Yeah I'm in the Motherland of triathlon..... Kona. I'm loving it. I'm splurging and staying at the Mauna Lani Hotel and Resort which is hosting the IM 70.3 Hawaii race next Saturday. It's great.
The race isn't really the focus it's getting the final big training days in before my taper to IM Coeur d'Alene. I love this place. Running is tough but the swimming and riding are phenomenal. I've been swimming every morning in the ocean at Mauna Lani Bay Beach Club it's like high speed snorkeling. Today besides a crazy assortment of fish over the coral reef, I saw a bunch of rays, a big school of rather large something or others which I was swimming through and one little shark cruising about 30 feet below on the bottom.
Today my coach scheduled a 25 minute "race" effort. I took my GPS watch and put it in a zip lock and placed it in my swim cap to see just how much I've improved over the past year in the swim department. When I downloaded the data I was shocked. 25 minutes = 1 miles. That would put me just under 30 minutes for a half IM swim. My fastest ever was a 34:30 which I think was a short course every other swim of that distance has been consistently 36:30. If I can take 6 minutes off my swim time it would be crazy and today wasn't really race pace as I wasn't racing I was swimming solo.
Riding here is also fantastic. I'm sure over time it would get a little boring as it is an island but so far the roads I've been on all have great shoulders not a lot of debris and the drivers have been pretty cool. The part I like best is I seem to be riding really fast here, part of it no doubt is the fact that I've got my race wheels on (Zipp 808 front and 1080 rear which has been a mixed blessing with the wind), or the aero helmet but I think it's just the terrain and I actually am enjoying the heat. It's been really windy, there is no direction that I haven't been hammered either by head winds or side winds.
I rode on Sunday the day after a long trip and hit 84 miles at just under a 20 mph average. Today I rode 73 miles at just under a21 mph average. Crazy as neither of these were crazy race efforts so I figure I'm good for about another 2-3 mph average in the race Saturday and it's giving me big confidence going into IMCDA in a few weeks.
Running is tough, it's hot and humid. I did manage an 8+ mile negative tempo run in the heat of the day yesterday with my negative split at sub 7:00 pace. Needless to say it's going to be a long hot run.
My coach has changed the race plan. Put in a hard solid swim effort to see how the winter swimming has paid off and then ride like a man possessed. The run is now just get through it as close to 1:40 as possible. I was quick to inform him that a 1:40 would be a half IM run 2 minute PR for me.
I'm feeling great with the final hard training and feel like I would really love to be back here in October for the big dance. Now just to put it all together on race day. I'll post how things went.
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