kona race report 2009

There’s no feeling in the world like that in the transition area at 6am on Kaluia Kona pier on the morning of the Ironman World Championships. The air is alive with nerves, fear, excitement and pride. People don’t speak much. Most of us, despite being experienced Ironman racers, find ourselves unable to say much for choking on the electric tension. For me, this builds until the moment when I’m standing waist deep in the ocean, next to Steven and watching the pro race start.
I know it’s going to be a rough swim, windy and hot on the bike and hot on the run. I also know that it is a rare experience that I am sharing with 2000 or so people who, just like me, are ecstatic to be part of this prestigious and iconic day, helping, admiring and encouraging one another through the punishing race. In the few hours before the start I feel I would do anything to put it off for another day, week, month…but simultaneously cannot wait for it to begin. I’ve been preparing for it since last September and this race marks the end of my 2009 season and after 54 weeks, I’m ready for that!

There was a lot of debate during our pre race week regarding where to position ourselves at the swim start. My view – it didn;t matter – for us MOP swimmers (that’s MOP at Kona, which means 60-70min) its gonna be a frenzy, no matter what cunning tactics you think of, you can bet you’re not alone! So I just tread water in the middle and get on with it. I think I was reasonably lucky – a lot of contact, especially as we passed buoys and the crowd squeezes together, bringing us to a virtual stand –still on a few occaisions, no real hard punches pulls. I found a nice distinct pair of feet ( white calf compression sleeves) who was swimming a ta good pace and stuck on him. Occasionally I’d surge a bit for a set of feet ahead, to find him pulling along side and passing again few minutes later. From time to time we’d both separate in the crowd but he always seemed to be there just ahead if I found myself caught in a group of arm flappers and would put in a bit of work to reach him. It was a little choppy out on the water, making it a slightly slower swim in general, but I was pleased with my 1:06 (officially 1:07) swim.

The bike course starts with a fast and furious figure 8 sort of thing around town to make up a little distance on the straight out and back to Hawi, which is great fro the spectators. Hearing a very loud metallic ‘clunk’ about 2min into this loop I realized I’d lost a gas canister, leaving me with 2 tubes but only one shot of inflation. Still, no point in worrying about that now…the game is ON! I was feeling really strong, on the front of my saddle, passing people working at a comfortably hard race, flowing on the excitement. I was not the only one getting over excited as someone ahead managed to ‘endo’ on an uphill section, taking the rider behind him (and directly in front of me) down. I was thankful that I’d seem it in time to react. I was passed by a strong rider, not my age group, wearing Mark Allen kit – there was a lot of that out, and later in the day I joked to a couple of ‘his’ girls that it looked like they had a team out toady as there were 4 of them in a line! – I decided to stick with her. Soon we were out onto the Queen K, where we’d ride 33 miles out to kaliwahe, turn for Hawi, ride 18 miles uphill to the turnaround there and then return. A long, open, hot road shimmering in the heat that’s reflected off the black lava fields and exposed to the whipping crosswind that blow off the sea there. In those conditions there is certainly a big benefit in having a lot of riders around – and for us MOPers (again that’s MOP by Kona standards – those riding 5:20-30) there is continuous line of riders, usually 2 or even 3 wide due to various, legal, passing maneuver’s that are being undertaken at any given time. I saw nothing that I would consider unfair drafting, and was careful not to squeeze the gap closer than a catseye distance myslef, but certainly felt the benefit of this situation, and worked hard when necessary to draw up to the end of a fragment of this line if I ever found myself in the front or alone. I was riding well, and had motivation supplied to me by constant exchange of position between Mark Allen Online rider (not my AG) British girl (my AG, who I later discovered to be Edwina) and red Skinfit shorts (my AG) who all seemed to have more power on the flats but I as able to catch and pass on the grades. This, with the aid of caffeinated Powerbar gel sweets that had been handed out at the expo, kept me focused, working hard and enjoying the day. We had a few brief , friendly exchanges as we went by on the return….the Americans being very willing to offer a genuine ‘ good job’ or ‘ great riding’ as I passed and my typically British words of encouragement back ‘you’ve been killing me - keep it up, mate! With about 25 miles to go, now into a full fledged headwind, head hot and throbbing, shorts caked in salt I was re-passed by red skinfit, and Edwina, then Mark Allen Online ( who was the strongest of us all on the flat but seemed to be troubled by her back on the climbs) and lost sight of them. Stuck it out with my head down but 15mph, calculating what I needed to average for the final 15miles for my target 5:30 split. It was close if, when the terrain flattened the winds were less strong, as I’d tended to find whilst out training this course. Took a caffeine chocolate gel and hoped that’d provide me with some much needed sodium and pick me up to get me through. Gatorade at ever station from then on in, but remained reasonable strong judging by the fact that I was not passed by anyone who I could not re-pass within a few minutes, aside from who I assumed to be Dam Brooke of team Active instinct. Assume he must have punctured.

Hit transition after 5:32 riding. And what an atmosphere there was in town now!! The male pros were already running up the Queen K as I finished my ride and the race crowd were PUMPED. Very speedy transition with wet towels, shot of magnesium and a warning that if I needed to pee I should use the portaloo. Err…yes. Thanks. Actually I was planning to pee as I ran and how would they know. Why should they mind? was it against the rules?? Sprinting out of transition in pursuit of red Skins, Edwina, Mark Allen online and as many others as possible I gave a massive shout of ‘LETS GO!!!” to the crowed and assembled volunteers and got an awesome reaction in return. I was having a great race and this was my territory now….

The highway was lined with spectators, al pleased to see someone running so quickly and smiling as broadly as I was. The fist mile took me onto Alii drive and took 6:53. Fast, but felt good. Didn’t really feel I was pushing it, though knew that was nearly a minute faster than target pace. Yes, I’ve been here before, but, hey I’ve done plenty training and this is a key race and there is work to be done, I’m loving the support from the crowd – I’m clearly looking good and that means they’re not seeing many other grls up ahead moving at this pace. That’s what I wanted to know. My sister an mum are out on that road, telling me I’m 14th AG woman. Shit – that’s a lot, but I’m tickingthem off. Mile splits slowed to more sensible pace after the little rise on Alli drive -around 7:30’s. I’m building a cushion which I am sure I will need. The 5 miles to the turn around seems quite a long way. By about mile 8 I really need the loo and am glad of that cushion as I dive into a porta potty. I can see that I lost a place to Edwina (who I just passed, and also Nick Rose) but make it back up in a minute or two. This does feel a like an effort now though. Well, that’s what I have been expecting of this race, so dig in. Passing my sister for the second time, she tells me I’m 8th in my AG. At this point its starting to feel a bit of an effort , but I’ve been expecting this to be a hard run and dig in. Up Palini – running of course – and that gets the crowd cheering, including Jim and Gaelle. Steven is at the top, apparently turning in circles but of course he’s looking back to see me and give me a shout. I give him a hug, or try to do so without breaking my stride…its the gesture that counts. I’m proud to see him up there and know hat he’s gonna have a tough afternoon, but will get there. I feel slightly jealous of him walking and eating M&M from special needs bag. There are a lot of hills on the queen K that can really hurt a hot, weary runner with sore feet, and I feel my mood dip. I’m trying to take on fluids but without slowing down at aid stations and this, or perhaps just salt loss or deydrtaion is causing a severe stitch in my right side. I used to suffer this a lot when doing Olympic races and reminded myself of strategies for relieving it - breathing patterns and coordinating with foot strikes. Poking my abs with my fingers isn’t helping, but that’ swhat instinct is telling me to do, aside from stopping running, of course. Ahead is another girl I recognize, pass her, and another and another two in sight just up the hill. We are about mile 14. There is an aid station ahead and I cave into my body’s cry to ease off. I’m really only running about 8:30 min miles by now anyway -but I’s fast enough that I’m gaining ground on those in my line of vision. If I stop, walk, stretch and take in some fluids I know I’ll loose them , but will feel better and re catch them.

We are all suffering. I have never witnessed so many fit looking athletes, professionals included, walking back from the energy lab. The course, the heat, the competition has destroyed them…but they are smiling, happy to have given it their all – more than their all - and submit to the legendary power of this environment. I’m taking a few moments to regroup, in a sort of despair, when I see Rachel coming back down the hill on her return to the finish. She looks very strong and is in a great position. This embarrasses me sufficiently to get moving again, and happily the stitch has eased up a lot. Now its just the sore legs and feet and mental battles to contend with. I’m running at little more than an ‘easy run’ pace, but its enough that I’m moving gradually past people. Catch Edwina (who must be sick of the sight of me going back and fourth by now) in the energy lab. She looks like I feel, and I try to encourage her –as well as myself. Out of the energy lab and it’s only 10km to go. Steven has posted an electronic message for me ‘ push now!’ – that’s right – this is where I should be closing them down to the finish. Ok, lets give it a go. But the pain required to increase the pace just a little seems disproportionate to the gains I was making on an unseen quarry. I’ll leave it until I have someone in sight, I decide. Then I see Steven – ‘There’s hardly anyone ahead, this is where you have to decide now if you want it, Jo’. Yes, I want it. I’m going for it. That’s when the cramp hit my calf, and I realized that no mater how much I wanted it, or how much I’d promised myself I’d suffer for this, I simply could not run through this cramp. I could limp, and then jog and then resume my ‘easy running’ - which was about the same pace as the ‘flow’ of competitors willing themselves through those last 5 miles of the day. My mind switched from competition to reflection of the day and the feelings an comfort that awaited my just 40 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 24 minutes away…..taking in the scene, the sea the amazing support an energy from the volunteers and my sister shouting from the raod side! ‘how did u get so far out?’ I was amazed. She ran along side of me with encouragement and was even kind enough to say that she was getting tired doing so …that I was looking great and I could do it. Well, theer was no question of that, just not quite in the style that I’d hoped for as I set off 24 miles earlier all hot headed and hot heeled.

That last mile, which brings you down Palini ( owch!) and onto Alii drive is lined with crowds loudly reflecting the elation that you feel at the end of this race. My face was one huge smile – I could not help it, I thought my cheeks would cramp!! My legs even found a bit of life to run like an athlete down that shute, high fiving as I went. I’d given all that I could, managed a PB on the course, on a tough day, and I was done. I coulda, woulda, shoulda raced that run a bit smarter…but that’s easy to say. I might not have fallen apart and coulda run a 3:10 marathon. You never know, and there’s just one way to find out.

swim: 1:07.46
bike: 5:32.19
run:3:34.31
finish: 10:19.25

6th in age group.

IM HI. phew

swim- 1:07:46 pleased with this. it was a hard swim, crowded and quite a bit of surf. pretty much on target.
bike 5:32:19. was aiming for 5:30 but on the whole i feel i rode well. there were a group of girls in my age group who i was exchanging places with ( and a bit of chat) kept me honest and in good spirits, until the final 25 miles when the headwind got the better of me. i'd made a up a lot of places on teh rollers but the direct wind on flatter road was wiping me out.
run - 3:34:31. well, obviously not great. started off good - feeling super at 7 min miles or thereabouts and was about to run into 3rd place despite a portaloo stop on Alii drive ( worth it!) but mile 14 i developed terrible sticth and walked. was passed by 2 of my age group. rehydrated and recomposed i recovered to a run, but nothing faster than 8:30 place....and a lot of suffering. there was a lot of carnage out there today, you know how it is out here. i really dont think i could have done anything different at teh time. however, had i known that i was actually holding 6th , and not a podium ...it may have been different, but i refuse to think about that this evening - i was just so happy to finish!!! i really enjoyed the race and feel quite proud, though disappointing to miss a prize by so little.

steven swam and biked into 7th in AG. run walk ok for about 8 miles untill he cramped bad. spent some time horizontal on Alii drive (lucky i did not see him, or woudl have been tempted to join him) walked a bit after that, with Douglas!, and mangaed to get running again in teh end. he's pleased and tucking into massive icecream and cakes.
i needed an ice bath and a bit of a chill.

more detailed report will follow - off to go cheer te last finishers home.

Race Week Countdown: 1!

the last day before the big day. Aside from a light swim out to the Coffee boat ( and a few failed attempts to free dive about 15m for a handful of sand in exchange for a free pair of Blueseventy goggles!) and a final spin on the bike before check-in, the idea was to have a very relaxing day. Something that i’m still getting the hang of, evidently! After the questionable wisdom of the deep diving challenge, I had some very stretching good work done on my quads and glutes by the ART crew followed by a carbo based breakfast. I could not resist a final round of the expo in the hope of collecting a few more nutritional freebies – and scored some Erin Baker granola and cookies for my pre race breakfast. Stopping into Hawaiian Pedals for a chat with the guys from Oomph regarding kit sponsorship (well, you might as well ask!) I bumped into Mike and Johnny from Epic camp who are over from California for the weekend. Great to see them and I’m sure I’ll be even more glad of it tomorrow out on the run course.

Having assembled my gear bags as follows :
Pre swim – goggles, Blue seventy suit, surgical tape( against chaffing), vaseline, chip, swim cap, safety pins, spare inner tube, multi tool, cable tie, bike food and shoes and gas canisters (to be loaded up in the morning)
Bike – number belt, sunglasses, tri top (incase it’s cold!!), gel
Run -Diadora shoes, socks (both regular and compression in the end), visor, spare sunglasses ( $14 in the mall), wrist band with ibrobrofen, immodium, pils in, hairband, magnesium shot and a gel)
And stuck all the label son my biek, I took it out for a final 45 min spin on my way to be massaged.

Not quite sure how I managed it, but I took a wrong road having overshot my turn onto Alli drive and wound up doing some pretty steep climbing to recift y this as well as being in danger of being late for my massage. Not very relaxing really, however the bike was all fine, and I did get theer just in time ( albeit pretty disgustingly sweaty). The massage was wonderful, she worked on my shoulders, shins, feet and a bit on my back. Heaven. As I lay there listening to her gentle mystical chanting music, I was thinking about what a harsh contrast this was to what will be tomorrow and focused on gathering up my energy inside for what my body was about to undergo.

Gave the bike a quick clean, over the raod to drop it and bags in for their night in transition before dinner. Having been advised to deflate our tyres a little when leaving them out in the heat, I discovered that somehow the valve of my front tube was stuck right inside the rim of the wheel, fully closed. With the style of extender that I’m using (just a straight screw-over tube) I couldn’t figure how this was possible, or how to open it. Although I might have just left it like that – there was enough pressure to ride and chances of it exploding over night were slim – I would have been screwed in the event of a (slow) puncture on course so it was of with the wheel, back to the hotel and bursting the tube out to replace it with a longer valved one. All rather rushed and not the most calming experience, but far better to discover this now than later. Feel a little disconcerted having changed a tyre I would have liked to ride it in make sure it rolls ok with no bulges or whatever, but thems the breaks. Will get into transition early and have a good old fuss over it in the morning.

Hot-footed it up to Bongo Bens for an early diner with Steven, Russ, Roger and his wife, Mary who has jetted out for the weekend and managed to get my order in with theirs. Taco salad. Good fuel food, resisted adding chilli sauce!
Returned home via the superstore where I purchased my post race treats (iced coffee and German Beer) and finally back in our room with my feet up and an old Patrick Swayze movie on the box. Phew. A little pre race target setting ( based on my last race here) mental rehearsals and checklists before sweet dreams of the Queen K and Alii drive……

finally, huge thanks to everyone for all the good luck commnets, emails and texts. I'll e doing my best for you! And my own wishes for he best possible race for all my kona 09 buddies, especially Steven, Russel, Roger, Rachel, Richard, Martin, Douglas, Nick Rose and Kit
good night!

Race Week Countdown: 2

Aside from the compression sock dilemma, I’m in another over whether to bother with the HR monitor on the bike.
The last few times that I have been out doing intervals, ie noticed that my HR is rising quickly and staying about 5 beats higher for less perceived effort. I’m not using the power tap so have no absolute comparison, which is a shame. My heart’s willingness to beat faster could be down to a few factors, ruling out a medical condition, the most obvious/relevant being the heat, or the fact that I’m well rested. Though I do have HR data from my race at Lanzarote to refer to, I’m not really experienced enough to know how much to compensate for the environmental conditions, fatigue or hydration – especially on such a different type of course. So it would be folly to race by following figures that I’d expect from training in a race, this one in particular.

Scott was certainly not advising that I do so, unless I felt I needed the feedback to keep my efforts levels up. Which is certainly true of my training. However, as he said, there’ll be plenty of people out there to chase on the bike course and frankly if I need more than that for motivation out here, Ironman World Championships, Hawaii then what am I doing here in the first place?
So, I’lI race with have faith in my training, fire in my belly and joy in my heart!

After my test ride on the QR ( lovely ride, real feeling off direct response to power through the cranks, though the very much more forward position did feel a bit twitchy at first) I had a wander around the expo again to see what freebies I could pick up. Saw Chrissy Wellington signing pics of herself on a Cannondale, with that face cracking smile. Wanted a chance to say Hi and wish her luck…so went and asked for one. Felt really embarrassed doing so. Don’t know why. Guess it just all seemed a bit fake and impersonal. I bumped into Marie Repec, who I raced at Wisconsin last year. After spending the first half, or more, of the run vying with her for first place, I beat her in the end – making her the second woman in our age group to qualify for this race! She looked well and has taken on coaching by Mark Allen online this year in preparation for this race, as I have with Scott Molina. Turns out that also the girl who came 3rd in our age group at that race also now coached by him. So its gonna be Molina against Allen again! My money’s on team Carritt-Molina, of course, but the virtual Allen does have a good record of podium places here, so they’re doing something right. It was a bit weird to be making light conversation with my direct competition 2 days out from the race. Makes it all seem very serious…but in a way a boost. I’m sure she’s more trepidation than I, having been beaten by me before. I need to keep reminding myself that I’m in shape and good for it. I’ve beaten many of these girls before – and as jenny said to me in an email today, as long as I’m prepared to push myself at least as hard as they’ll be pushing I’ve nothing to fear.

Race Week Countdown: 3

A day without training today so I’ve had a good chance to check out the expo here, get registration done and finally meet with Chris from American Bicycle Group in person and go over a few details of the sponsorship deal that we’ve been working out for next year. He is a super busy guy, passionate about his work and the products that he distributes, jetting all over the world for trade shows and bike fairs non-stop, it seems. Certainly a hard guy to track down, but in person he’s surprisingly chilled, totally level and it was reassuring to meet him after so many unreturned calls! The deal: it’s really exciting – not only do I get a fabulous space-age racing bike (check out the design features of Quintana Roo’s CD.01 for the ultimate triathlete’s wet dream) – but he actually has his stock in early this year and there’s a reasonable chance I’ll be able to take it out to Aus and NZ next month. Failing that, he’ll ship it out. It really is an awesome deal, with Powertap, wheels AND a training bike included. He mentioned in passing the possibility of a custom (blue) paint -job, but I dare not push my luck! I’m going to test –ride one tomorrow morning. If its too good, I’ll not want to ride Obi on Saturday!!! Anyway, there’s an additional incentive to race well: I don’t want him having second thoughts now!

It’s getting busier still here – and most people having regoisterd are now tagged with athlete’s wrist bands. This year they’ve given each age group a different colour band. So not only is it easier to check out your competition pre race, what they’re eating in lava java, how much race nutrition they’re buying, how fast they’re running past you up Alii Drive…but on race day we’re not relying on greasy ink mark on the calf – most people will be wearing compression socks anyway. Actually, I have some great new ones from SLS here with me...and have been wearing them in training. The y have really firm compression, you can feel it, and are quite thick material, but are surprisingly cool. However I’m undecided whether to race in them since they are a bit sticky to get on…and will be even more so with sweaty legs. Reckon I’ll decide in T2.

Race Week Countdown: 4

quite a busy day today so after yesterday's long post, this'll be brief as i'm quite worn out!
the day consisted of 3 session - a run with Lotte who had to be asked to run a bit easier ( as usual) until we got to our 30 sec strides at the end of the run. a bit of stretching with the students of ART ( active release technique). a pool swim, with lotte again who really did a great job of sticking with me on my set. ten met with John and Bevan from IM talk and a couple of Epi campers for a spin up the queen K. very social - not! though it was nice to meet a few of the faces that we'll be sharing our epic NZ experience with, as soon as we started pedaling, they were off in the distance! i stuck to my planned 90 min easy ride and got back just in time for my massage. a chance to lie, relax and have my feet rubbed. heaven. then back into town just in time for teh parade of nations, and directly into dinner at the Canoe Club. phew. just time to catch up on emails and the blog. 'night 'night.

Oh, and happy birthday, David. if you are sad enough to be reading this - get a life!!!

Race Week Countdown: 5

Well we are now in race week, let the count down begin. For me today was a pretty light day, starting with a solid swim over half the course, with Roger. We both wore our blue seventy ‘swim like a bullet’ suits, and I wore my race day kit on under as a test to see where I would be rubbing and in need of tape on race day. We agreed to swim out a a solid pace – me on Rogers toes, working at a little below race effort, and injecting bursts between buoys where I’d swim out around and level, aiming to get ahead by the next bouy. This required an above race pace effort o about 4-5 min, before I’d drop back for recovery. This worked great for me since it was suffieciently moderate effort to stay on his toes and fun to swim side by side with an almost evenly matched swimmer both of us working quite hard. We took a few hundred meters break to swim easy around the 3 buoy which roughly mark halfway to the turn point o race route, before doing the same work-out on the return. We found ourselves coming into shore at about the same time as several hundred others were making their own way out to sea, and I stuck close on Rogers’ feet letting him navigate between the crowds! He’s such a gent.

The rest of the day was very relaxed – breakfast with my mum and sister in Tante’s, joined the boys and Douglas (from Epic Camp) for coffee in Splashers, a short spin on the bike and the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Steven and Roger at Roger’s hotel.

We spent a lot of time discussing methods for determining swim training ‘load’. Measurement of training load is something that both Steven and I introduced into our training logs about a year ago – training load is a measure of work done in a session, or how hard a session was compared to 1 hour at Functional Threshold (the intensity you can work at for 1hr). Programmes such as WKO, Training Peaks take this data and spit out ‘intensity factors’ and load each workout … and use complicate algorithms to generate a TSS (training stress score) over various periods (acute and chronic) and a result Stress Balance. Intensity, load, stress -acute, chronic and balance - seem to be the current hot topic amongst our group of training friends, but t is fairly clear that whilst easy to use and enjoyale to analyse, none o us has a very clear idea as to what it actually means to our training. In paticulr the debate is about how to calculate an Intensity Factor for a swim session – and having spent time in the past researching this myself, find that it is also much discussed on many of the endurance training forums and site on the web, too. Most folk who analyze their training to this degree are using power measuring tool on their bikes, and pace measuring for their runs. Programmes such as WKO, Training Peaks take this data from the gadgets and spit out ‘intensity factors’ and load each workout … use complicated algorithms to generate a TSS (training stress score) over various periods (acute and chronic) and make graphs for the athlete or coach to marvel at and track training impact. But there is no such gadget to record work done whilst swimming…so how best to do this?

It seems bizarre to me that despite the fact that swimming is the most absolutely measurable of all triathlon sports, few people seem to have their head around assigning an intensity factor to it! Whilst quite happy to accept the values given by the gizmos that measure their cycling and runnig workouts without much thought as to what these figure represent, many people struggle to log the intensity of their swimming work even though in the pool there is very little by way of external factors, its very easy to measure pace and we repeat workouts on the same course daily. For me, it’ s simple – define your range, assume IF is linear and simply plug ‘distance swum’ and ‘time in pool’ into the equation. However this was not satisfactory to Roger, who wanted a ‘complicated equation’ or Steven who makes an argument for measuring absolute work done, rather than how difficult it was to do the work – a set of 100’s in 90sec of 2min is a lot easier than hitting 1:30 and going off the 1:40 but at the end of the day, the body has swum at the same speed for the same time. Which by the way is another discussion entirely – what is the purpose of measuring intensity – is it an objective or a subjective measure?

To obtain your session cycling IF is a lot simpler, if you have a powermeter. You just need to plug your device into your pc and …it’s done! But what is it doing? Normalised power makes some sort of correction for zeros…all the little bits of recovery that you get during a ride, and so it seems analogous to including the rest intervals in the swim session. When running, I’m monitoring HR, which picks up to how well I’m recovering how hard my body is working throughout the set. If the recovery is short, my heart-rate drops less during each rest interval and rises faster and further during the reps, the average will be higher and thus accounting for the difference in rest interval. Have I just contradicted my self? This would imply that there is no need to account for rest intervals in the session. I’ll admit, I’m still getting this all figured out, and I’m digressing a bit – lets go back to the fact that what I currently do is based on a standard method of recording run loads called TRIMPS, which looks at heart-rate and is therefore a measure of effort undergone by the individual rather than actual work done (pace x duration). There may be better ways – actually, I’m told that Training Peaks software does use pace, to give IF. I’d be interested to find out how it deals with variance in pace during a run.

Either way – it seems that the fact that the ‘scientifically’ minded can build layers and layers of data into their training logs very easily with the aid of GPS, powermeters, heart monitors and sophisticated software. We then spend hours and days marveling over the curves and graphs that result - but without necessarily understanding the what this data really means or questioning it’s validity.


Personally I have a simplified, manual method of calculating IF for rides (based on Powertap data when available, HR when not and a bit of fudging based of what I have recorded and observed over the last few years) runs (based on Heart-rate) and swimming (based on dist swum/total session time). I use the square of this IF with my session (total) duration to give me a LOAD value, which I log in my training diary alongside hours. As you probably figure from all the waffle above, I’m still tweaking this as I read, discuss, learn and ponder more – I do have some graphs demonstrating acute, chronic and training stress balance, which I enjoy looking at – but remain well aware that ‘shit in = shit out” no matter how robust the software or complicated the equations! So, I continue to collect data until such time as I am totally satisfied with what I record and how it can be of use in planning my training- or, more likely, that of others – and be able to look back over past seasons and identify the crucial factors which contribute to a good/bad race, burn out/awesome fitness. At which point i'll feel more comfortable proving Roger with a 'complicated equation' for his swim IF!!

kona diary - day 7

I was surprised last night by the arrival of my mum and sister – I’d been expecting them a day later! Luckily they were travel weary and not much interested in going out to eat – though I am sure I could have managed another meal had they wished to, as we’d agreed!

It was nice to have them around today, as I have been feeling a bit low and in need of some conversation about something OTHER than triathlon! Its weird to sat that, from here, the absolute focal point of the sport that I have dedicated this whole year too, but I have found myself feeling very detatched from it all as the number of arrivals increases each day – all in their best kit, super excited and wanting to share their stories of qualification, injury, kit choice, nutrition plans and race aspirations. Of course, most of these people are simple enjoying a rare chance to immerse themselves in an environment dedicated to excellence in the sport which they are themselves passionate about. Not many have colleagues, partners, family with more than a passing interest – let alone any expertise- and some may not even belong to a club of like minded individuals to indulge in tri chatter with. Just look at the amount of chat that web based forums generate!

So, im being a bit sour I suppose in my reluctance to embrace the spirit – it feels to me a bit like the fresher’s week at university did, where most of the people I met were fresh from schools and parents and just wanted to connect with others and share the excitement. The repeated conversations about what A levels they’d sat, grades, other unis they applied to, tales of school masters and other really not very interesting topics of conversation with total strangers. But this was necessary in order to find some of my closest and longest last friendships- people who i shared years of important experiences with, and without ongoing contact with them my life today would be far poorer. Ironman, or more specifically being at the world championships, also provides that commonality which makes it easy to talk and meet people who will potentially become good, and important friends. Or, as steven does, just enjoying the vibe...so need to get into the groove a bit more, think a bit more about the race and find a better connection to how lucky I am to be here. As my sister said –you never know what might happen, and there’s no guarantee I’ll be back. So no matter how confident I feel about the upcoming race, how well or poorly it may go, just don’t take the experience for granted.

kona diary - day 6

Today I took a ride south out of town, off in the direction of Captian Cook, on a loop known as The Painted Church Loop. The route heads out of town on the very rideable Highway 11, steadily climbing up, up, up through Honalo, Kealakekua and all the coffee plantations up there, before taking a minor road off to the right for the Painted Church loop. Having risen beyond 1500ft, you loose a lot of height on this loop, and climb again back to the highway the end of the circuit before heading home the way you came. In theory, that is – I got curious and chose a different, apparently parallel (but actually not) return route, and was enjoying the scenery and steady climb so much that it was half an hour or so before I realized by mistake and that the view I’d been admiring through the heavy greenery up there was actually Kona airport and the energy lab, a long way below, and behind me. I’d over –shot the town and was on my way up Mauna Kea!
However, despite riding a good hour longer than intended I found the ride so refreshing that it was worth the extra time on the road. It felt so good to be out off the intensity off Kona; away from that awful stretch off Queen K highway, which is now pretty busy with very fit looking people on very expensive looking bikes, matching kit and aero helmets hammering along the shoulder. Not to mention the stiffeling heat of the town – as soon as the road exceeds about 200ft the scenery becomes a lot fresher and its noticeably cooler and sheltered from the winds. The roads are lined with fragrant fruit trees – mango, papaya and passion fruit (or guava?) which offer up delicious scent as you ride by. A little higher and I wondered what the tall bushes with red berries that now surrounded me. Of course- coffeee! I had never seem it growing before …and here I was now riding through the plantations. The towns up there were small, simple towns with faded looking buildings – churches, a cafes, a gas station & food mart and many art galleries in each. And of course kona coffee outlets! I cruised through each, absorbing it like a tourist, having left the anxious triathlete way down the slope in Kailua.

The little loop at the end of the highway took me on much smaller and winding roads. Past farms and plantation – dropping down the mountain side before beginning the ascent back to the highway. i stopped to check out an avacado tree that was dropping its fruit into they road, ate a couple (not many shops out here) and stuffed a few in my pocket for tomorrow’s breakfast. Briefly wondered about the wisdom off picking up and eating strange fruits of the side of the road but couple not resist trying the honey scented yellow tings that were also frequently scattered at the roadside. Inside was a bright orange sweet sour pulp covering soft balck seeds – just like the inside of a passion fruit, but not all wrinkly and brown like those we get in the UK. Delicious and very refreshing – will have to go to the market in town and find out what they call them.

At the end of the ride, after my accidental detour, the return to town down a wonderful long switch-backed road- emerging about 300m from our hotel!

What a wonderful and relaxing ride.

kona diary - day 5

Pretty smashed after the last couple of days training, heat and disrupted sleep, so I’m glad to have the ‘day off’ today. From here its all gonna be a lot of lighter stuff, a few race efforts and lots of rest…but still , it was up early to swim with Roger who wanted to do the whole course. I was keen to do this again having enjoyed it so much last time, so I agreed to meet for a 6:30 splash, since ‘on paper’ we swim about the same pace. As usual I woke around 3:30am, rose at 5 and headed down wandered out to the pier for 6. Spent half an hour just chilling with a strawberry tea, watching the town go about it’s morning rituals and early dips relatively undisturbed by the bustling population of IronVisitors who take over the beach from about 7 onwards. I was pretty tired so a bit nervous when I saw Roger pull out his new full length blueseventy speed suit. Not even sure that a 80-90 min swim was such a good idea, feeling like this – it was more than scheduled for today. But what the harm?
Well, it was a bit of a slog –swimming really quite slowly and quite a lot of swell out there making it hard to see him, or the buoys. Seemed to take an age to get all the way out there..and longer on the way back! But, I was pleased I’d done it and had the rest of the day to relax.

When I say relax, I mean do a few other things. A trip to the bike shop, bit of a chat about my rear wheel (its out of ‘dish’, which is why it rubs the rear stay – will play with that later), and derailleur ( bent in transit – which is why the gears don’t mesh so well – but about half the price to replace in uk than here so will put up with that). Then up the road for a massage.

Turned out that the lady giving me my run is a former German pro triathlete – Tina Walter – who moved out here after a great 9th place finish in the 2004 race in order to train for the following year. She was hit by a car whilst out training shortly before oct 2005 and , though started the race, was forced to withdraw before the end of the bike. Pretty much ended her career there with permanent back problems. Totally devastating, but nonetheless she moved on and is working as a masseur out here still today. It was really interesting to talk to her about her career. She’s someone who came tto the sport later in life, having been a runner previously, and very rapidly became very good on the bike and of course the run and was posting great results, despite being a relatively weaker swimmer. The rub was good too. I’m looking forward to my next appointment.

kona diary - day 4

trouble on the queen k (and goodbye to a turtle)

They say ‘bad luck comes in 3s’, well they do if you think of it like that – though I’m sure I could think of other events today which might be classed as ‘bad luck’, if pushed to justify a saying that bad luck comes in 4s or 5s…and in any case ‘bad luck’ is just one way of looking at today’s events. All along it is possible to see the positive benefits, so “good luck comes in 3s’ would be another!
I did not join the others to swim in the ocean this morning, but accompanied them to the pier to take some photos and who was around. Each morning it gets busier there. The plan was to get out on the Queen K highway for 8 – about race time- and get an out and back ride to Kawaehae before the winds switch direction – which I believe happens at about noon-1pm. Easy ride out then 2 x 45min race pace intervals on the return. As I was wheeling my bike out of the hotel room I noticed the rear tyre was semi-flat. Bugger. Pulled out the piece of wire that had caused this slow puncture and changed tube. Bad luck no.1 – slow puncture, the second flat in 3 rides! However what GOOD luck it was that I discovered this before leaving and was able to fix it in my room. The valve extender was being a bit fiddly and did not have access to Russell’s track pump, so I’d be riding slightly soft, but was not too much of a delay.
The ride out on the highway felt great initially, with a tailwind, but soon turned into a real battle as the road rounds to face the increasingly strong winds side/head on. The second hour was a real slog and I felt totally drained by the time I could see Kaaehae in the distance. 4 miles to go seemed just sooo far into those winds and I was flagging. But I knew this feeling, and have learned the remedy lies in a great big cake. This has happened to me twice recently – feeling lousy on a ride, pop into a shop for a banana or nuts or other healthy snack and coming out with huge greasy packaged patisserie item, packing 800kcal pure sugar and I’m feeling right as rain again! Not the optimum solution – that would be to eat ore real food before heading out, or even better refueling after the previous day- but one which works. Now that I recognize the symptoms I am able to make better choices about the food that I buy too – so 2 Sweet and Salty peanut bars and a packet of cheese pretzels at the store and I’m in a far more positive frame of mind. Plus, I feel pretty sure that I’ll benefit from a push from that ghastly wind for part of the ride back.
Again, I’m about to head off when I feel hat the rear tyre has gone down again. Crap. That explains part of why the ride out felt so bloody hard, too. Figure that if it’s a puncture it’s pretty slow and decide just o re-inflate it. Easier said than done with the valve extender being temperamental, but I get a bit of pressure in it and start the second leg of the ride. I decide to ride 30 min to let the food digest before starting the first interval – after which I’ll check see if the tyre needs air, before doing the second.

What had been a driving head wind before is now a strong side wind coming slightly from behind and is pretty damn scary. Don’t care about race effort here – if I was racing perhaps I’d be a bit bolder under the influence of adrenaline but don’t feel like taking the risk as these gusts sweep me right across the shoulder, I’m braking. Not sure what that achieves other than that I’d be hitting the lava at 20 mph, not 30….through the worst of it, stick the tunes in and start the intervals. I’m feeling pretty good now, enjoying the effort and the heat and the rising and rolling road. The side winds have eased off; I have a tail wind and am moving at speed. Feels good. Frequent glances down to my rear tyre though and I can see that I’ll need to put a bit more air in. Break for 10, and hop off to sort it out. Figure that the valve is leaking through the extension. About 10 min into the second interval the tyre is real flat again. Pull over and decide to change the tube and check tyre just in case of slow puncture. None – it is the valve extender which has lost its thread and is leaking air almost as fast as I can pump. Shit. Fiddle fiddle ..snap. shit.
The tyre expels all air and I now have no means to inflate it. Game over, out comes the thumb. Bad luck no. 2. GOOD luck no. 2 – after about 2 minutes a very nice couple pulls over, stick my bike in the tardis-like trunk of their hire car and give me a ride all the way to my hotel. Added bonus – this all happened in good time for me to figure out a better valve/extender solution before race day – otherwise I would not have tested it. Gonna go get me some long valve tubes and f**k the extensions.

So, all this kind of ruined my bike session and it wont quite be a brick run now, but make the best of it. Pretty quick transition for a 40 min run up the Queen K with 30 min at race pace which today seemed limited to 4:50 – slower than I target in training but I’m thinking to myself that I’ll be pretty happy if I’m running that pace on this stretch if road in 10 days time!

So bad luck no. 3? Well this is the one that pissed me of the most – loosing my ‘lucky’ turtle earring. Just finished an easy 3km pool swim and noticed turtle was not there. Gutted. Lucky Kona turtle – I’ve been wearing it for 2 years since my last trip here, a symbol of why it’s worth all the effort, discomfort, compromise. The fact that I’ve been wearing it fro two years makes it pretty hard to make claim of any ‘lucky charm’ status – good things and bad things and have happened whilst wearing it!! I guess the GOOD of that is having to detach my self from superstition, or lucky charms..and facing the fact that there is no LUCK. Things happen – we may not have chosen that course of events, ideally, but there’s always a solution and something we can learn from situations. But i really like that earring :o(

kona diary - day 3

30th sept
Day 3 – 30 September

We swam whole swim course this morning – well its not quite exactly but the far marker buoy is out there (waaaay out there – but you can see it as you get close). 4 of us out, Steven and Russ’s new room mate , Martin, up ahead and Russell and myself following behind. I managed to stay on Russ’ s feet until about half way, when I had to make an adjustment to swim suit ( salt water really makes the seams really chaff) and lost him. So i was all alone out in le grande bleu….dont know if there really were dolphins out today a Steven claimed. I think I swim with eyes closed quiet a lot! On the way back, Russ towed me awhile before deciding to go explore of course so I followed my own line home. Took a total of 85min, with brief regrouping stops.

At midday headed out for a run up Ali’i drive. Hottest part of the day – might as well get used to it though. Ran easy to the little blue and white turn around church and ‘race pace’ on way back. Hot hot hot. Finished by jumping in the hotel pool. Not sure that’s very considerate to the other guests…but felt damn good.

Final workout of the day – and I put this of as long as daylight would allow – a 90 min bike session on the Queen K with some short hard intervals. Finished up just before sun-down with memories of last years race triggered by the light of the low sun, reflected in the ocean and the town of Kona in the distance…

Boiled up my eggs for tea in the coffee machine. Not sure that’s very considerate to the other guests…but the eggs were damn good.