Kona October 7th

The beat is getting stronger here in Kona.  Last night we had the Ironman XC leadership over along with a number of friends and had a delightful evening.  We grilled some fresh Ahi, Mahi-Mahi, and chicken.  A few beers, lots of laughs and some spirited Bocce led to a great night!

This morning, the prior day's festivities led to a slightly later swim session for me.  We then proceeded to get our VIP credentials and I went to officially register.  VIPs get to go in a different line with the pros and so I found myself at the front of the line with Chris Macdonald.  A guy came out and blew his shell 4 times to officially start the registration process.  Chris and I walked in and some 100 volunteers clapped very loudly--really cool experience.

I went for a run and then over to the Ironman Expo and took a photo op with Apollo.  Later that night was the Parade of Nations and then I went out to the airport to pick up my Mom, who arrived tonight.  A lof of activities now, but my main priority is to put my feet up as much as possible....

Kona: October 6th

Thanks are really heating up here in Kona.  I went down to Dig Me and swam this morning.  I saw all the XC guys and Carl Wernicke.  I said hi to Apollo Ohno--he looks super fit--at least to my eye--I wouldn't be surprised to see him do 10 or 11 hours.  I bumped into a nice guy who asked me if I was Randy Christofferson--the guy with the Slowtwitch blog--pretty cool, it's a very small world for sure.

We swam out to the COH boat and had an expresso.  I limited my swim to 25 minutes and thats all I'm doing today--my body feels a little sore from the PATH 5k yesterday and swim on Saturday.  It was crazy swimming with people crashing into each other all over the place.  I swam about 7:30 and it's great for people watching but I think I'll try to swim a little earlier the rest of the week to avoid the craziness....

Speaking of yesterday, I did go out and do the PATH 5k and I had a very disappointing run--just 25:33.  I did 22:17 in 2010 and 23:34 in 2012, so this continues the alarming trend of the last few years as my run heads quickly down hill.  I finished 3rd in my Age Group  (I was 2nd in 2010 and 1st in 2012) and won a water bottle.  Midge finished 2nd and won a nice coffee mug.  Judy jorgged/walked to a 36 minute time, which she was pleased with:

Later yesterday Midge and I went up to Hawi and did the last 12 miles of the climb/descent.  Hawi was very gentle--winds were 5 mph--nothing like I've seen here in the past.  I was able to ride up and down at a 6:20 IM bike pace--and this is the toughest stretch on the course.  With conditions like yesterday, I'm pretty sure I could go under 6 hours in the race....The weather forecast, of-course, calls for 20+ mph winds on race day.  whatever......

Finally, last night my bride and I had a nice game of Bocce on our front lawn--pretty nice life here!

Kona: October 4th

Things officially got under way today nere in Kona with the Hoala Ironman swim.  Judy and I were up at 5 or so and headed over to the pier around 6.  Once in the parking lot I realized that I had forgotten my Garmin 910 and so Judy went to get my packet and I went back to retrieve my watch.  Back on the scene I bumped into Chris MacDonald, who had joined the XC crowd back at Lake Tahoe in 2013. (he went on to win that race).  We chatted for a while and both lamented the cancellation of Tahoe this year--it's such an awesome venue--it would be a shame if it didn't survive.

I met up with Midge and Mark Johnson--one of my XC colleagues--before the start.  We registered and soon found our way into the clear, warm waters of Kailua:

I had come to Kona this year with my two prior Kona swims being: 80:27 (2010) and 81:38 (2012)--I'm just not a good non-wetsuit swimmer (my wetsuit best is 66 minutes).  I really wanted to break 80 on this swim and I had worked hard on my swim this year and felt like I was ready to do so.  I started way off to the left away from the pier and got off to a very good start.  I could tell pretty early that I was going to break 80 minutes and for most of the swim I felt I could go under 75.  I tired a bit towards the end and I think the cool spring water current slowed me down a bit as well over the last quarter mile as we swam up onto the beach in front of the King Kam.

I hit the beach with a time of 76:48--a non-wetsuit PR for me by 3:39!  I was very pleased with this result.  I was 12th out of the 22 guys in my Age Group, which given the calibre of swimmers here is very satisfying.  I measured my swim at 2.49 miles:

I think the course was pretty accurately measured (I know there is a permanent buoy out there) and the extra 0.09 miles could of-course be a Garmin error or as you can see above, I didn't necessarily swim the straightest course.  

Here is what my quarter-mile splits looked:

1: 7:01/252 strokes/35.9 spm/1.75 yps

2: 7:10/260/35.2/1.69

3: 7:49/283/36.2/1.55

4: 7:17/267/36.7/1.65

5: 7:48/280/35.9/1.57

6: 7:26/250/33.6/1.76

7: 7:50/281/35.9/1.57

8: 7:55/286/36.1/1.54

9: 7:59/296/37.1/1.49

10: 8:32/317/37.1/1.39

A cursory look at these numbers shows that my cadence (spm) held up well throughout the swim--I really was conscious of working hard throughout.  However, you can see how I tired over the last mile as my yards per stroke fell off--especially in the last 1/2 mile.  The average stroke length of 1.57 or so can be compared to my 2.0 number I was hitting late this summer in my wetsuit swims.  This is a function of more drag as my relatively poor body position without a wetsuit really slows me down.  With a wetsuit and hitting 2.0 I would have been around 60:05--which is about the wetsuit fitness I demonstrated in a number of long distance swims this summer.

In any event, I'm quite pleased and would gladly take this time next Saturday, during the real thing!

One final note, my training partner Midge, finished 2nd in the F50-54 YO Age Group beating out one Paula Newly Fraser--pretty awesome if you ask me!!!!

Kona: October 3rd

Sorry about October 2nd showing up below October 1st in my blog below--can't quite figure out how it happened.

Today was a pretty low key day here in Kona.  I went over to Dig Me early and chatted for a bit with Linsey Corbin.  Siri Lindley was there as well--no doubt helping her fleet of world class women athletes.  I met up with Midge Kerr from Avalon and we swam avbout 2000 yards--Midge is swimming really well!  My guess is she will break 70 tomorrow in the practice swim--I hope to try to break 80.

After the swim, Judy and did the PuuWaaWaa ("The Many Furrowed Hill") cinder cone trek/climb.  It's also called the "Jello Mold" as it looks like an upside down jello after you empty from the bowl.  It's the largest cinder cone on the island and sits on the flanks of Hualalei, which is the volcano the broods over Kailua.

In any event, this was a somewhat strenuous hike in brillant sunshine and 88 degree weather.  We climbed just under 1,800 ft. and the 6.99-mile trek took a total of 3:10 to complete:

Not the typical way to taper for an IM but I figured the hike out in the heat would help with my acclimatization in any event.  Here are some pics from the trek:

Tomorrow is the 2.4-mile "practice" swim and the start of the official race week!

Kona: October 1, 2014

So, we arrived late last night and unpacked.  got up early this morning--I mean about 4:30 and at 5:30 went to the Safeway to stock up on all things Kona and IM.  A couple of Kona coffees later found me at Dig Me beach about 8:00 AM where I swam 2000 yards and felt pretty good.  The swell was huge today--probably 6-8 feet at about 13-15 seconds.  It really moved you back and forth as we neared the pier.  Here is a shot of me entering the frey and "officially" starting my 2014 Kona campaign:

Back at the pier, I joined Judy and Patrick (who had gone for an early morning run).  We hung out for a while and made plans to go up to Hawi tomorrow.

I went out for an hour shake down ride and returned to see my bride settling into Kona life:

BTW--here is the pic that Judy took when I had assembled my bike and determined that I had no problems this year (in 2012, my older BMC TT01 almost died and I went through a 3 day purgatory of not knowing if I would be able to ride my bike--I had even taken the precaution of renting another one...).  I have to say that the Scicon Aerocomfort Triathlon bag is hand down the best in the business--anyone contemplating buying a new tri-bike transport bag should buy this--happy to answer any questions if you have them!

Here is the shot from the front of our Kona house---someone has to do it!

About 3:30 or so I drove out to the Energy Lab and ran the 4 mile O&B and happened to bump into a certain former Olympic Triathlon Gold medalist:  Jan Frodeno--he was doing 10 repeats up the last 500-750 meters of the Energy Lab hill.  I ended up running (a very small part of his recovery) with him--here is the two of us:




Now to be clear--I was an intruder on his workout but he was very generous in letting me tag along and here we are at the end:

BTW--I'm the guy who looks more like he could be an offensive lineman for the Cowboys....

Also, I spent a good 30 minutes talking to his father in law, a certain Gary Snowsill--who is Jan's father-in-law and who is Emma's father--btw--Emma also won the Gold Medal in Triathlon at the 2008 games....

Besides that--just another day in Kona!

Kona: October 2nd

Pretty mello day here in Hawaii today.  Judy made a nice egg breakfast and headed off for a two-hour power walk.  I wandered down to Dig Me and did another 2000-yd. swim.  I was about 1:30 faster than yesterday, which I attribute mainly to a more moderate swell today than yesterday.

Patrick was suffering a bit from time-zone sleep impairment, so he bailed on the Hawi bike so I just went out and did a bunch of 3-minute repeats on the Queen K.  It got a little embarrassing as I kept passing this very attractive blonde only to have her overtake me.   I was worried she would think I was a total smuck, so I rode in with here the last 5 miles or so.  Turns out she was from Copenhagen and beyond that I couldn't tell you much of what she said--that said, it was a pleasant experience anyways!

We hung out around our place most of the day and then Judy and I drove up into the cloud forest on the slopes of Hualalai, which is the volcano that broods over the town of Kailua.  Hualalai is still an active volcano and is expected to erupt again within the next 100 years.  The airport is build upon the flow from the 1700 eruption of Hualalai--could present a real challenge out on the Queen K and in the Energy Lab if it went off during the race.  Anyways, you can get there by leaving town up Palani and hanging a right just before mile marker 34 on 190.

Here are a couple of pics:

We drove back down on Hani-Lani Drive and then went out to the Marina and stopped by "Bite Me"--the place to get fresh fish on the Island!

Midge arrives today and I imagine we'll team up and perhaps get out to Hawi....

Wheels Up--on the way to Kona!

Judy and I left this afternoon heading for Kona with a stop on the way in San Francisco.  We are sharing the flight with Patrick McKeon, who I had the pleasure to swim with during one of our summer OWS.  He qualified at Eagleman, finishing 14th OA with a 4:05.  Kona will be his first IM.  Ironically he is staying just a few houses down from us in Kona Estates.  It's pretty cool, that with Midge joining us we'll have three Kona athletes from our humble little Avalon/Stone Harbor swim group (and that's not counting Brian Duffy!)

Anyways, I plan to blog daily and will do my best to post pictures from the scene in Kailua and in the surrounding environs so please check back often!

With the end of September I can now post how my final three month training volume for this build compared with several builds from the past.  I'll compare to my 2007 IMFL build (when I was working with Peter Reid), 2010 Kona build,  2011 IMAZ build where I qualified for Kona 2012, and my Kona 2012 build (these are 4 of my prior 12 IMs):

SWIM

2007: 128,300 yards
2010:  90,900
2011: 111,700
2012: 116,800
2014: 121,300

My 2014 swim preparation has been pretty solid by my standards.  I was actually tracking ahead of my big 2007 swim block until this last month.  In 2007, I did 49,500 yards in the final month, while I only managed 31,900 yards this month.  Still, I believe I'm in the best swim shape I've ever been in for an IM.

BIKE

2007: 2,462 miles
2010: 2,787
2011: 3,123
2012: 3,388
2014: 2,712

My bike preparation has been consistently lighter this year and was dramatically less than the big 2012 Kona build.  I know that I'm not as strong on the bike as probably any of the above IMs but I'm hopeful I can still execute a solid ride that I can handle the run reasonably well off of.

RUN

2007: 331 miles
2010: 307
2011: 434
2012: 388
2014: 313

Regular readers of my blog will know how my run has been a real struggle this year.  Unquestionably, I am least prepared for the IM run then I ever have been.

TRAINING TIME

2007: 242 hours
2010: 256
2011: 286
2012: 292
2014: 237

With a pretty soft month in September this year, this is the least almount I've put into a IM build--time wise.  I'd like to say I made it up in intensity, but with the exception of my swim, that's not really the case.  I did have a bunch of high quality long rides this summer so hopefully that will pay some dividends.

Frankly, I found it increasingly difficult this year to put the volume of effort into training that I have in recent years.  My body seems to have more of a challenge recovering.  We'll see in about 11 days how much of a factor that is.....