Hard to believe after waiting for three years that I'm actually in my Race Week! My Ironman focus is now shifting to executing all the tasks necessary for getting to Thursday morning at 7:25am when the Big Dance begins for us dinosaur types. I'll comment on today's events in a couple of minutes but here is the schedule ahead:
Saturday 10/1: Kona Town Run (5k) with Judy and a 1,000 yard or so tune-up swim with Anders.
Sunday 10/2: The 2.4-mile "practice swim" with Anders and a short (1-hour) ride with a bunch of ramp-ups
Monday 10/3: Rest day. Parade of Nations. Register and pick-up Transition bags, etc. Evening Manta Ray Dive.
Tuesday 10/4: Underpants Run. Short Ride/Short Swim. Welcome Banquet.
Wednesday 10/5: Final short ride. Optional short Swim. Drop off bike and Transition stuff.
Thursday 10/6: My race
Saturday 10/8: Anders' race.
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Today, Anders and I got up early had some coffee and breakfast and prepared for our bike workouts.
We drove out to about 10 miles past the airport where Anders hopped out and started what would be a 65-mile or so round trip up to Hawi.
I drove on to Kawaihae and jumped on my bike and rode back South to remind myself how much I don't like the climb back-up to the Queen K from Kawaihae. The wind wasn't that bad but the sun was baking and it was already near 90 degrees at 8:15am.
I turned around and rode back to Kawaihae and started the climb up to Hawi for the second time on this trip. The conditions were very different from my earlier trip with a good 25+ mph headwind as I climbed the 11 miles of "stair-steps" up to the real climbing that starts about 7 miles out from Hawi. Around here Anders caught me and we chatted a bit and then he went off to do his first Hawi climb. I chugged along staying as close to my target watts (NP of 160-170 watts) as I could. With the wind, I jumped up above 200 watts here and there but did a pretty good job of keeping it under control. My new X-Lab bta works like a charm and I even had to stop to pee along the way as I did a pretty good job of hydrating.
As I neared Hawi Town itself I begin to hit a bunch of cross-gusts, that weren't too bad but I definitely had to pay attention. I joined up with Anders in town and after a couple minute break we started the descent.
Anders followed me down for the first 4-5 miles or so and there were more than a few times that gusts would move you a foot or so to the side. I sat up mostly but still got up above 30 mph on several occasions. It was a nervous descent for sure but no where near as bad as what I experienced back in 2014. If that was a 10 then today was about a 7 or 8 and the descent earlier in the week was maybe a 2 or so.
I navigated the ride down to Kawaihae without any drama for a 40-mile round trip in around 2:20 or so. I was quite conservative and felt great throughout. I bought some refreshments at the market there and then hopped in the car and drove up past Wailkola where Anders met up with me and then transitioned into his running gear and set off for a 4-mile brick run back North into Wailoka.
I scored him a DQ Misty freeze (lemon lime) and we met up near there and hopped back in the car and drove back to Kailua. We grabbed some Subway and then basically chilled the rest of the day....
Anders felt great about the effort, a real confidence builder. I also felt very good and basically decided to skip my planned swim and instead focused on resting and hydrating. Judy later joined us as we stopped by the IM store and also saw our names on the big posters outside of the King Kam. A rainbow appeared down by the bay which was very much in the spirit of an awesome day!
We grabbed some Thai food and are chillin' after watching a fantastic sunset where I even saw the "green flash".
Life is good. It's such a privilege to be able to do this! Onwards and Upwards!
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