XTERRA vs 70.3: What Training for Both Has Taught Me
- Kerri-Ann Upham
- Feb 9
- 4 min read
Training for XTERRA and IRONMAN 70.3 in the same season looks like a contradiction.
Last season I raced XTERRA as an elite and won IRONMAN 70.3 Weymouth. This year, my focus is back on XTERRA, while also targeting an overall amateur win at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships — a goal that brings its own compromises.
On the surface, those aims don’t sit comfortably together. Off-road and middle distance racing ask very different things of you, and trying to do both can look like a compromise before you’ve even started.
I’m writing this for athletes who enjoy both worlds, feel the pull between them, and are wondering whether training for XTERRA and 70.3 in the same season is smart — or whether it’s a fast way to blunt your potential.
This isn’t a training plan. It’s an honest look at what I’ve learned by trying to make both work.
The Real Conflict Isn’t Physical
The biggest tension in targeting XTERRA and 70.3 at the same time hasn’t been fitness. It’s been the fear of doing neither well, alongside the very real cost of committing to two disciplines, from equipment to time.
But beyond that, the races demand very different versions of you on race day.
A 70.3 is largely you versus yourself. It’s about the pace you can hold, the discipline to stay within yourself, and executing a plan you’ve rehearsed many times.
XTERRA is different. You don’t get to impose a pace on the race. You have to respond to terrain, conditions, technical demands, and the dynamics around you. Nutrition isn’t timed to the minute. Effort fluctuates. The race unfolds whether you’re ready or not.
That uncertainty and chaos changes everything.
What Has To Give
Trying to prepare properly for both means accepting trade-offs, there’s no way around that.
For me, XTERRA always comes first. It’s where I race as an elite, and that has to guide my decisions.
When I prepared for IRONMAN 70.3 Weymouth, I had to sacrifice time on my mountain bike to spend more time on the TT bike. That choice mattered. Going into the XTERRA World Championships, I know I didn’t reach my full potential because I hadn’t been able to prepare as specifically as I would have liked.
On the road, I also found it difficult to judge what pace I could realistically sustain. Off-road racing teaches you that pace often means nothing. You ride and run to feel, terrain, and decision-making rather than numbers.
Ironically, that lack of certainty became freeing. I didn’t know exactly what I could hold — so I raced the effort I had on the day.
That’s the trade-off in a sentence: clarity in one format often blurs clarity in the other.
What Carries Across Better Than You Think
Despite those differences, I don’t see XTERRA and 70.3 as opposites. In many ways, they complement each other.
A lot transfers well:
Fuelling habits
Bike and run strength
Fatigue resistance
Endurance
Mental resilience
Those foundations make it possible to switch between formats without starting from scratch. They’re also why I genuinely believe that, for most athletes, 90% of the training is the same.
Where things change is closer to racing — when specificity matters more than volume.
What I Tell Athletes Who Want To Do Both
The first thing I tell people to stop obsessing over is the idea that they need two completely separate training lives.
You don’t.
Build strong fundamentals. Then, as races approach, spend more time on the equipment you’ll race on and in the environments you’ll race in.
The mistake I see most often is underestimating strength work, both in the gym and through things like hill reps. That strength underpins everything: technical control off-road, durability on the run, and resilience late in long-course racing.
Without it, trying to do both formats just magnifies weaknesses.
The Reality People Don’t Say Out Loud
I do think most people could train for XTERRA and 70.3 in the same season.
But you have to be honest about what that choice asks of you.
If you want to do both, you have to be okay with:
Not always feeling fully prepared
Being organised and deliberate with equipment
Stepping outside your comfort zone
Learning new skills
Accepting that progress takes time, and you won’t get it right straight away
Trying to chase perfection in both usually leads to frustration. Accepting some messiness is what makes it sustainable.
Why I Still Choose This Path
What keeps me on this path is that each format fills a gap the other leaves.
XTERRA sharpens adaptability, strength, and decision-making under pressure. 70.3 reinforces patience, restraint, and the ability to execute when nothing dramatic is happening.
Training for both has forced me to be more deliberate and more honest — about priorities, preparation, and what I’m willing to trade.
If you’re considering doing both, the question isn’t whether it’s possible. It’s whether you’re willing to accept some uncertainty and commit to learning along the way.
Doing both won’t make things easier.
But done well, they can make each other — and you — better.
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