Less than 24 hours to go!

It's time to get it on! Will try to get a full report in tomorrow night, for now it's off to bed!

Kona IM Day 2

More hiking today! We found a secret trail heading up the cloud forest just behind Kona. We parked at 3500 feet and hiked up to 5500 feet. It's an amazingly different world here just 8 miles from the blue waters of the bay. Got in a good swim at the Kona community pool, was nice to swim some laps and be out of the salt water for the day. Did a hard but short workout and feel like the swim is ready to go. If I swim hard 56 or 57 is possible. My plan is to go out hard and try to get in a good group early. There is no shortage of swimmers here in the sub hour group! Short bike and short run, my body feels like it's ready to go. We ended the day with a nice rainbow, wouldn't be Hawaii without a rainbow! Less than 24 hours to go...

Kona IM Day 1

Lolo native protecting his territory

Misty valley (that's humidity!)

Dad and I with great view!



Today was our first full day in Kona, getting ready for Saturday's IM Triathlon. Started they day off with a swim at the pier. Met up with Mr. Kansas , Bob Schloegel (Bob is singlehandedly representing the state of Kansas at IM Hawaii this year) and his friend Tim Monk from Texas. Always fun to see everyone hanging out at Dig Me Beach. Water conditions are great and the water is warm, heard 83 degrees from somebody. The rest of the day my Dad and I spent out time up North, past Hawi with a short little, but really great hike at Pololu Valley. A nice hike down about 1000 feet from the road to a black sand beach. On our way back up, in 14 mins I was soaked from head to toe with Sweat. Not quite sure how I'm going to get through 10 hour of this on Saturday! Then we floated around at Hapuna beach checking out the reefs and fishies. Not quite like snorkeling in Key West or Cuzumel but still fun! Finished the day with about a 20 min ride, legs feel good and I'm ready to go.

IM Louisville

Swim

I was fortunate enough to line up early in the swim. This year the time trial start went off 2 docks and I think I got in about 2 mins after the race started. I went so fast I didn’t even have time to look! After about 5 mins I had clear water and didn’t swim close to another swimmer until that last 5 mins of the swim. I was hoping for around 55 in the swim, but came out in 58. I had some tightness in my upper quad during the swim so I had to back off a little. My last couple of IM races I had quad/glute cramping issues so I was pretty worried.

Swim Time: 58:33

T1 - 2:44

No issues here, just had to grab my helmet and number, shoes were already on the bike. I did have to find my bike which was a first for me in IM but I had scouted my exact row before the race well and found it quickly.

Bike

Once onto the bike I could still feel the tightness in my quad. I took it super easy and also tried to let me HR come down. This is the first race I’ve ever monitored my HR and I was amazed at how high it was starting the bike. I’m sure I’ve gone way too hard in the past, since I had to go very easy to get my HR in the range I wanted. My strategy was to find a comfortable and even HR and try to keep my average steady throughout the ride. I will say that my HR in training was much lower than my HR on race day so I had to find a good zone on-the-fly. After about 10 miles of taking it easy it seemed about a 140 bpm avg would be reasonable. I would end up averaging 139 for the entire ride. On the hills I only let it go up to about 150, anytime I’d break that barrier I backed off. Getting an early start was great, I had no traffic until I hit the 2nd loop of the bike. Then it was actually pretty chaotic for the next 30 miles as you had to weave in and out of bikes sometimes 2 or 3 deep in the road. There wasn’t really that much blatent drafting I just don’t think there was enough road for people to spread out. Around halfway on the bike I started passing some of the pro women so that told me I was having a pretty good ride and relatively I was going fast enough. I really expected to get passed more, but getting the early start and swimming well put me just enough ahead of the crowds. The only real issue I had on the bike was a little bit of stomach discomfort. I probably drank a little too much as conditions were about perfect and I’m also thinking an aggressive aero position may be hard on the gut. For Hawaii I’m going to raise the bars a little to see if that helps. Won’t have to worry about drinking too much since it should be at least 15 degrees hotter!

Louisville is a challenging ride but I liked the course a lot, scenic and lots of change in views to keep you from getting too bored. Just enough hills to use different muscle groups as well. I’d say it’s similar to IM Wisconsin but about 5-10 mins faster.

The numbers:
Time: 5:18:49
Avg HR: 139
Avg Power: 219 (for first 2 hours, then the Polar PM quit working)
Avg Cadence: 84
Total Ascent 3700 feet.
Calories: About 2300
Sodium: About 1000 mg per hour

T2 - 2:54

No real issues here either, I did change into running shorts and a singlet for this race, SO much more comfortable than running in a tri suit for me, and cooler!

Run

From the first steps out of transition I felt good. This was really a surprise, since I didn’t feel bad on the bike but I certainly didn’t feel like a Rockstar either. My plan also on the run was to keep the HR low and consistent, I was thinking under 150 before the race, and was able to run about 7 min pace keeping my HR around 145, so I made goal of keeping it under 150 for the first 10 miles. I did this mostly. I was fortunate to start the run just behind one of the pro women, Kim Loefler. We talked and she asked me what I was trying to run. I told her I was thinking maybe sub 3:10. She matter of factly told me she would run under 3:10, so I had the perfect running partner! We ran together off and on for about 22 miles of the marathon, along with her bike escorts as she moved from 4th to 3rd place in the pro race. Around mile 12 I started feeling a little tight so I took 2 tylenol. Around mile 14 I was able to start picking my pace back up to around 7 min pace. I had slowed to around 7:20 pace from 10-13. Running with a speed/cadence monitor is fun! I have a feeling it’s only fun if your running well, if things go bad you probably wouldn’t want to know your pace at every moment! With the time trial start I really never knew how well I was doing, I knew I was doing well since there was no one close behind me and very few guys ahead of me but I had no idea how well. The last turn around is at about mile 20. It's around here that you can start to have some confidence that you're going to be able to finish and to know that you are going to be able to finish strong. I kept my pace around 7 mins per mile and my HR in the low 150’s over the last 10k. I tried to pick it up when I realized I was going to be close to a 3 hour marathon, but running any faster than 6:50’s just wouldn’t happen. My HR just wouldn’t go up, it seemed to be stuck in a zone! With about 2 miles to go I realized I would break 9:30 and run just over 3 hours! I always thought this type of run possible but had never been able to execute it quite this well. I ended up running 3:04 a 7 min IM run PR! 3rd best IM time outside of my 9:17 and 9:11 at IM Florida but a much better performance then either of those races.

The numbers for the run:

Time: 3:04:23
Avg HR: 151
Avg Cadence: 88
Total Ascent: 170 ft.

Total Time: 9:27:19
Overal Place: 24th, 4th amateur, 2nd in 35-39 Age.

Kona Here I come!

MC

Buffalo Springs Triathlon, Almost...

Heading home now from Lubbock, TX after yesterdays Half Iron and Ironman Hawaii Qualifier. I did not get a Kona spot but it was very close. I ended up in 5th place in my age group and there were going to be 2 spots. The 1st place guy had already qualified so I needed 2 guys ahead of me to pass on it. The 4th place guy didn't show up to the awards ceremony so if only one of the 2nd or 3rd place guys passed it was mine. But... not to be they both took their well earned spots leaving me motivated to train harder and get my hawaii slot on Ironman Louisville on August 3oth. I travelled down with TriRochester members Andy Shulha and Peter Maves, both did well especially Peter who also ended up in 5th in his age group!

Results at http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/bslt.php

MC

Last weekend my wife, Erin, kicked some butt at Ironman CDA! She went 12:50 on a very tough day and had her best Ironman marathon ever, she clicked off 10 min miles like it was just an easy training run! Despite getting kicked and dunked in the swim, fighting foot cramps on the bike and calf cramps on the run she just kept on cruising! Also it was cold in the 50's and rained for the last 3 hours of her run, I was wearing 3 layers and wished I'd had gloves on as a spectator! My buddy Nick set a PR at 10:18 and came close to qualifying for Kona, he'll get it next time!

Oh yeh I also met this really hot chick on the run course pictured above, but there was something not quite right about her...

Next up Lubbock 70.3 this Sunday, it's supposed to cool down to 91 degrees this weekend!

Winona Triathlon Recap

Well number 2 of the season is in the books and I'm 2 for 2! I was able to win by a few minutes on a very tough and challenging course. I did not however when the battle for the bluff, the timed race up Garvin Heights! There must have been a few guys really going for it. Here's a pic of me crossing the top of the climb. It's about halfway through this slideshow. This was a really fun race I hope it continues, there were a lot of triathlons last weekends and most the fast guys were elsewhere, but I think everyone would enjoy the challenge of this race. Toughest bike course in an olympic distance tri I've ever done, outside of the Triple T race in Ohio.

http://winonadailynews.com/shared-content/story_tools/slideshow/?type=newsmaker&id=82

Results:
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10989

Next up for me is Buffalo Spring Lake Triathlon in Lubbock Texas. This half Ironman is an Ironman Qualifier and is next weekend. Gotta start getting used to the heat, it's been in the mid 90's in Lubbock. I'm thinking I need to go around 4:25 there to have a shot at qualifying, not an easy feat on a hot, hilly course but I think possible.

MC

First TriRochester TNT (Thursday Night Triathlon)

First TriRochester TNT was last night! We had 28 participants to kick off the year. All completed a 400 M Swim, 7.4 Mile Bike and 2 Mile run! We even had at least 2 people that were doing their first triathlon of any sort! Come check it out on Thursday nights at Foster Arend Park. Tri Start around 6:30. See www.trirochester.com for more details.

MC

TriNona!

TriNona race this weekend! First annual TriNona olympic distance race is this weekend in Winona, MN. Race will feature a beast of a hill on the bike on Garvin Heights road. There is even a prize for faster climber of the day! Can't decide wether or not to lay back early and go for the climb or just ride my tempo from the start. Common sense tells me to ignore the hill and do my race! But common sense rarely wins out so we'll see what happens on race day! Website is http://www.trinona.com/.

MC