This Alaskan Triathlete Embraced the Indoor Grind - And Won Kona

Making it to the start line of the Ironman World Championship is a feat in its own right. But earning the title of the overall age-group Ironman world champion is reserved for just two people every year. In 2025,  U.S. Air Force captain Samantha Skold, 31, earned that title, and she did it almost entirely while training indoors at her home in Anchorage, Alaska.

How she found triathlon

Born in Evergreen, Colorado, Skold grew up spending a lot of time outdoors, embracing all that nature and physical activity offers.

“My mental behavior around sport and athletics – I got a lot of it from my parents,” Skold says. “They were ultrarunners, so I watched them be able to dig in and trust their training and do really great performances. And I think that kind of led me to be the athlete that I am today.”

Her NCAA running career at the Air Force Academy was riddled with injuries, which led her to log a lot of hours cross training on the bike or in the pool. When her athletic trainer suggested she do a triathlon, she laughed at him.

For graduation, her trainer gifted her a copy of The Triathlete’s Training Bible, and she decided to give it a read. She then signed up for a local sprint triathlon and won handily. After a few years of Olympic-distance races, she stepped up to Ironman.

Skold graduated from the Air Force Academy as an active duty officer assigned to cyber operations, but she eventually shifted careers to become a physician assistant. Skold and her husband, Jake Wong, who is an active duty fighter pilot, live in Anchorage, Alaska, with their two mini Aussies.

“We love Alaska,” Skold says. “Right now with the way our assignments work, you are supposed to move every three years, so I have moved six times in the last eight years. But being here is the first place I call home.”

How she trains in Alaska

While Alaska has so much to offer in its beautiful terrain and wildlife, it does present challenges training for a race like Kona where the conditions are so hot and humid. With temperatures never exceeding the high 70s and 0% humidity in Anchorage, Skold’s indoor setup became her secret weapon and one of the reasons she believes she won the overall age group title at Kona this year.

“It is as incredibly mental as it is physical,” Skold says. “When you are in the garage on your trainer, it is incredibly boring, but so is racing when you really think about it. Your mind can travel a lot, particularly in a race, but if you are practicing it in training (‘Hey, stay focused in this moment’), you will find that you are able to extend that time period from 20 minutes, to 45 minutes to four or five hours indoors. That proved to be incredibly effective for me at Kona.”

Getting up to that length of focused training time indoors took months of progression, she says. She began with 45-60 minutes of easy spins, then moved up to longer interval workouts (i.e., 3×15-20 minutes hard with 10 minutes rest). Those longer interval workouts slowly creeped the time up to 1.5-2 hours on the trainer. Over the course of about three months, the intervals increased in quantity and duration, totaling about 4-5 hours of total biking time.

“I began to love this training because it is a very predictable and stable part of my schedule,” she says. “In medicine and in the Air Force, I have no clue what my patients are going to present with, what deployment or mandatory training myself or husband will be sent on or for how long. But I know exactly what swim, bike, run session I will be doing next week.”

Her indoor training setup

Skold’s heated garage includes a Wahoo Kickr smart trainer, NordicTrack treadmill and Rogue weights. In addition to good equipment, she believes that investing in high-quality training clothing has made her more comfortable and excited for her sessions. Her home gym is away from their common living space, a separation that she believes is critical for success.

“When I go into the garage, my focus is solely on my session,” Skold says. “When I walk back inside, my focus is on my family and my normal life.”

Skold swims 5-6 times a week, bikes 4-5 times a week and runs four times a week. Her indoor training setup is where she spends 70% of her time on the bike. She relies on a vitamin D lamp in the peak of winter when Alaska gets just four hours of sunlight per day. Occasionally, she has bike sessions where she sees the sun both rise and set.

Despite spending so much time indoors for cycling, she is able to run outdoors year-round in Alaska – but that’s not as simple as it sounds.

“I have never gone on a run without seeing a moose,” Skold says. “Almost every long run I’ve done, I have had to divert into the bushes into devils club or cow parsnip, plants similar to poison ivy, and I have had to climb through that stuff way too many times trying to get away from moose.”

Because of the dry climate in Alaska, Skold adds heat prep six to eight weeks out from all major races. After swim sessions when her core temperature is already elevated, she sits in the sauna for up to 45 minutes. Additionally, for bike sessions in her garage, she wears several layers and rides without a fan.

“The sense of accomplishment and visible improvements on your fitness and mental toughness at the end of a hard session when you see a pool of sweat beneath your bike I find incredibly addicting,” she says. That, combined with the predictability of her sessions compared to her daily life, and she actually looks forward to indoor training.

“I have learned how to embrace and love my long sessions indoors,” Skold says.

She uses the mantra “You have done it before; you can do it again” as a mental reset when self-doubt or boredom enters her head. “When you start seeing the progression you have made over the weeks or months,” she says, “you can’t help but be proud of yourself.”

Racing in Kona

Even with all the intentional training, her day in Kona was far from smooth. In choppier-than-normal conditions on the swim, Skold found herself in a pack of 15 athletes getting elbowed and battered. Her goal on the bike was to maintain a specific power output, which she managed to do, but she consumed more liquid and carbohydrate than usual due to the incredibly hot and humid conditions. This left her with a destroyed gut on the run, in agony from mile 1 to mile 26. After crossing the finish line, she spent two hours in the medical tent.

“I definitely went into this race knowing I was capable of winning the overall age group title,” Skold admits. “I based my entire season around a good Kona performance.”

Skold achieved her season goal, and with it, earned her pro card. Skold and her coach of seven years, Brad Williams, chose to take her pro card for a test drive at Ironman Arizona before the 2026 season began.

In November, Skold finished seventh in her first professional race. She is excited for what lies ahead and believes that living in Alaska will continue to set her apart in a positive way.

“I think living in Alaska gives me a bit of a mental edge over other competitors,” Skold says. “Most athletes take their season break during the winter because the environment doesn’t lend to great training. Living in Alaska, it’s snowy, cold, and dark 6-7 months of the year. It’s taught me how to stay engaged and keep pushing when all you want is some sunshine.”