km/h0:26
31 more segments in the full plan.
- Run: reach 4:20 /km and this course gives back 51:57.
Where it is decided
Partly on the mountain, and mostly in how you leave it.
The 4.5 km at 6.3 percent from kilometre 21.9 is where the race starts to separate, and it is honest climbing. Hold 182 W on it and you will be passed. Let that happen. The ramps above it keep coming at 5 percent and more, each with a false flat after it that asks you to recover or to press, and the session built from this file rehearses exactly that choice ten times.
The descent from the Coll de la Batalla is the part nobody trains. It is long, it has two nasty rises in it, and it drops you at kilometre 52.4 onto almost 38 km of flat road back towards Alcúdia. That stretch is where the day is settled. A rider who climbed on plan has legs for it and gains time on every kilometre. A rider who raced the ramps sits up, loses the time they won and more, and starts the run on the wrong side of the ledger.
Then the three loops. 1:59:18 for a Trained athlete from an input of 5:06 /km threshold pace, flat and loud along the bay, finishing a few steps from where the day began.
Getting it wrong
Training only the climb is the first. Mallorca is famous for its mountain roads, and athletes arrive with hours of climbing in their legs and too few long rides on flat ground at a steady number. Two thirds of this bike is flat.
The second is the opening 21.9 km. It is flat, it is 23 percent of the bike leg, and it leads straight into 4.5 km at 6.3 percent. Riders who treat it as a warm-up for the climb hit the first ramp already hot.
The third is the descent. Technical skill scores 59 on this bike for a reason. Riders who spent the climb above their plan come down tight and tired. They brake late, pedal nothing, then have to find their power again at kilometre 52.4 with nearly 38 km to go.
Conditions on the day
- 2026high 20 C, low 15 Cwater 18 C
- 2025high 22 C, low 11 Cwater 18 C
- 2024high 23 C, low 12 Cwater 17 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 Alcúdia-Mallorca 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
- 6:04:41
- Of the day on the bike
- 54%
- Dimensions scored per leg
- 12
- Season runway shown
- 24 wk
Questions people ask
- How hilly is the IRONMAN 70.3 Alcúdia-Mallorca bike course?
- The organiser gives 800 m of climbing and the file measures 839 m over 90.1 km. Almost all of it sits between kilometre 21.9 and kilometre 52.4, on the way up through the Serra de Tramuntana to the high point at the Coll de la Batalla, 576 m above sea level at kilometre 35, and back down.
- What is the water temperature in the Bay of Alcúdia?
- The organiser logged 18 C in 2026 and 2025 and 17 C in 2024. The swim is one 1.9 km loop in the bay, starting and finishing at Playa d'Alcudia. The wetsuit decision is not on the organiser's course page, so check it in race week.
- Is the IRONMAN 70.3 Alcúdia-Mallorca run flat?
- Yes. It is three loops in Alcúdia, over bridges and canals and along the bay, and the file measures 159 m of climbing over 21.1 km. The finish is on the beach, about 50 m from the swim start.
- How long is the season on this page?
- The illustrative season runs 24 weeks, with five developmental blocks and a two-week taper. For a race on 8 May 2027 that means starting in late November. A member's season starts from their own numbers and can be 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.