Sam Long may have committed to the T100 again this year – but that’s not his big 2025 target.
When announcing his full race schedule in his latest YouTube video, which is embedded below, the ‘Big Unit’ admitted that top-level triathletes currently have an embarrassment of riches to choose from.
In 2024 he had a packed programme which saw him not only take in six T100 events but also win IRONMAN Chattanooga as well as two 70.3 races, all of which helped him finish the year in fifth on the PTO world rankings.
There will again be a combination of T100 and IRONMAN-branded events but he’s clear on his ‘A+ race’ in the upcoming campaign and that’s the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice on 14th September.
Kona 2026 already in the picture
Looking at the year as a whole, Long says: “There’s so much to pick and choose from right now – every year I feel like it gets more and more complicated [in terms of] what I’m going to go after.”
He says one important consideration – and learning from the recent past – is reducing the amount he travels: “I raced on five continents last year. I just think if you do too much international travel, it just kills your energy. But maybe even worse is it just kills your mood, it just kills your vibe, it just makes life unenjoyable.”
So that’s one change factored in but that trip to Nice in the second half of the year is the key piece of the jigsaw around which everything else is fitted.
He explained: “Let’s start with the big one. My biggest goal of the year, and that is going to the IRONMAN World Champs in Nice, France.
“I started with that. I said, that’s the one I want to focus on the most. And let’s try and be at my absolute best there and then kind of reverse engineer the rest of the year. So I’m giving myself a nice long preparation period into that all the way from June 15 till September 14 to really focus on that.
“I’m excited to get back to that full distance. I shouldn’t say ‘get back’ as I won an IRONMAN last year but they have kind of been a like a second thought. So it’s going to be very nice to do a specific block and really build up that volume and do the required work for that.
“And then out of that, obviously Kona is not this year, but it is on my mind now. If I’m able to win Nice, then I don’t have to do another IRONMAN. But I’ll likely then go and do IRONMAN Chattanooga two weeks after to try and get that Kona qualification done. So already thinking to 2026 now.”
Hat-trick bid at St. George
So back-to-back full-distance races on the 14th and 28th of September nearly 8,000km apart but what will come before that?
He said: “The season will kick off with T100 Singapore in April (5th-6th). My training is going to be quite swim-focussed until about three weeks before that event.
“And then I’m going to get kind of to my first meaty peak of the year in May, and that’s going to start off with 70.3 North American Champs at 70.3 St. George (10th May).”
It’s a race he’s won in each of the last two seasons and he added: “We’ve got some big hitters, big names going there and I like to think that that’s my race. And it’s the last year there, it’s going away, so I’m looking forward to making a statement there. Honestly, that race just gets me super excited.
“And then from there I’ll go and do a few more T100 events. We’ve got San Francisco T100 on May 31 and then T100 Vancouver on June 15th.
“So that’s kind of my first peak block of the year. Middle-distance focused on building that speed, focused on working on that swim. Then I’ll take a slight mini off-season, about a week off and then as I mentioned, really build to Nice and Chattanooga and then we get to the back half of the year which will depend a little bit on what’s happened so far.”
‘Mood is the most important thing’
With so much choice there is a danger that the top pros take on too much but that’s something that Long, who has a young son, will be guarding against – he’s also making sure he factors in plenty of family time.
“It’s very important obviously to be providing a living for my family. And so winning is important. And so if I haven’t been able to win at all, then more races would be added on the schedule.
“But at that point [after Chattanooga] I’m planning T100 Las Vegas and then the 70.3 Worlds and then the T100 Grand Final. So that’s how I plan on ending my year out as well as maybe a little visit to Palm Springs for 70.3 Indian Wells, go back to where we got married, have the good vibes and gosh, it’s going to be a busy, busy year.
“But for me it’s actually down to eight to nine races compared to 12 last year. So it’s actually quite a reduction for me, which is quite nice. And I’ve got proper big periods to focus and work so just really excited on that and I’m gonna do a better job of taking some off days here and there and putting in even a few little off day blocks to reset the body, reset the hormones, reset the mind, spend time with the family and just remember what this is all about.
“And I’m constantly going to be checking in with my mood all year because I think all these training metrics, they’re great and they can be so helpful, don’t get me wrong. But like the mood is the most important thing. The mood is just the most important thing.
“Making sure I’m having fun with it. Making sure I’m excited to get out the door and train because frankly, I lost that a little bit towards the end because I was just, I was pushing myself. I was driving myself so hard. And so I’m going to try and be very in tune with my mood. And if I notice that my mood is going down well, then I’ve got to just take a few days easy.
“So I’m going to execute a great race schedule and I’m going to pay attention to my mood. That’s what you’re going to see me do in 2025.”
