M-net Erlanger Triathlon Training Plan & Preparation

Course & Elevation

The swim covers 1.5 kilometres as a turnaround course in the Main-Danube Canal, only a few hundred metres from the transition at TV 1848. Swim start, transition, run course and finish area all sit at one location, which makes the race compact and easy to watch.

The bike leg sets the character of the day. A single 43-kilometre lap runs through Erlangen and the Erlangen-Höchstadt district and stays between 276 and 349 metres throughout. There are no rated climbs: around a dozen shallow waves of ten to twenty-five metres follow one another at roughly one percent on average, and the steepest point is a 700-metre ramp at a good three percent at kilometre 26.6. More than sixty percent of the bike course is flat.

The closing ten-kilometre run is two laps of the 5-kilometre loop: flat along the canal, over the Membacher footbridge into the wood for around 20 metres of climbing, back through the canal underpass and once into the TV 1848 stadium each lap, where the finish also sits. Bike and run together come to around 300 metres of gain. The Erlanger Triathlon is organised by Turnverein 1848 Erlangen and reaches its 35th edition in 2026.

Pacing Strategy

On a course whose bike lap is sixty percent flat and whose waves average around one percent, it is not peak power that makes the time but consistency. The bike leg belongs almost entirely in the aero position, and your power should read the same number across the whole lap — there is no section where an investment pays unusually well.

The main trap is the long, barely perceptible rise between bike kilometre 2 and 10. Fresh out of the canal and in a field, it is easy to ride well above plan there: the gradient is too shallow to notice and long enough to cost you. The second trap is the first flat running kilometre along the canal, where straight off the bike almost any pace feels easy.

The decisive passage is the second pass through the wood from running kilometre 5.5. Those 20 metres are irrelevant when fresh and no longer irrelevant after seven kilometres — start the first run lap with discipline and the second comes in just as fast or faster.

12-Week Preparation

For the short distance in Erlangen, expect roughly two and a quarter to three hours overall depending on your level. The demand is a high, very even aerobic effort: around 300 metres of climbing across a good 53 racing kilometres means there are neither climbs that force spikes nor descents that grant real recovery.

Decisive are two transitions: the first bike kilometres after the swim, where the long shallow rise is easily overridden, and the first running minutes after T2, where your sense of pace lies coming out of cycling rhythm.

In training that means time-trial work rather than hill intervals: long blocks of 20 to 40 minutes just under threshold in race position, on flat to gently rolling terrain. Deliberate position work belongs with it — on a route without climbs, a sloppy aero position costs more over 43 kilometres than missing watts.

Brick runs are the second emphasis: ten to fifteen minutes straight off a steady ride, held back deliberately, reproduce the critical opening phase of the run. For the swim, get used in open water to the 1.5 kilometres as a turnaround course in the canal.