Trains, Travels

Today’s post comes from a far colder climate. I’m sat at my parent’s house in Reading and it’s pretty damn chilly far as I’m concerned. I’m not feeling too bad for hours of flying though I do have massive cankles once more. Just hoping that the swelling will have all gone in time for my next race, it’s only round the corner.

After all the excitement of the race I had a couple of days left in Kona. Time to chill out, relax and most importantly recover. Also as this blog will reveal time to compensate for months of denying myself sugars in a mass binge! I’m now more of the opinion it’s important to relax things a little after my races. I know I can get back on track quickly and mentally it’s good.

It’s rare that I sleep well after a big race. My legs are usually just a bit too stiff to comfortably lie in bed. This time I woke at about 3:30 in the morning and was absolutely starving. A midnight feast followed as I raided the fridge along with the remains of the pack of bagels. Once the hunger was gone I managed a couple more hours before I gave in and accepted I was up for the day.

After further essential snacking I headed down to the pier at around 7am and went for a swim with Steven and Jo. Swim seems a bit of a grand term for the 15 minutes of splashing about I did, but it’s the thought that counts. With arms feeling better than legs it wasn’t too bad just not fast.

Far more important than the swim was the buffet breakfast that followed. After the previous weekends two and a half plate meat fiesta I paced myself a little bit better. Mixing in carbs in the form of pancakes along with a lot of meat added a bit of variety too. I did my best to ensure I got my money’s worth at least.

Everyone’s plans largely revolved around relaxing as much as possible. That said Steven, Jo and I headed up Ali’i Drive on our bikes for a spin. It took most of the length of the Drive to actually feel OK and none of us were willing to go up the short, sharp climb at the end of it. We returned quite quickly, not sure if that was a tailwind or the draw of coffee and cake at Lava Java. If you ever want to overdose on sugar I recommend the Tear Cake. It’s massive and coated in toffee and icing. Delicious and possibly enough to fuel an entire Ironman.

The evening brought race events to a close with the Awards Ceremony. As with the Opening Banquet food was pretty good, though I mainly focussed on the cakes this time. I think the caterers were expecting this as they seemed far better stocked than at the opening. I worked hard to ensure I’d taken in a months worth of sugar by the end of Sunday. The ceremony itself wasn’t too bad. With so many age group awards it can drag a little, but none of the speeches went on too long.

As it finished the skies open and rain poured down. Those who’d been here the year before could now smugly break out their rain jackets. The rest of us got wet! We headed down to Lu Lu’s for a while, but by the time it was livening up I felt too tired to do a thing.

Another night of poor sleep led into Monday. At least this time I didn’t need to eat a meal to get through the night! Swimming started my day with another solid 15 minutes of effort! Then it was breakfast at Splasher’s. At this point my aim for the day was to return to Paleo so my usual Meat Lover’s omelette was ordered. We followed a long breakfast with a long coffee.

It was the next coffee break at Lava Java where my Paleo intentions collapsed. I could try to blame Steven for offering to get me a cookie, but the speed with which I accepted makes it nobodies fault but my own! It was delicious I’ll give it that. I made the decision to worry about the diet once I’d got home and relaxed a little. Most of my weight gain is fluid anyway.

An early dinner and a stop off for ice cream was followed by goodbyes to many of my Kona companions. People were either heading home or to other islands. I was definitely a little jealous of the latter group! I had a quiet evening of bike and kit packing ready for my own trip the next day.

What a lazy final day Tuesday was. I didn’t swim and I didn’t make a pretence of being on a good diet. Sure I still had the meat lover’s omelette, but I added a side of French Toast. Splasher’s French Toast is delicious and I’m pleased I could tempt Rachel and her boyfriend John into having some too. It’s better to be bad in company!

A morning of shopping for my nieces followed. I spaced it out by consuming chocolate coated macadamia nuts, delicious! Lunch consisted of two, yes two, incredibly dense Lava Java muffins. Not quite the sugar bomb that the Tear Cake was but filling in their own right. Highly recommended to try if you’re out here. After race day of course!

Sadly all the remained was to head for the airport and home. I’ve grown to like Kona a lot. Sure there’s not masses to do right there in town. I love the climate and pace of life though. Chilling at coffee houses is my thing after all. It’s not the most varied training venue on the other hand so once you’re back to real life and not race week it might be tougher.

It was a fantastic trip and experience. I had a great result off the back of it too. I’m not sure it’s really sunk in yet. Really enjoyed spending my days training and relaxing with so many friends. I know I have to go back again next year!

(For those interested I’ve another Kona race report on Tri247)

Time for the Kona race report. This could be a long one after all it was a long day. I figure if you’ve been following my blog in Kona you can cope though!

Let’s start it all off be saying it was an amazing day for me. There have been times the past couple of weeks where I’ve been excited because I’m riding the Queen K or running Ali’i Drive. All those moments were rolled up into the race. On the one hand it’s hot, humid, windy and it hurts, but on the other I’m racing on the Queen K! I’m also really pleased with my result here and feel it really validates and builds on the work I’ve been putting in. I wouldn’t call it the perfect race by any means, but it was well executed and my pacing worked. Pacing is key!

Pre-race

I’m lucky enough to be staying in a hotel literally across the road from transition. It does have its downside when they’re testing the PA system the night before the race. Race morning though it comes into its own.

Slept reasonably well, waking on occasions, but nothing unusual. Typical mildly surreal race related dreams too, but unfortunately all forgotten now. Breakfast was a bagel, jam, cheese and chicken. Add a powerbar too and that was about it. Once that was in the system I had plenty of time for a relaxing shower and to start getting ready.

I wandered over to body marking and transition when it opened. That was once again an example of the efficiency of the World Champs. So many volunteers meant minimal waiting. My number was on my arm in minutes and my bike was set up in a few more. All done so straight back to the hotel for a lie down. A real luxury being able to have 30 or 40 minutes of dozing to the sounds of the Ironman announcer outside.

About 30 minutes before the pro start I headed back to transition with the lightest pre-swim bag ever. Again the hotel paid off as I realised I’d forgot to take my anti-diarrhoea tablets so had to go back. I debated how much they’re a placebo with Jo last night. Really couldn’t say, but they’re part of my prep at least!

Still with plenty of time it was swimskin on. Tons of bodyglide to minimise chafing and then watch the navy demonstration and pro start. All that out the way and it was time to get into the water. I bumped into Roger on the beach and we headed out together.

Swim

There’d been a fair amount of discussion amongst our group about where the best place to start the swim was. If you’re someone like Steven it’s up near the front, for the rest of us it’s less certain.

‘This seems as good a place as any’ were Roger’s fateful words. I happily agreed, but we would both be proved wrong very shortly. We opted for a few rows back, knowing with a stacked field we weren’t even second row material. The problem was we also opted to be over to the right hand side of the start. What neither of us knew was the surfers would be funnelling us over to the left of an orange buoy a bit further out.

So when the cannon fired and the race started I set off and at first was unsurprised by the bashing I received. Once we started getting pushed over left things became really cramped. Each marker buoy was a nightmare to get through. Everyone crushed together and there was no clear water. You weren’t so much swimming as scrambling over people.

Like my experience in Ironman Australia earlier this year I looked around me and couldn’t see any way to break free the crowding was too dense to all sides. It continued on near enough every buoy to the turn around. I can’t blame it entirely, but it certainly didn’t help me. Hawaii has to be the roughest mass start swim I’ve done.

Hitting the beach and seeing 1:09 on the clock I wasn’t entirely surprised. I think being prepared for that helped keep my head in order as I got ready for the bike. Transition involves quite a bit of running, but I got through it at an orderly pace and was soon mounting up.

Bike

The bike course starts with a little out-and-back in town. It’s got a bit of climbing in, nothing too extreme. The main thing you’ll see is everyone hammers it! Look at the splits for bikes in the athlete tracker. I’d say pacing was a strength of mine, but even I went harder than I should!

That said I didn’t go overboard and held back as people went past. Despite knowing my swim had me well back in the field a long day lay ahead of me. My legs ached, particularly below the knee, down the sides. I wondered if this related to how tight these regions are when massaged or given ART. Perhaps something to look at in the future – whether some focussed stretching could ease this.

The first hour or so felt terrible though, I kept reminding myself I usually pick up as the race goes on. Easy to say, but I really wanted to see something happen. I kept pushing and kept focussed on keeping the heart rate where I wanted. I was also slowly reeling in more and more competitors so things weren’t that bad.

I started to feel a bit better around the halfway mark. It took a while to come, but as I climbed up to Hawi my legs felt good. Come the turn around and the fast descent I knew now was when I’d see the results of sticking to my pacing strategy. Somewhere around this point I encounter Jo and also Nick Rose. I was pleased to see Jo was going well. Both asked me what I was doing back there! I have to apologise to Nick as I was a little snappy with him at that point.

Turning back onto the Queen K it was straight into a relentless head wind. Whilst most people struggled for me the lights had come on and I just pushed. I ground out a big gear for the next couple of hours to bring it home. If you look at my splits I manage my highest average speed in these sections! Compared to many where the times start dropping off. I was pretty pleased with how the ride finished and pushed to try and get under 5:15.

I missed by 21 seconds! But good enough and I was in T2 in under 6:30 so in theory the sub-10 was on. I didn’t overly rush T2, but without too much to do there it didn’t take too long either. One disadvantage with compression socks is removing the chip to put back on over them, especially when you’ve safety pinned them as advised! So maybe it could have been a little quicker.

Run

The first mile clicked by way too fast so I tried to settle into a more reasonable pace. After a couple more miles Roger caught up with me and we chatted and knocked off 7:15 minute miles for a while. I wasn’t feeling my best even though the pace was far from hard and eventually in one aid station I let Roger take a small lead.

It soon grew and I wasn’t feeling up to closing it. He held back a little and kept checking for me which at that point just irritated me! Eventually realising I wasn’t going to be joining him he got on with things. I continued my low patch for about three miles then suddenly around the seven or eight mile mark I felt great again. I was excited to be racing here in Kona and couldn’t wait to experience the Queen K!

I passed Steven walking an aid station and was a little shocked at how quickly I’d caught him. I’d seen him going the other way and he’d looked pretty good. He tells me this was shortly before he started getting his cramp issues and really suffering. I’m glad I didn’t catch him at that point. I’d also seen Jo on the run and the way she was going at that point I thought she’d catch me for sure.

Up Palani and it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared! Then onto the Queen K. At first it was great, but soon the heat started to get to me. I wasn’t really that interested in my gels anymore, but forced a bit down every so often. I switched to using more Gatorade at aid stations. In fact taking on plenty of fluids and ice. Aid stations became less about nutrition and more about keeping cool.

The energy lab seemed a long way to go. Though at least there was the boost of seeing the pros coming the other way. Some of them looked fantastic. Crowie was dominating over a tight male field. Chrissie was smiling as usual and near enough in a separate race to the other women. It was great to see Rachel well up there too.

The Natural Energy Lab is as nasty as they say a hot descent followed by the climb back out again. The main thing driving me on was the knowledge it was the last real climbing I’d have to do. An American guy caught up with me near the top and we ran together from that point on. His goal was sub-10 like mine and we helped each other towards it. As the miles clicked over I’d work out the pace needed to break ten hours. It didn’t take long to ensure we’d make it.

Perceived effort was way up, but funnily the result was basically the same splits I’d been seeing early in the race. The speed I’d seen elsewhere wasn’t coming. That said we were claiming plenty of places. It was a true war of attrition now, all about who slowed the least. We went through aid stations doing our best to take in a little bit of energy from Gatorade, but to keep cool. Attentiveness varied and one aid station saw me chuck Gatorade over my head drop a cup of ice, swear in front of the kids handing it out then swear in apology!

There was no slowing though. I pushed hard up the ‘little’ rise to the top of Palani. Except it’s not so little once you’re on it and by the top I was gone. My running partner dropped me and I just pushed as hard as I could. Not as strong as I’d hoped, but enough to grab ten or more places in that last mile. A spectator yelled I should be smiling as I made the final approach up Ali’i Drive. I tried, but at that point I was working flat out to get the best time I could.

Over the Line

There was the line. It was all over. Once final push and I was done in 9:47:30. My first time in Kona and comfortably under 10 hours! Leanda Cave finished just in front of me and clearly in a very bad way. We were helped through to the recovery area where I caught up with Roger. Turns out I’d held the gap at about a minute the whole of the race! We were both pretty pleased overall though Roger hadn’t quite made the podium like he’d hoped. Still good days all round.

Plenty of pizza and ice cream was then consumed. A quick chat with Bevan and John which turned into an interview for the IM Talk podcast, go check it out. Then I quickly checked out the bike and took advantage of the closeness of my hotel to go get a real shower before heading to Splashers for an obscenely large burger and lots of fluids.

Yes I tried Volcano ice cream and yes it was as good as Steven had promised. I spent the evening alternating between eating and drinking and feeling sick with how full I was! The plus side was I was fully hydrated by the time I got home and felt pretty good for it. Getting that well rehydrated does a lot to speed up recovery for sure. Before I got back to the hotel we watched the last finishers home and the fire dancers and closing song. It was a great finish to a great day.

A very quick post just to say I’m done and hit my goal. I crossed the line in 9:47:30! All this despite a shocker of a swim. I chose my start very poorly. I took ages to warm up on the bike, but was good once I did. The new position works very well. As for the run, I felt I needed more rest, never had quite the zip I’d expect. All the whinging done it was a fantastic day and I’m very happy with the result!

I’m off out to indulge myself in all the stuff I normal deny!

Thanks to the ability to schedule publication of post this may well go up whilst I’m in the final minutes before the race begins. What you read here will be what I plan to do after the gun goes off. Then only time will tell how well I follow this plan or how well it works. For those who want to check what’s happening you can follow me on the Athlete Tracker at ironman.com. Race number is 1492.

This is going to be brief I’m afraid. There’s nothing really grand in the plan, I’ll be building on what I’ve done in the past. Besides right now I’d rather be relaxing!

Swim

Even now I’m not 100% sure what to do. There are far more strong swimmers here than in other races so I’ll place myself a bit further back. I’m thinking I’ll opt for the centre and see what comes. Hopefully most people looking to avoid the melee will head to the sides and the middle will be empty! I’ll be in my swimskin and I think that helps a little even if it’s psychological.

Plan is to keep focussed and working throughout the swim. Be aware of my breathing and ensure I don’t go too hard in the excitement though. Generally rely on my ability to build into a good pace and then draft as much as I can. Time goals? I really don’t know, hopefully around 1:05 or better! Should be able to go under 1:10 for sure really. We shall see on the day.

Bike

What’s going to be different here is how many people will already be out on the road. I need to use this to help keep me pushing. There’s plenty to pass during the day. That said I have to stick to my smart pacing plan. I know the sort of heart rate I work at and hopefully I’m acclimatised enough that heat will be less of an issue. I’ll focus on that mid-130s to low 140s heart rate and keeping a strong effort in my legs.

The aim is to build into it, not go out too hard. Use the early town stage to settle into things and get comfortable. Then as the legs come round and I know they always do start to push some more. Hopefully I can move through the field and make some real gains here. Time goals are simple, try and break 5:30 with transition included. Nutrition is the usual combination of a few Mule bars, a bottle of High 5 gels and water from aid stations. Given heat and humidity I’m very aware of the need for hydration too.

Run

This should be where I’m in my element! Now’s when I hope to really move through the field. Heat and humidity are factors so I just need to stick to a sensible pacing strategy going by feel. The goal is to be running somewhere around 7:10 to 7:15 miles. If I can get close to that as my comfortable starting pace then I am looking at a potential 3:10 marathon again.

Somewhere around the turn around at the energy lab I’ll start thinking about pushing things. The aim is to try to get there in shape to pick up the pace for the last 10km once again. If things go well I’ll finish the run strongly yet again. My last couple of runs have been good confidence boosters for sure, but I’m aware of the heat.

Nutrition will be from two bottles of High 5 gels in my pockets and primarily water at aid stations. Hopefully this will work as well as it has done in the past couple of races. I’ll take on gels from early in the run as I come to aid stations. Once I’m into the final 10km and hopefully going harder I’l stop taking nutrition and stick to fluids.

Time goals? I’m hoping with transition this will be under 3:15.

Add those all up and I’m ambitiously aiming to go under 10 hours in my first time in Kona. I’l stress once more that the aim is to enjoy the day and to experience this race. Finishing Kona is the first priority. That said with the amount of work I’ve put in and my experience of racing I should know what I’m doing and set myself targets.

Next time I post it’ll be with the results. Thanks to everyone who’s sent messages of support I hope to deliver a great race!

Two days rolled into one as the amount of lounging in my hotel room I’ve done lately makes for a much shorter blog. We’re almost there now!

Day Eleven – Relaxing at Last

So this morning’s swim was my first time in my PointZero3+ swimskin. Fortunately it doesn’t take quite as long to put on when you’re not hot and sweaty. It’s still damn tight and a fair job to get on. Despite the struggles I think it was worth it. I had a great swim on the way out to the usual shipping buoy. Felt really good and think I got there quicker than usual. Suit or tide? I don’t know if I could say, but I’m happy to have it for the race. Thanks again to My Sporting Times and Blueseventy for sorting it all out for me.

A brief chat with a bloke from Melbourne and then I headed back in for shore. Skipped the Coffee of Hawaii boat this morning to avoid having to cross the heavy flow of triathlete traffic. Swimming early once again ensured I avoided the worst of the queues for the showers and changing rooms. I hung around waiting for Roger and Steven to turn up. It turns out they’d spent an extra half hour out there with a large pod of dolphins! Somehow I manage to miss all the wildlife!

I didn’t miss the Underpants run though. Not that I participated, maybe next time. A whole bunch of triathletes running about in underwear (so not that different to usual) and these days compression socks. Quite a sight and all part of the race build up these days. Seems to go down well with the locals too.

Breakfast and coffee at Splashers and then I headed back over to the ART tent to get some more massage. I thought I’d see if I could get them to do a bit more work on my leg and maybe on my shoulder too. For a free service they were incredibly accommodating and I spent an hour receiving treatment. After two sessions I’m liking ART a lot, it does seem to be quite effective. Unfortunately it’s not something I’ve encountered outside of this Ironman. From what my masseur told me it hasn’t expanded much outside of the US yet.

I got him to work on my calves and hamstrings which always seem to be tight. With more discussion and as he checked my muscles I ended up having ITBs, shins, feet and ankles done too. Then another guy worked on my right shoulder which is always a little bit tighter and can sometimes click. It was quite relaxing and seemed to ease off some of the tightness. Then a slow walk back to my hotel room to relax for a while.

The only time I left the room for most of the day was to pop up to the supermarket to rece items for race day breakfast and to pick up the obligatory chicken. It’s become such a staple of my diet now. I can see myself living on chicken breasts and salad for the next year! Worryingly my credit card was rejected. Hopefully just a one off I’m starting to get low on cash out here and trying to avoid drawing more dollars. Kona isn’t the cheapest trip in the world it has to be said, but so far it’s been worth it.

I was really taking my relaxation seriously today so after lunch I dozed for a while and listened to a few podcasts. Then decided it was time to get ahead of the game on setting up my bike and equipment. It’s all set and race ready now. Race tyres and tubes – Michellin Pro Race 3 with latex inners. Checked all the gears on the Zipp rear wheel cassette and they seem good. Bike labels on, saddle bag packed up, hand pump removed and I think I’m good. Typing this I just remembered I do need to adjust the display options for the Garmin!

Being a little bit OCD at times I’ve also laid out my race day bags and piled the items I’ll likely need in each one or at each stage on them. What this should mean is tomorrow once I’ve done my swim and test ride and similar I’ll not need to do anything more to get ready. It’ll be a case of more lying about, a little bit of food shopping and some sleep I think. If I learnt anything from Wednesday it’s keep myself off my feet now.

The day went by pretty quick until it was time for the Opening Banquet. Just over the road from our hotel conveniently. We headed over early, easily got seats and got straight in at the buffet. A couple of very paleo plates later and I was stuffed! The show was pretty good with lots of displays of traditional dances. Followed by a mix of Ironman event stuff. The new race at Regensburg looks very good. Seeing Brit Philip Graves up there as the youngest competitor was great too. I don’t think too many realise that the UK is a slow course so a winning time of 8:45 was pretty impressive.

The ceremony finished and a mercifully brief if not particularly informative race briefing followed. They sped through details about the entire race, but there was really little over and above what was in the booklets. I was pretty tired by then and glad to head back to the hotel and bed.

Day Twelve – Racking

The last day of preparation and I started off efficiently getting myself down to the swim and in the water by 6:30. I headed out to the half mile marker and back swimming nice and easily. Then it was a quick change and off to the ART tent once more. A good session on my legs where I was reassured that they were feeling better than the day before. All I can say is hopefully they’ll be better still tomorrow!

Then it was time for the final relaxed breakfast at Splashers. All the usuals and a chance to chill out before racing tomorrow. I’m pleased to say that relaxing made up most of the day again. I headed back to the hotel and lazed for a short while before heading out for a final check of the bike. Twenty minutes of easy riding later and that was done. It was on with the race shoes for an even shorter run. Ten minutes later and I’m happy that a) my legs are working fine and b) my shoes still feel comfortable.

All done I cleaned up and laid out my race stuff all ready for check in later that afternoon. These things always take far less time than you imagine so I really had little to do! If anyone wonders why I’m so active on Facebook or Twitter, there’s why. I popped to the supermarket to sort out race day brekkie. I’ll be going for a bagel with some cheese, jam and a bit of chicken. Probably a powerbar too. That should be plenty to keep me going, especially with a top up of a gel or two before the swim.

One advantage of my hotel location is tomorrow morning I can get up, eat, get the basics ready and head over for body marking/transition set-up. That shouldn’t take too long to do and then I’m back to the hotel to lie down for an hour and rest/doze (with an alarm set of course!) Then I can do final checks and stuff before heading to the pier for the swim start. All very relaxed and easy. Hopefully!

With check-in looming I headed down a little early and was surprised at how there was no queue. I walked straight in through the checks and then had a personal guide for my racking. It’s all really well organised and my bike was soon in place along with my two bags. I did a last check that everything was in them that I needed. It all seems too simple! You have to convince yourself you’ve got all you need.

I went for a little wander at this point to get some bodyglide to minimise the swimskin induced chafing tomorrow and to treat myself to a nice Vanilla Macadmaia Nut Coffee. Once more the coffee came with an enquiry about whether I wanted a tattoo or not! Then it was back to the hotel to put my feet up for thirty minutes before an early dinner.

Dinner is done and the evening is coming. It’s still early, but I’ll start thinking about bed shortly. Hoping for a good night’s sleep so I’m well rested for race day. It’s hard to believe it’s finally here. All the work to get here and just one more night. In roughly twelve hours time things will be kicking off. I’ll give it the best shot I can and see what happens. As my first time more than anything I want to finish and enjoy the day. On the way to that I’ll race as hard as I can!

Today has been hugely frustrating. OK perhaps hugely is an exaggeration, but it’s fair to say I don’t feel like I really followed the plan well. Paleo man discovered some non-paleo foods on a couple of occasions and too much time was spent wasting energy on my feet. So I finish off the day starting the blog report less chilled than I want to be. Tomorrow my aim is to be totally relaxed outside of training. Not that I plan too much training now.

If you’ve been following the blog you can guess how the day started. Early of course, in fact too early as I woke at 4am! Would have liked a bit more sleep than that, but found I wasn’t going to get off again so gave up trying. Had to wait till five before the hotel coffee as available though. Still the early hours provide some time to get on with bits and pieces for the day ahead.

Once it hit 6:30 I headed down to get in the water ahead of the crowds. Makes things a little easier as I discovered on my return. Douglas and Roger were there and we met at various points on the swim. I also bumped into Bevan and John from IM Talk and Epic Camp. They were headed out to the Coffees of Hawaii boat for the morning and had to dash. At my usual turn around buoy I met up with Douglas once more and we agreed to swim in. He then shot off like a rocket! When I caught up with him for an espresso at the boat he put it down to his swim squad. Certainly seems to have worked.

I managed to get back in in time to miss the major queues for the showers and changing rooms. I’m noting this one for tomorrow because it’ll be a long wait otherwise! Once I was changed I headed over for some free ART massage to see if it’d help with my twitchy left calf. Never experienced ART before and have to say I was impressed. It involves the recipient a lot more than most massages and seemed to effectively ease some of my discomfort. I’m planning to return with a list of areas to look over before race day!

Then, of course, breakfast at Splashers where I had my usual and lots of coffee too. After a bit of relaxation and a chat I headed off to check out the Expo. It was in many respects a disappointment. In the bike section there didn’t seem that much interest in talking with me or selling their stuff. I admired a few bikes from Look, Specialised and Quintana Roo. I also got to see some of the lovely 3T bars up close, though the lack of interest of their reps was remarkable!

I’m largely pleased that there was little or nothing to tempt me into spending money I don’t have! I think enough is being spent on this trip without more merchandise or unnecessary equipment. Of course the Ironman mattress is very tempting though! Worse was the temptation of trying Erin Baker’s Granola – not Paleo at all, but I had some. Then there’s all the carbs in the sample Powerbar Bites I scoffed at their stand. They are delicious, but just because they have Powerbar on them doesn’t stop them being a sweet!

Walking and standing in the heat of the day wastes a lot of energy and when we went for a coffee at Lava Java tiredness caught up with me a little. I headed home after a while to eat a more Paleo lunch and rest up a bit prior to a short ride. Not sure how much rest I really got, but another half a chicken got consumed.

I got myself in gear and out onto the Queen K to test the bike position out. Frustratingly my powermeter seems to have died, probably the batteries, but I put fresh ones in only a month ago. Sure I ride a lot, but not enough to wear down the batteries that quick. I was aiming to mostly ride easy and with a headwind out of town I wasn’t going too fast. Still my legs felt far more sore than my last ride and I just didn’t feel great. On the other hand when I was tempted to push they responded and it worked. Sure they felt poor, but they could push a gear at will.

The position seems good though I’m still nervous about something new this close to the big day. I would describe it as solid. I feel like I’m more firmly placed on the bike and have to move about less. The aerobars are supporting me better and hopefully that will be easier on the back and make me more efficient.

I turned at the airport about 13km out of town. Some cops were there at what looked like a bike accident. Sort of puts sore legs into perspective. With a tailwind behind me and a brief break for the turn I felt much better and tried pushing my biggest gear hard for a while. Remembering today was about easy training I sat up and eased off only to have a Cervelo P3 come by. Something about the look of the guy tempted me to get back on the bars and push past. I couldn’t resist and did a mile at nearly race pace to drop him!

Ideally once home I’d have chilled out, downloaded my data and put my feet up. Unfortunately the data was missing thanks to the powertap so I won’t be having precise numbers for the rest of this taper! At least it’s almost over so I’m not losing much. As for putting the feet up I had to head to the blueseventy house for the Slowtwitch party where I’d get to collect my skinsuit.

It was a great house just placed way at the top of some hills. So after a 15 minute climb on the bike I was soaking with sweat and had to take a dip in the pool. The party was pretty cool though once again Paleo man discovered some distinctly non-paleo foods. I decided to write off the day as ‘carbo-loading’ the next two will be focussed and good for sure. My carbs will largely come from strict Paleo sources!

I met up with Dean and Guy from blueseventy. They’re both really friendly guys and thanks to my friends at the blueseventy lake in Reading I had a new PointZero3+ Kona suit put aside for me! It’s the very latest model and had literally just arrived for the race so I’m really grateful to blueseventy and the guys at the lake for arranging that for me. I can’t wait to test it out in the race.

I chatted with a few people at the party though not being a prolific Slowtwitcher was far rom familiar with everyone. Ian Osborne and Emma-Kate Lidbury turned up later on so I got to catch up on how things were going for them. We discussed our experiences of the heat and humidity, the building race atmosphere and excitement and how some of the Brits will do.

With a dinner appointment to keep with Roger I had to dash off as soon as the prize draw was done and I’d got my suit. At least it was downhill all the way to Bongo Ben’s! More chicken in a salad and back to Paleo again. Roger needed to call into Cycle Station to check what was happening with his bike. He’s had terrible luck with a warranty issue in the bottom bracket occurring right before the race. It sounds like a nasty design flaw the way the mechanic described it. Whilst far from ideal he’s opting to ride it and hope it lasts the event.

Whilst waiting for the mechanic to turn up I had my last non-paleo moment in Lava Java. We had a couple of coffees and I couldn’t resist a chunk of Roger’s energy flapjack. It was pretty nice it has to be said! I justified it that one day won’t do that much harm this close to race day! Back to normal service tomorrow, hopefully with fresher legs to boot. I needed the pick me up I think after such a stressful day.

Back at the hotel I spent about 20 minutes squeezing into the new blueseventy suit. This one will definitely need help to do up. It’s a tight fit and hard to put on when sweaty in a room! I’ll be trying it out tomorrow to see what difference it makes. I’m hoping some of the performance benefits others have claimed will come my way! Even 1 second per 100m works out at 38 seconds saved!

There’s no denying that the race is upon us. Once you’re tagged up and have your race numbers that’s it there’s not long to go. My calendar seems increasingly busy. Not training which is pleasantly light, but there’s still plenty to do. Of course I’m counting the obligatory long breakfasts and coffee stops in there, but things are hectic! You have to make sure you allow yourself time to chill.

The usual early morning start to the day with a trip down to the pier for a swim. Pleasingly it felt so much better than the last couple of days. The gentle splash I went for the day before must have been good for me. Even getting in early is busy now though. You have to be particularly careful on your return to avoid crashes.

The Coffees of Hawaii boat was out for the first time too. Having had a good swim I felt it was appropriate to take a five minute diversion for a quick espresso. Sipping espresso in the ocean with a salty mouth is an interesting experience. Apparently there were dolphins out there, but yet again I failed to see them! A quick coffee before heading into shore seems a nice relaxing way to finish my swims over the next few days.

Breakfast was at Splashers once again. I’m already at the point where they know my order – a Meat Lover’s Omelete and plenty of coffee! We sat and chatted passing away an hour or two. The waitress has also learned that it’s best just to leave us our own jug of coffee it seems. When we finally dispersed registration had opened up. Despite knowing and being warned that there would be queues that’s where I headed.

It took a bit over thirty minutes to get through the registration process. I had been warned! But I like to get these things done and out the way. It help keeps me calm and in control in the build up to the race. It may not be the quickest thing to do, but the important thing is to stick to your own preferred routine. Clearly I’m not alone in preferring early rego! On the way out you get given two family passes to behind the Ironman finish line. Not needing mine I immediately gave away one to a German woman desperate to have both her parents and boyfriend there. I figure it’s worth building up some good Karma for Saturday.

So I’m officially in the race and tagged up. Coloured wrist bands denote our age groups this year. A response to the number of athletes (myself included) opting to use compression socks. After an initial plan to ban them it appears a hasty retreat was made and an alternative solution found.

I’d arranged more training with Roger. He’s been proving a useful ally in my final preparations. Today it was a case of a nice easy ride of the one part of the course I hadn’t done – the town section. I’m very glad I have now as I’m far more aware of the climbing and relative slowness of this part. It was a very gentle ride really, especially with all the downhill on the way back. Pleasingly by the end of it I was starting to feel pretty good. Positive signs prior to race day?

We transitioned into a run from my hotel room. Back out onto the Queen K for a couple of one mile intervals. So it was easy out there and then a hard, hard effort between the handy mile markers. My legs were feeling pretty good at least on the easy bits. The first interval didn’t feel that great, but then they never do! The second felt better. I jogged back to the hotel feeling boosted from two good sessions. Signs are there that the taper is coming together.

Interestingly on the running I’ve ended up doing less than in my taper plan. Partly because some sessions have put more training stress in the system. Also a response to how I felt. I followed my head rather than the numbers and backed off to try to regain the freshness. The question now is whether much further short, easy running is of any real benefit to me. Or am I better off keeping resting the legs?

I didn’t have much time for recovery. Instead dashing out with Roger to grab lunch before our respective appointments. Roger took me to a small cafe he’d found. The chicken salad there proved slow to come and tiny! I was still hungry afterwards! I have to say that when Roger has told me he finds it hard to have enough energy for some workouts following the paleo diet I think it might be portion size! He thought it was pretty reasonable!

I cycled off to have my bike fit appointment with the guys from Retul. The system uses a bunch of sensors stuck to your body to track your position in space. It makes for a very quick bike fitting process and a very dynamic one. The guys could immediately track my body angles throughout my spin and make corrections. In less than an hour some minor adjustments to my bike were suggested and also enough data was collected to recommend TT frames if I wanted.

I wasn’t too pleased to hear I would fit well on a Look 596. I don’t have the money for one much as I’d love it! I was pleased that my fit had basically been OK though the saddle was a little low. They recommended I move it up one centimetre and forward the same for an ITU style position. For a road position I would need to drop it back a little further. We went ahead and made the change.

I have to admit that on the trainer there and on the 10km ride home (turns out they were further out than I thought!) it did feel comfortable. It should improve my efficiency somewhat. I did notice my hips felt far more stale and balanced. Also resting on the aerobars was more comfortable I had my weight more firmly on them and less on my core. You don’t need to tell me the risks of changing position right before a race though! In fact they themselves admitted they advise a month of riding before you race a new position. I aim to trial it over the next two days and make the call before bike check-in on Friday.

Having had such an inadequate lunch it was a quick dash out to the supermarket to buy another chicken. Once again I ate half, saving the rest for the next day. This race is heavily fuelled by chicken! Some food and relaxation and then down to the King K to join the Parade of Nations.

I bumped into Rachel Joyce and we hunted down the UK section together. Way there at the back. Tri UK had provided Team GB T Shirts and goody bags for us all. Pretty decent quality shirt too, little larger than I go for, but not to complain about in my case. The parade itself was good fun. Ian Osborne and Phillip Graves led us in a couple of cars. They threw out sweets to the people lining the streets. It was fun and whilst the streets may not have been crowded everyone got into the spirit of things. It’s good to do something like this that the locals can enjoy after we place so many demands on them.

Rather than fight in the expo we all headed straight off for dinner afterwards. Admittedly we did take the time to tast the hairy Maltesers Roger told us Powerbar had. They were pretty nice. Some kind of protein/recovery snack, but tasty. Tried a couple, but didn’t want to spoil my appetite for salad later! More chicken of course and finished the evening with another coffee at Kope Lani.

All in all a good day. Some confidence building sessions, some help in setting up the bike with the potential for long term rewards and a bit of relaxation. It’s not long to go now and mostly I just want as little stress as possible.

If it seemed busy last week then sometime around the weekend things really started to pick up. From what I understand there’s probably more to come too! You’re starting to get crowds of Triathletes forming all over the place. The odd topless runner showing off his physique down Ali’i Drive has now become a regular stream. I have to keep reminding myself I earned my place here and fit in. I could run topless down Ali’i Drive at close to race pace if I really wanted. Sensibly I just choose not to.

Day Seven – Meat Day

My final planned swim of the full course. After today I’ll stick to the daily swim routine, but keep things to the shorter distances. As usual I’m up early. I prefer it this way, come race day it won’t be a shock to the system when I have to get up at four! It proves to be good quiet time to sit, relax and get on with these blog posts.

The swim itself went pretty well. A big reassurance after the tough battle the first time I did it. Calm conditions out there definitely made a big difference. Whilst Steven and Martin stormed off ahead I swam with Roger sticking on his feet for most of the second quarter. I’d like to put that down to his speedsuit and me just in my popular Hawaiian style speedos! To be honest though Roger is going pretty well in the water. We reached the turn around in a surprising and pleasing 33 minutes. My reaction was that it meant we’d be in for the buffet brekkie by eight!

The swim back proved a little tougher. I’m happy because I actually managed to sight the whole route back spot on. No detours to the shoreline hotels for me this time. In fact as I saw Roger go increasingly off to the left of my target I decided it was time to strike out on my own. The return journey becomes a bit of a mental slog after a while, you keep checking and everything still seems so far. But if you want it to end you have to keep going, especially with a large breakfast waiting at the end.

I got out the water a little ahead of Roger thanks to my straight line to the shore versus his detour. Also I think I tend to swim more strongly in the second half of the swim anyway. Something I need to look into is good swim warm-up techniques to help get me going from the gun. Bit of research for the next few days I think.

We headed to Bongo Ben’s for breakfast as it promised an all-you-can-eat buffet. A dangerous thing! It proved to be excellent especially for those on the paleo diet. Plenty of proteins to choose from. I stuffed myself on about two and a half plates of meat and eggs! Admittedly this decision would come back to haunt me later in the day, but I didn’t need another meal till the evening.

Loaded down by meat I returned to the hotel to digest and recover in time for a planned ‘long’ run with Roger. Fortunately the definition of long shortens as the race gets nearer. What was more important was the direction. We were going to run out a little on the Queen K to experience that prior to the race.

Now whilst I had managed to mostly digest my brekkie by the middle of the day my stomach was still a little unsettled. However a 45 minute run should be in its capacity. I was glad Roger didn’t want to run up Palani Road and was happy to take the slightly easier route to the Queen K. I’ve yet to run up that hill, but it’s on the to-do list for the next two days. Good to have some idea of how things will feel before race day I think. However painful that may be!

It was hot out there, really hot. Having run Ali’i Drive the Queen K is a different experience. You’ll be a little over 10 miles (16km) into the run when you reach it and there’s no shelter. It just seems to trap the heat and sun so you slowly bake. Despite the short time out there I caught the sun on my shoulders surprisingly quickly. I’m glad I headed out there and for my last run over twenty minutes that’s where I’ll be heading once more.

Roger runs at a solid pace and proved good motivation to keep me going well. This was despite having incredibly sore legs whenever I ran of late. Towards the end stomach cramps started to slow me down a little and I was greatly relieved when he proposed turning round! I was more relieved a little later when he allowed a walk break for my stomach to settle! I resolved no more buffet breakfasts till after the race at that point.

I was most relieved to get back to the hotel though. The heat and the stomach issues had left me in a fair state. If I couldn’t pin it on the breakfast I’d be a lot more concerned. As it was whilst I’m happy to believe I just had a lot going on in my stomach I want to get back on the Queen K again. Hopefully with legs feeling fresher and ready to go.

With the scheduled workouts in the bag the rest of the day was mine. I chilled out meeting up with a friend, Greer. I met her when I trained with Toby down in Geelong. She’s good fun and a great athlete whatever she may claim in person! We relaxed and chatted over coffees at Kope Lani. Even did a little bit of shopping that afternoon, picking up a couple of excellent shark based designs at Crazy Shirts. Got given a points card I have no hope of ever completing!

The usual early dinner was the only other time I ate that day. I could still feel the effects of breakfast lingering in my stomach. Take my advice and set yourself a two plate limit at the breakfast buffets! A salad at the Canoe Club with the guys, watching the sun set…

Day Eight – Merchandise, Michellie and Massage

There’s no doubt today that the race is in town (if the sponsors banners on every tree hadn’t given it away). Gatorade had a bag drop off point setup for the expected hoards of swimmers. I’d recommend getting to the swim early. It’s much quieter at 6:30 than at 7:00 and at least you can start with some clear water.

Whilst Roger had plans to go with how he felt I was determined to have an easy swim. I was going for 30 minutes exactly, nothing more. I let him head off with Jo on his heals. After loitering on the beach for a while I splashed off out towards the orange buoys. It wasn’t a great swim, I think having made the mental switch to go easy I just wasn’t ging to push anything at all. Even so it was pleasant to be in the water and I enjoyed going out there without a sense of pressure to train. It’d be back to normal the next day of course.

On the pier I bumped into Douglas from Epic Camp. I’d seen him briefly the day before, but today he joined us for breakfast at Splashers. It was great to catch up and share stories from past camps and everything else since. Douglas was the first to make comments about my past weight in his usual blunt way. So I was happy to turn up 90% of the man I’d been at the last Epic Camp!

Unfortunately I had to dash off to get my bike into Bike Works and see if they could sort out the issue with the bottom bracket. Glad I booked it in a few days earlier as it ensured the work would get done on my off day. With the bike in their hands it was back to see the event merchandising. To be blunt – there’s a lot of ugly merchandise out there. I’m sure it will all sell, but not much to me. In fact I think I spent more on stuff for others than for myself! Whether it’s appropriate for them to wear the gear when they weren’t here has been debated.

A brief encounter with Ian Osborne and Emma-Kate Lidbury in the store was a nice surprise. I’d met them in Lanzarote where they got to watch me have a terrible race! Today I got to hear stories of luggage nightmares as US Military personnel bumped lots of baggage off flights. Hopefully their stuff will have turned up and we’ll have a better chance to talk at the Parade of Nations. Since I last met them it seems Ian has picked up a fantastic job as editor of Triathlete Europe magazine. Fantastic, except he tells me it leaves him no time to train!

Another Training Peaks/WKO+ tutorial with Roger followed all held over some fantastic brewed Kona coffee. Not the usual place, I’ll have to find the name of this one. The Vanilla Macadamia Nut Medium Roast is amazing. When you order you will get pitched on whether you want to take some coffee home or want a tattoo!

After a half-a-chicken lunch (I’m planning to work out how many chickens died in the making of my Kona race!) it was off for another massage from Junko. I was really looking forward to this as she did such great work last time.

I arrived just as she finished with Michellie Jones! After taking pictures of Michellie and Junko together for each of them I thought I should get in and have mine with Michellie too! I wished her luck and then relaxed on the table for an hour of clearing the muscles out. Junko worked me over as hard as last time, but I was pleased that the overall result wasn’t as sore as before. In fact I felt reasonably good. Could my legs be coming back to me? Check out their Facebook page and if you’re ever in Kona and in need of massage look her up.

To finish my day I just had to pick up the bike and then head over to Maryka’s for a barbie. I’m pleased to say that for $28 I now no longer have a creaky bottom bracket and feel much happier for it!. I rode over to Maryka’s apartment down Ali’i Drive where her and her partner Jim put on a superb dinner. Plenty of food even for a fussy Paleo guy like me! I ate a few more chunks of chicken!

We had some really interesting discussion about diet. The reliance on carbs that predominates not only in society, but also amongst athletes. Whilst you need more to be able to train, there almost seems to be an addiction to them and getting as many as you can. Then more discussion about race strategies, tactics and power. Approaches to racing and how we see ourselves developing as athletes. All good stuff and interesting to properly chat about it after we’e had brief exchanges by email or Twitter.

Being athletes the night ended fairly early of course. I need my beauty sleep after all and had a swim to be up for in the morning.

As a break to allow me to gather a few more photos for another Kona update it’s time to look back at the final build week in preparation for the race. I’ll freely admit my taper probably doesn’t look much like a taper to most people, but it is genuinely cutting back. Week five was a last chance to do a bit of work before contemplating freshening up for race day. Something I’m really contemplating now!

It’s actually pretty hard to really look back when your race is less than a week away, but for the sake of completeness it needs to be done. I’m going to consider just a couple of charts and keep things pretty simple.

Having had what felt like a pretty easy period in week 4, never quite feeling strong it was time to put one last bit of hard work in. More of everything was the goal essentially and none of it too easy! I went some way to achieving this, but the toll of training up till then was a slight limiter. My impression of the week was that my ability to do steady work had returned and the pacing and power for this was good. I still seemed to be lacking at the really hard efforts though.

Good old Power: Heart Rate

Despite seriously questioning the value of this, at least with general training data as opposed to key session or race data, here’s one last visit before the race.

Well it does confirm I was not doing much in terms of harder efforts with power tailing off somewhat once above my race heart rate zone. What is a positive sign is how high the average powers are for the region at or below the zone. If I want to be optimistic and draw something from this I seem to have increased my ability to generate power at lower heart rates over the past month.

Certainly that’s the aim of training so I have to be pleased with that to the greater extent I think. I do have caveats about how much I trust the data for any given week, but this isn’t the time to show doubts. I’m riding better for my month of training and that’s the main thing. I now need to see this translate into a more solid race.

I’ll be interested to add in data from my taper in the coming weeks as my perception out here in Kona is that my heart rate has been much higher. An unsurprising result of the heat, humidity and acclimatisation process for sure. How this will translate to race performance is an interesting question. I’ll come back to this when I post up the race plan. Yes, there will be a race plan.

Power Distributions

A new candy coloured chart for your consideration! This time looking at the percentage of time spent at different powers. Don’t focus on the (low!) numbers too much, but more the shape of the bell curves represented by each week.

What really stands out is the yellow week three. My time in the Pyrenees unsurprisingly skewing things to higher powers. You don’t have much choice, but to work harder in that sort of environment. There’s a lesson in there about the benefits of the right training environment or partners. However this is a quick analysis today so we’ll come back to this in the future.

I was a little surprised to see that week five is not as skewed right as I imagined. It looks like whilst I’m certainly spending a lot less time in the lowest power regions I was falling into some middle ground quite a lot. I guess this really does represent the steady work I was doing as opposed to the hard work I was hoping for. If anything I’m more surprised to see the bars for week four and how much better that was than I recall.

I have to be fair and say I can remember some quite unmotivated rides in the fifth week where I mentally struggled to keep things going along. This bar chart doesn’t hide that fact from me. My rides were at best average with enough bursts of higher powers usually when I dragged myself up a hill!

I think I was less disappointed and more relieved to get the week done and it did end with a fizzle. I skipped a swim and broke my perfect run of daily runs at 32! Yes I did manage the thirty runs of at least thirty minutes in thirty days. I just couldn’t face running very early Sunday morning before my flight. The cold air versus the hot Hawaiian conditions held no appeal! Still my Saturday ride was pretty strong and more of a return to form. The kind of ride to give a little confidence!

When I come to look at it later the data for my taper will be quite interesting to compare to this. I’ve sampled it a little right now and it certainly gives me something to think about. Add to that the conversations and ideas shared this past week and I’ve plenty of ideas for the future. However I’ll leave this for now so we can get back to enjoying sights and stories from Kona next time!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been out here a whole week. Time really has flown. I’ve settled into a comfortable routine by and large and everything seems so natural now. Well, natural in a slightly odd triathlon-centric way! I’m really enjoying things though. Kona is a beautiful place to visit and you can add the slowly building excitement as race day looms. Less than a week now!

Day Four – EASY!!

After a few days of doing some pretty solid workouts for a taper (see my last post) finally a break. Of course the morning swim was obligatory so I was down there on the pier around 7am and out into the water. The shorter swim I mostly do is a round trip to the Coastguard Buoy just a little further than the halfway marker. It’s working out at about forty minutes of swimming at a comfortable pace.

I’m still being food obsessed so as usual the swim is occupied with thoughts of where we’ll be going for brekkie and what I’ll have. Lava Java again today, might as well make the most of it whilst the crowds are down. I’m told next week you’ll have to queue for a table and I’m not keen on waiting too long for my brekkie. The usual big omelette stacked with meat was followed up with a bowl of fruit. I’ll admit the food obsession is followed up with concerns I’ve leaned up too well!

It was nice relaxing with the guys over breakfast. No rush to get out on the bike or go for a run we just chilled and chatted.

When we finally dispersed I had a quick run to get in before the single appointment of the day. A massage from Junko based at the nearby gym. You never know what to expect from a new masseuse, but the pictures of her with the likes of Peter Reid or Chris McCormack were encouraging. As it was I had one of the best massages I’ve ever had! She’s incredibly skilled and honed in on my problem areas in no time. The work done on my hamstrings was fantastic! I had no hesitation in booking in a return visit for the Monday.

Then it was a very slow careful walk to the supermarket to stock up on food and buy my lunch of rotisserie chicken. Half a chicken and some fruit is getting to be a standard lunch for me!

Then it was a busy afternoon’s tutoring! Over breakfast I’d arrange to meet Roger Canham to help him out with Training Peaks. Roger is a friend of Steven’s, a very good athlete looking to place well in his age group. Whilst familiar to training with power he was new to WKO+. We killed a good few hours and a few cappuccinos going over all the details. I have to admit it’s a steep learning curve getting to grips with the software. I think another session is planned for sometime next week when we’ve both got more downtime.

Finally and most importantly I finished the day with my first decent night’s sleep. Perhaps the massage helped I certainly didn’t wear myself out through exercise! Either way I got some proper rest at last.

Day Five – Now that’s a headwind

You guessed it the day started at seven down by the pier. Once again it was time for the shorter swim out to the Coastguard Buoy and back. All combined with a little bit of celebrity spotting at the start and finish. A big, predominantly Aussie group set off to swim the course. Craig Alexander, Belinda Granger, Luke McKenzie and a few others. Sitting on the beach wall after the swim we got to see how much attention being the current World Champion brings you. Alexander was constantly being photographed.

Before swimming I also made a discovery. Banana nuun. I’d heard Nuun did a banana flavour and having found some the night before decided to give it a go. What can I say it doesn’t taste much of banana really. In fact it doesn’t taste much at all! It’s perfect for me no strong flavour means it’s easy to consume. Not like their attempt at a Kona Cola flavour, ugh.

After brekkie we headed out for a bike to the shop dead on 10am. Martin joined up with us as his bike had finally arrived after a trip back to Heathrow! Things started off pretty normally a little bit of wind in our faces, but nothing to talk of. I was happy to find my legs were starting to feel OK. After the first two days riding I was starting to worry. So along we rode not really pushing things. I’d mentally check off points of note along the Queen K and their distance in kilometres. The miles to kilometre conversion game being one of the strategies to keep me occupied out there!

Somewhere about 20km from the turn around point the wind in our faces became a gale. Now this ride was down as an easy ride and I anticipated some harder sections, but from then on it was work. There were times when my powermeter was easily reading my race wattage, but my speed was barely hitting the 16km/hr mark. That’s hard going! I settled in for a slow grind to the shop, at least it suited my low cadence riding even if it was harder work. Of course a headwind would mean a tailwind on the way back.

In the last 10km things got a little scarier the road turned and the wind started to cut across more from the side. Strong gusts threatened to push me into the road or off my bike. I was glad for the drops as an additional and more secure means of controlling things. I continued the grind with caution not wanting to end up under a truck. The final roll down to the shop had the worst moment when a gust pushed me to the white centre line and a car immediately overtook in the other lane. Close call!

No one rushed to head back into that wind. I was glad this wasn’t the Hawi ride, that would have been a killer! Once we did set off the benefits of a tailwind in that initial 10K were completely offset by the side gusts. I didn’t dare go as fast as I could in case of handling problems. On the other hand the sooner we got past those winds the sooner I’d be safe!

Once we were past them the kilometres flew by. A full on tailwind had me spinning out in my biggest gear, there was nothing I could do to go any faster. Great fun for the subsequent 10km. I realised this probably more than compensated for the harder work earlier and made my bike far easier than planned. It’d potentially be a lot shorter too. Then suddenly with about 25km to go the wind turned and was back in our faces and blowing at a fair rate too!

So a bit of work for the last stage home with a stop off in Bike Works on route. Impressive store and I added their tri kit to my growing collection of Hawaiian cycle kit. Also booked the bike in to see if they could find out what was causing my bottom bracket to routinely click and knock. Hopefully it’ll be quiet come race day!

Once I got back to the room it was time for food again. Yes, the obsession remains, but not the half a chicken in the fridge. I’m growing addicted to them, delicious and nice and paleo. An early dinner was planned over at Bongo Ben’s so as soon as the food had settled it was out for a short run. Heading away from Ali’i Drive so I could enjoy a nice relaxed easy paced run. I have to admit it was getting harder to keep getting on with the workouts. I’m really looking forward to chilling more in the next few days.

Day Six – Hammer Time!

Having had one good night’s sleep I was looking forward to another, enough that I went to bed at 9pm! Resulting in another great night’s sleep, but a real early start to the day. Personally I like it that way and with coffee in the lobby from five I can chill out before my swim. It was one of those mornings where I struggled to get myself going.

I dragged myself to the pier to discover Jo wasn’t at her keenest and Steven had decided to skip the swim. I set myself to the task of swimming to the usual buoy and back and just got on with it. Everyday I seem to be feeling better in the water. Sighting has become less of an issue and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable. Hopefully it bodes well. I don’t want to break the cycle with a day off now!

Afterwards it was a chilled out breakfast at Splashers and some chat before Roger and I agreed plans for a ride. I was going to use Roger to make me work a bit harder on the bike. My goal for the day was a solid session with some race pace and not too much easy. It looks like I made the right choice in ride partner as Roger likes to keep the pace going. What was a relief was on the way out I soon comfortably settled in to things. Faster than our previous rides out here with a slightly higher heart rate and power, but fine. It did make me think about how I could probably ride harder than I do a lot of the time.

With over 36km covered in the first hour and Roger wanting to go all the way to the shop I opted to turn early. My plan didn’t need as long a ride and I suspected with some decent efforts on the return journey I’d easily hit the training stress I wanted. First though I rode easy chatting with an older american guy I met. He was from Chicago and we discussed how tough the winds had been the day before.

The Queen K has handy mile markers on the return leg and I decided to use them to mark my efforts. With twenty miles to go I said goodbye and picked things up to race pace. The return leg had a solid headwind to make things a bit more challenging, but it was all good. The next five miles I hammered out roughly race wattage. Working the cranks, but also being careful not too blow myself on the climbs. It felt pretty good, tough, but with focus manageable.

A break of a couple of miles then I decided to have another session for the few miles leading to the airport. It’s one of my favourite course markers! Eight miles out from the town I know it’s not far to go at that point. So after a pretty strong cyclist blasted past me I set to work. Having someone to keep in sight even for a short while helped and I hammered out another solid effort to the airport.

There’s something about starting a ride at a decent pace that makes it hard to go slower later on. Even though my race efforts were done I kept a steady effort going all the way back into town and the hotel. It was a good ride, just what I need one week out from my race. My legs are feeling better everyday, at least on the bike. I now have some confidence that come race day I’ll be able to give it a good go.

After the half-chicken lunch I basically arsed about until I decided I was going to drop the planned run. My legs have felt sore the past couple of runs so I wanted to rest them and hopefully have a better run tomorrow for it. I said I’d go by feel as much as the numbers.

I wandered through some of the local shops looking for a new vest to wear, but so far no luck. I managed to pick up a new pair of Saucony Fastwitch 3s, but unfortunately not in my favourite bright orange! Discounted so much cheaper than home and with my current pair on the way out it was perfect timing. Also had a chat with the guys from Oomph. They provide kit for Epic Camp and it’s great stuff I just let them know they should do more patterned pieces for the guys! They were really friendly and it was great to meet them and learn that if I could get together an order of big enough size they’d do custom patterned pieces. One for the future perhaps.

After dinner it was back to Kope Lani for coffees. I’m now on first name terms with one of the owners, Gwen! Whilst we sat there chatting Greer, a friend from Oz, walked by. I’d completely forgotten she’d be out here so now I have another date to add to next week’s social calendar! It’s great to keep catching up with so many people I know though. Really this is a social gathering with a race at the end.

Once this post is up it’s an early night for me as the plan is the full course for the swim tomorrow.