Following on from the past articles I wrote about Cam Wruf’s Ironman Training and how Cam Transformed his Running, the triathlon community started buzzing last weekend when Cam won Ironman Copenhagen with a finish time of 7:46:10 (Swim 49:08 – Bike 4:02:19 – Run 2:49:37).
I thought it would be fun to go back and revisit Cam’s training in the six weeks leading into Ironman Copenhagan and note some differences between the two Ironman builds when he finished top five at Ironman World Championships.
Swim: Cam swims between 5-6 times per week with most sessions being between 3-4km with his longest swim being 5.7km
Bike: Cam rides normally 4 times per week. It is clear that Cam sees little value in riding under 3hrs as just about all rides were over 3hrs with most being very hilly. While I can no longer see Cam’s power data, in the past I never found a interval shorter than 15min in length. Cam does do regular cadence change sessions going from low cadence to high cadence within a structured set.
Run: Cam has been averaging around 100km with 5-6 runs per week. The majority of his run volume is in and around his goal race pace. Even his “moderate effort runs are around 20sec per km slower than race pace. Cam’s faster sessions he does on the track are at 3:25 min per km pace and Cam doesn’t every go much faster than this.
Recovery: The main differences between Cam’s 2019 Kona build and Copenhagen was clearly his rest days. Can took every Sunday off in the lead up to Kona while most weeks (except six and five weeks out and race week), can would train everyday however he would give his legs a full day off most Mondays with just a swim session.
Taper: Cam doesn’t really taper, he just has a few full rest days before the Ironman and he is good to go. This is very uncommon in endurance sports and very few elite athletes would ever consider doing this but it seems to work for Cam.
Cam’s Weekly Training
While Cam’s training week often changed from one week to the next, when looking at everything, his week would often look like this:
Monday: Swim 3km however if Cam took a rest day the week before like he had in week 6, 5 out from Copenhagen, he would also add a 3hr hilly bike with a 12km moderate run
Tuesday: Track run 10x 1mile @ 3:25min per km pace with 200m easy – The total run volume for this would be up to 24km. + Swim 1hr + Afternoon 45min moderate run
Wednesday: Bike 3-4hrs, if he wasn’t with a group, he would do this on his TT bike + Swim 1hr with some weeks an extra 45min run
Thursday: Swim 90min + 4hr ride
Friday: Bike 4-5hrs often hilly and a long run 28-38km @ or just a little over race pace.
Saturday: Swim 60-90min + Bike 3-7hrs and will often add another long run of 19-31km @ or just over race pace.
Sunday: Bike – 3hrs and every 2nd week he will add either a 40min swim or a 40min run
TRAIN SMOOTH 
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