IRONMAN 70.3 · San Salvador · 7 Feb 2027
How to train for IRONMAN 70.3 San Salvador
The organiser welcomes you to the Land of Hosts and promises smooth roads on the Pan-American Highway. A highway sounds fast. Riders arrive expecting a big road, a steady rhythm and a quick bike split, and then the first thing the course does after the swim is point them up a wall.
San Salvador climbs 1220 m on the bike, and the climbing never stops long enough to become a rhythm. A Trained athlete rides 3:26:51 of a 6:15:30 day, more than half of it, and then runs three laps of the city in heat the organiser logged at 33 C in 2025. The race is not won on the wall. It is won on the hundred small decisions after 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.
- Swim1.92 km10 m upCourse file
- Bike90.3 km in 2 laps1,220 m upCourse file
- Run21.1 km177 m upCourse file
The swim is 1 lap of Lake Ilopango, 1.9 km of calm blue water surrounded by volcanic cliffs. The organiser logged it at 28 C in 2026, which is warm water by any standard.
The bike starts at lake level and climbs out almost at once: 2.85 km at 6.7 percent, about 190 m of height in one piece, then a rolling rise to roughly 760 m by the tenth kilometre. From there the route runs 2 laps along the Pan-American Highway through El Salvador's highlands, between about 690 m and 800 m, where the file changes gradient again and again. Short rises of 3.5 to 5.2 percent, short drops of 4 to 5 percent, and very little in between that stays level for long. The last stretch holds one more rise, nearly a kilometre at 5.1 percent, before the end of the ride. The organiser calls the climbs steady. The file calls them constant.
The run is three laps through the heart of San Salvador, 21.1 km with 177 m of climbing. The organiser rates it hilly. The file climbs for the first 2.5 km, spends the next 16.4 km within about 20 m of level, and drops back down over the final 2.2 km.
Course shape by distance
- Flat 71%
- Climbing 16%
- Descending 13%
The longest stretches
- Bike, climbing2.85 km9% of the bike
- Run, flat2.05 km11% of the run
- Run, flat16.4 km77% 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.
Heat heads the list. Environmental resilience scores 90 on every leg, and the organiser's record explains it: 28 C in 2026, 33 C in 2025, 30 C in 2024, and a lake at 28 C. Behind it the bike carries the day. Aerobic endurance reads 85 and muscular endurance 83 for the bike leg, threshold capacity and threshold durability sit level at 70, and because the bike fills more than half of a Trained athlete's day, the top eight demands in the cross-leg ranking are all bike demands.
The shape of the loops shows in two scores. High-intensity capacity reads 58 on the bike against 42 on the run, and strength and force reads 49 on the bike against 36. Give the engine this bike file and it compiles twelve hard efforts of 45 seconds, each followed by two minutes of easy riding. That is what the highway is: a rise, a drop, another rise, a dozen times over and then again. The swim has its own surprise. Technical skill reads 70 in the water, higher than on either road leg.
Now the bands. A Trained athlete swims 38:41, rides 3:26:51 at 182 W and runs 1:59:58, for 6:15:30. More than a third of that bike time goes to climbing. The Competitive band finishes in 5:20:03 from 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg and 4:20 /km threshold pace, 32 minutes faster on the bike and 18 on the run. On a course this hilly, watts per kilogram buys time on every rise, and the loops are rise after rise.
- Environmental resilience90
- Aerobic endurance85
- Muscular endurance81
- Threshold durability73
- Technical skill70
- Threshold capacity70
- Aerobic durability65
- Fueling resilience55
- High-intensity capacity42
- Strength / force27
- Anaerobic capacity25
- 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
Nymiva scores the same twelve dimensions on two sides. The course side is read from the file on this page. The athlete side is read from thresholds and connected training history, and each score carries a note on where it came from and how much it can be trusted. Only where the course asks more than the athlete can show is there a gap, and the gaps are ranked by how much of the day they fill. The bike here fills more than half the day. The swim fills about a tenth.
This page has no athlete behind it, so its season cannot know anyone's gaps. It assumes the plainest case, that they sit where the demands are biggest, and lays out 24 weeks in 5 developmental blocks closed by a two-week taper. Aerobic endurance leads the opening block in all three sports. Threshold capacity leads the second on the bike and in the water while the run works on threshold durability, and the third block swaps them. Muscular endurance leads the fourth, and aerobic endurance returns for the last block before the taper. A member's season starts from their own numbers and will disagree with 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.
- 01Environmental resilienceBike leg, 55% of the day90 × 55%50
- 02Aerobic enduranceBike leg, 55% of the day85 × 55%47
- 03Muscular enduranceBike leg, 55% of the day83 × 55%46
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 San Salvador 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
- SupportSwim threshold durability
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- SupportRun threshold durability
- Weeks 6 to 9Foundation 2Closes with a recovery week
- PriorityBike threshold capacity
- PrioritySwim threshold capacity
- PriorityRun threshold durability
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportSwim threshold durability
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- Weeks 10 to 13Foundation 3Closes with a recovery week
- PrioritySwim threshold durability
- PriorityBike threshold durability
- PriorityRun threshold capacity
- SupportBike aerobic endurance
- SupportRun aerobic endurance
- SupportSwim aerobic endurance
- SupportBike muscular endurance
- SupportRun muscular endurance
- SupportSwim muscular endurance
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- 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
- SupportSwim threshold durability
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- 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
- SupportSwim threshold durability
- SupportBike threshold capacity
- SupportBike threshold durability
- SupportRun threshold capacity
- SupportSwim threshold capacity
- 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
0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, then 0.8 min at Zone 5, 2 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
- 56 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
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- 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 | 0:45:40 | 3:52:50 | 2:24:16 | 7:12:46 |
| Trained1:51 /100m critical swim speed · 3.03 W/kg at 75 kg · 5:06 /km threshold pace | 0:38:41 | 3:26:51 | 1:59:58 | 6:15:30 |
| Competitive1:36 /100m critical swim speed · 4.15 W/kg at 75 kg · 4:20 /km threshold pace | 0:33:28 | 2:54:39 | 1:41:56 | 5:20:03 |
| Elite1:26 /100m critical swim speed · 5.27 W/kg at 75 kg · 3:50 /km threshold pace | 0:29:59 | 2:39:26 | 1:30:10 | 4:49:35 |
Pacing plan
- 0 km0.5%28.4 km/h1:38
- 0.77 km6.7%10.2 km/h16:45
- 3.62 km-4.9%53.7 km/h0:16
- 3.86 km0.9%26.5 km/h0:47
- 4.21 km6%11.2 km/h1:16
- 4.44 km0.6%27.9 km/h1:27
- 5.11 km4.3%14.4 km/h1:10
- 5.39 km2.2%20.9 km/h2:46
111 more segments in the full plan.
- Run: reach 4:20 /km and this course gives back 55:27.
Where it is decided
Not on the wall out of the lake, whatever it feels like on the day.
That climb is the one you will remember, and the engine puts 8.8 percent of the bike leg on it. It is the largest single climb on the course, it comes with the swim still in your arms, and it is over early. What comes after is the other nine tenths: the two loops on the highway, where the road rises and falls in pieces of a few hundred metres and each rise asks whether you want to push it. A rider who says yes to each of them has not ridden 182 W, whatever the average says later. Hold the same number up the rises that you hold between them, and let the drops come to you.
The run is where that answer is read out. A Trained athlete starts it more than four hours into the day, climbs for 2.5 km, and then runs a long stretch the engine reads as one flat segment, 77.3 percent of the run leg, in the heat. Nothing on that stretch is steep enough to blame. Whatever it costs you was spent on the highway.
Getting it wrong
Racing the wall. It is 2.85 km at 6.7 percent, it starts under a kilometre into the bike, and the legs still feel the water. Riders go up it at the power they would use for a 20 minute test and then spend the highway paying it back. Ride it as the first climb of many, because it is.
Riding the loops by feel. The rises are short and the drops are short, so power swings from nothing to far too much and back, and none of it feels expensive. The engine needed twelve surges to describe one stretch of this course, and there are far more than twelve rises across the two loops. The rider who answers every one arrives at the second loop already tired.
Treating the run as flat because most of the file says so. It opens with 2.5 km of climbing, and it comes more than four hours into a hot day. The organiser rates it hilly, and on those first kilometres, on legs that rode 1220 m, you will agree.
Conditions on the day
- 2026high 28 C, low 14 Cwater 28 C
- 2025high 33 C, low 18 C
- 2024high 30 C, low 14 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 San Salvador 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
- 6:15:30
- 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 San Salvador bike course?
- Properly hilly. The organiser's route climbs 1,220 m over 90 km. The biggest single climb comes first, 2.85 km at 6.7 percent straight up from Lake Ilopango, and the two loops on the Pan-American Highway after it never settle on one gradient for long.
- What is the water temperature in Lake Ilopango?
- The organiser logged 28 C in 2026, the only edition it publishes a water figure for. The wetsuit decision is not on the organiser's course page, so check it in race week.
- What is the IRONMAN 70.3 San Salvador run course like?
- Three laps through the heart of San Salvador. The organiser calls it hilly. The file climbs 177 m, most of it in the first 2.5 km, then stays within about 20 m of level for the next 16.4 km before dropping back to the finish.
- How hot is IRONMAN 70.3 San Salvador?
- The organiser recorded highs of 28 C in 2026, 33 C in 2025 and 30 C in 2024. A Trained athlete starts the run more than four hours into the day.
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.