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.

Kona diary - day 2

Day 2 29 sept

First taste of the Ocean this morning. It’s luuurvely. Very salty, but clear an warm. Swam out to the 3/4mile permanent buoy and back - was ale to swim alongside/just behind Russell which is nice for me as means no need for Steven to keep stopping and waiting …he went up ahead trying to stick with Rachel. There are pacuilar cold jets of water where freshwater streams flow into the bay, making the return a little chilly. For now its not too busy at the pier – that’ll quickly change!

Later we rode the whole bike course. Tough ride – we managed to get headwinds on the way out AND on the way back, with side winds as we rode up to Hawi. Think we were pretty lucky to have a chance to experience this – though I am sure it could be worse – it made it a pretty tough 100miles…and ensured we’d have no illusions about this being an easy race. Was also good to feel how the deeper section front wheel feels under the force of a strong side gust; alarming but controllable.

It’s damn hot, necessitating 3 stops for fluids along the way - the store at Kawaehae has a soda machine with ice dispenser so we were filling half gallon buckets with root beer and filling our bottles! I was leeching a lot of salt -0 much more than anyone else, which is unusual. Maybe I swallowed a lot of sea water this morning!

Kona diary - day 1

Mon 28 September

Up early at 5.30 to get into the right sort of sleep pattern for race day/overcome jet lag. Actually jet lag not that bad since we had a night stop over on our way here – an extra night sleep seems to have helped and though I was awake by 5, I had slept through the night. It was still dark as I left the room for my run, so was looking forward to running along the seafront as the sun rose. But I blinked and missed it! By the time I’d left the building, the sun was up – being so near the equator, dawn and dusk just don’t really exist!

A nice easy run up Alii drive. The day starts early here and I wasn’t alone on the road, with all the cafes setting up for breakfast business by 6am. As soon as the sun was up it really starts to feel hot. Returned to find the most amazingly coloured lizard in our room. So vibrant I thought it was a plastic toy – until I prodded it and got a start as it scuttled up the wall. Not entirely sure how I feel about a lizard running around in our room, beautiful or not, but I don’t think they bite or anything. Reckon as long as we don’t swallow it in our sleep, no harm will come of it.

The main mission of the morning was getting my hands on a rear cassette to replace the one which is still attached to my Powertap rear wheel, in Steven’s sister’s attic. With all the rushing around in London the last few days between Lanzarote and departing for Hawaii and hurried packing, something like this was bound to happen. Fortunately there are a couple of helpful and well stocked bike shops in Kona, and by midday I had a bike that would ride. Glad that I’d recently bought a new chain.

Checked out the aquatic centre for a pool swim . a large open air 50yard pool had been divided by a boom to create two 25y pools, dedicated to lap swimming – and a free facility. Free stuff makes me happy. Felt good swimming – did 3k with 6 x 350y reps on race pace.

Quick spin on the bike tinkered too much with the indexing on the gears. Wished I’d just left it alone – the guy at Pro bike ( La Santa, Lanzarote) had serviced it and had the shifting smoother tan it has ever been, but just not quite meshing perfectly on the new block, so I had to stop and fiddle. Now its far worse. And sure to get on my nerves unil I get it right…which could take several rides.

Rachel arrived this afternoon – She, Russel, Steven and I had dinner in the Canoe Club. Huge salads, brilliant sea-front view (albeit dark by 7!) in bed and falling asleep by 9! (that's jet-lag, jo)

La La La Santa..

We’re nearing the end of our acclimatization/final prep training camp in Lanzarote. It’s been a great couple of weeks and I’m happy to admit that my impressions of club La Santa as an overpriced holiday camp for those who require their training spoon-feed were all wrong. Had it not been for Rachel’ generosity sharing the apartment that (as second placed female in the IM this year) she got a very good deal on, we could not have afforded to stay here in the first place and would never have known. But we’ve found it to be such a perfect environment when its time to just get the head down and fous on training. It really could not be easier – the gym ( excellently equipped and spacious, could do with air con or a few more windows), pool (50m, 8 lane out door), track (newly surfaced and swept clean daily) and the numerous free classes (ranging from highly energetic jumping on and off boxes through dance workshops, yoga, Pilates and stretching) are within 2 minutes of the apartment. We’ve not had time to make use of the free bike, kayak, windsurf or raquet hire of course, but families that do so really get great value for their stay. The apartments are a bit small and scruffy (and that’s comparing them to the get-pissed-quick cheap family aparthotels we’ve sampled in Peurto del Carmen!) and the on-site restaurants and supermarket somewhat overpriced, but we’re not here for luxury and I’ve managed fine alternating between the very good quality all-you-possibly-eat-and-still-move buffet restaurant and self catering from the cheaper supermarket in Tinajo. This is beginning to sound a bit like a travel review..so that’s enough of the pros and cons of La Santa except to say that if you can put up with the constant upbeat cheesy dance tracks pumped from tiny speakers around the complex at all hours of day – and you do get used to it- this is an excellent base to focus on being an athlete in preparation for a big race. If you were on a more casual or cycling focused training holiday, and not requiring specific facilities you might find it a little claustrophobic and be better off in the cheaper and more diverse side of the island. I think in future we will be doing a mix of both.

So, after the Vitruvian I started off with a pretty easy week. That race was a bit of a knock-back for me. Or perhaps a reality call. Either way it had me worried about my form and I’d been advised by a few people that I’d shared these concerns with that I should treat this 2 week period in the sun as a bit of a ‘holiday’. Well – with Steven off all day racking up monster mileage and hours and little else to do around here having sworn off alcohol, caffeine and icecream in prep for Kona, I was finding a bit hard to imagine I was on hols! I hadn’t even brought a book to read – so intentions were pretty clear to anyone bothered enough to read between the lines: get out there and get in shape.

Trouble was: I was tired. So the first days passed in short cycles of feel good, train: sessions go well. Feel a bit tired. Too hot to sleep. Get up, train: session goes ok. Feel more tired. Too hot to sleep, concerned about feeling so tired. Get up, train: session just about ok but really not that good. Worry about not being all that good. Feel very tired. Worry about feeling very tired and not being able to sleep and not being very good. So tired fall asleep anyway. Easy/rest day. More sleep. Wake up- feel better, train: sessions go better. Feel a bit tired……it’s a shame that it was relatively late in the trip that I realized that with the help of a little Valarium ( herbal sleeping remedies) and a 9hr sleep, I could reset to phase 1 of the cycle a lot sooner than my planned training schedule allowed.
Sharing with Rachel has provided a real insight into how a real Pro prepares for a race – the sort of training she’s doing, the effort she puts into recovery and attitude in general is inspiring. Of course she follows the same sort of cycle – has had good days and off days – but manages to retain a positive attitude and deals with it sooner, or just finds another level of motivation and pushes through. Guess that comes from experience and the confidence of some great race results this year. I reckon we’ll see some exciting stuff from her out there in the lava!

In all, things for me picked up in this second week – I have swum and run every day, including 3 track sessions, made good use of the gym and, though less cycling than I’d expected, have done some good quality bike sessions. Eaten well, stayed sober and weaned myself off caffeine. Got my bike serviced in Pro Bike – for 100E new chain, brake blocks fixed up the gears (both derailleurs bent out of line) and gave it a good clean. Runs lovely now! Hope it stays that way after the 2 flights back to London on then on to the Aloha State. Finger’s x’d. I’m now having wheel choice dilemmas and debating with Scott the merits of riding on power over the cost of the heavy32 spoke training wheel that the unit is built into ( and the fact that the bloody thing STILL plays up!) and a deep- ish section on the front versus worrying about being blown off the road……

So much to think about, it seems. I’m going out to ride my bike.

settling - the vitruvian

I was pretty pleased with my swim, having had a good, clear start and made what I felt were sensible moves between the feet that I followed. I was able to get decent draught for most of the way round, swimming at moderate effort for pace that would have been hard to unsustainable under my own efforts alone. The two 950m laps were broken with a land buoy to run around, and this is a nice break from green/brown murk and a chance to survey the spread of the field. 3 of us raced around together – the feet i’d been following and someone from behind (who passed me when, to save my poor feet from the sharp pebbles, I dived back into about 3 inches of water and found myself crawling along the bottom) and there were a half dozen or so red caps already a little way into their second lap.

Running up the exit mat and fumbling cold fingered for my wetsuit zip, I noted my time about 30min, and was pleased with this – a minute ahead of last time. So far on plan.
I met Helen Smith from Thames Turbo on the bike mount line and recalling her speed from racing Olympic distance against her, pushed on up the hill out of transition. It was damn cold and this was good incentive to keep working the pedals hard. I knew that I was going to really have to crank this course if I was going to challenge last year’s winner who would be well up the road ahead of me by now, and keep the pressure on to produce a very fast run – her weaker discipline, if it could be called that!
After an hour I’d passed all but 2 girls who I knew I’d unlikely catch sight of until the run and so it was a case of not loosing too much more time. I rode within a cluster of guys, passing one another back and forth as the terrain varied to suit our relative strengths, thinking that this was helping keep my momentum up. However when my friend Helen came breezily by with a cheerful ‘hi Jo’ I was given a bit of a jolt into reality. Not wishing to take anything from Helen, who is a very good and dedicated long distance triathlete, but she’s not someone that I’d previously considered to be serious competition. And here she was, not only passing but riding away from me up that hill….there didn’t seem to be much that I could do about it either – it seemed that I could not find another level of effort. Was it my legs, or my mind? From that point the mental battles began. I figured that I’d catch Helen on the run for sure…putting me back 3rd place, and that is where it happened: I settled for third. Half way through the bike course, half of me (or more) gave up on the race. The other half of me was then obliged to devote precious energy that could have been used for thinking positive and inspiring thoughts, arguing a case for continued best efforts from the legs and pushing on into severe discomfort regardless of the rest of the race. Late in the second lap I was passed again, by a girl riding at such apparent speed that I assumed she must be part of a relay team. I could not figure how it had taken so long to catch me at that pace, or why her number was out of sequence with the rest of the ladies. I pushed it a little more to keep her in my sights, realizing that it had been a mistake to loose visual contact with Helen, but lost her when I found myself caight behind a large slow moving horse truck.
The Vitruvian bike route, 2 laps of the Dambuster Triathon course follows secondarty roads around Rutland Water. The roads are rolling and potentially fast, but also winding and narrow in places so are marked with double white central lines. The race just happens to be on the same day as a major local horse show…and so by about 8.30am the roads become jammed with cars and trucks unable to pass cyclists, and unpassable as they crawl along at 10 miles an hour. Frustration mounting, and picturing the 4 women ahead steaming away at from me along clear roads, I remind myself that, this surely is happening to everyone else too. Confirmation of this a little further on I spy Helen up the raod, behing the same vehicle who’s backside I’d been cursing 10 in earlier. Either she’d dropped pace as the winds had increased on our second lap, I’d managed to pick it up a bit or she’d been more unlucky that I with the traffic. Whatever, it lifted my spirits a bit and it was quite comical to find ourselves having a bit of a natter as we tailed the horsebox, into T2! Wished each other luck for the run and I just hope that my legs were going to serve me well as I stepped out into what I have come to consider my racing ‘territory’.

I didn’t feel great at all, but that is to be expected and I know its just a case of settling into it. it doesn’t exactly get any better, but you just kind of get used to it! As I’d run through the transition and spectator area I’d heard the commentator mentioning that John Francis from Tri London had just passed the turn around and out onto his second lap ahead of me. Soon he was in sight - -my firsts target. He was a rather fast moving target, impressive having already put 11km behind him, and it took a while to make ground on him. I caught him just at the same moment that we saw Steven coming from the other direction. Walking. He’d had a go, I assumed, and got himself round half of the run before deciding that his foot wasn’t going to hold out. I felt sad that he was pulling out, but proud that he’d made a lap and was looking so happy. He yelled ‘you’re really going to have to push this, Jo’ which I knew meant that the lead was not just a matter of a few minutes ahead! So, since John was running at about 4-4:15 pace, I figured that by sticking on him would help get me on pace until I saw the gaps at the far turn around. A few moments later we passed the possible relay rider (obviously she wasn’t ) and back into 3rd place. John started pulling away from me. I’d settled for 3rd, remember? I wasn’t getting into this run at all, and 4:20’s became 4:30’s and though I knew I wasn’t working had, I just did not seem to have the capacity to go to any harder. The leaders passed me on their way back from the turn around a good km before I’d reached it, Lou was nice enough to say ‘hi’ but I hardly even registerd who it was until Lucy passed me a minute or so later. Wow. They really do have a lead. What would I have to do to make up THAT gap? Run a 1:13 half marathon (1:19 would have got me second). You know what , I didn’t really feel like it. Maybe I should have a gel? No, might as well avoid eating that junk unless I really have to. I know I can carry on at THIS pace for as long as I like. Oooh Jaffa Cakes….well, nothing to loose might as well have one of those.

It was nice to see friends and club mates out on the course including Roger, flying along ahead of his age group who told me off for not smiling. I hate it I told him – it was a joke of course but made me realize how close to the truth that was and I’d better start getting a bit happy! I’m here by my own choice and it’s a nice day and soon I’ll be finished and its still good exercise….and there’s Steven again, RUNNING! I wanted to give him a hug. People are telling him not to do this and that for his foot – it’s still problematic and with Kona, a race that he really wants to finish, only a month away it’ s too risky etc etc. I have to say that though I’d think he was stupid finishing this one out of pride alone, I totally understand and support him wanting to test it out. Obviously it was holding out ok for him to decide to run the second lap!

A little later, I was pleased to be told that I had the nicest smile of the ‘top ladies’. Fourth place was not all that far behind me, which was enough to keep me running at a moderately hard, and increasingly uncomfortable pace (4:40’s now) but not close enough to make it hurt.

Eventually, I was through the last sheep-y bit, over the last damm-y bit, through the woody bit, another sheep-y bit then the boat-y bit and finally the finish-y bit….
4hr 43 (just under)
Around 15 min slower than target, and in the position that I’d settled for 3 hours previously. Of course as soon as the race is over this mistake is obvious, my target was not at all unrealistic but as always on the day the head rules - and the head was not on my side!!!

swim 30:39
t1 2:07
bike 2:35:18
t2 1:07
run 1:33:40
total 4:42:54