Home› Racing Forum 🏎› 140.6 Forums› Ironman Hawaii (Kona)

How is Kona training different?

danbillingsleydanbillingsley
in Ironman Hawaii (Kona)
My first trip to Kona.  I have been reading a lot on training for Kona.  Everyone seems to have a "hot box" of some sort, or they travel to a location with similar conditions.  I am curious what are you doing different in your Kona training from other Ironmans?  How are you hacking the plan? Any other tips to prepare for the conditions?

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott
    • I follow the standard EN Ironman Advanced plan, with the usual adjustments for intervening life events and occasional need for rest.
    • You might want to practice overloading on fluids during your long rides and runs.
    • Out there in the prairie, you can probably find some serious wind to ride in? The more, the better, doing loops to get hit from all directions.
    • Here's a link to a summary of the science on heat acclimation: http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html#1
    • 95% of acclimation takes place within two weeks; 99% by 3 weeks. I'll be arriving 12 days before the race, and get most of my acclimation on island.
    • Others may chime in on special tricks to start the acclimitization process, like wearing extra clothes, hitting the sauna, running indoors on a treadmill with no fan, etc
    • IMO, a big key is to approach the whole affair as an opportunity to have fun and reward yourself.
    • There are of course keys to the course, but don't stress about that for another month.
  • Juan VergaraJuan Vergara

    Same as Al, following standard EN IM Advanced plan. Only "adjustment" on my end - given temperatures where I live are on the "chilly" end at the time - will be heat acclimation  (sauna, indoor layer sessions/no fan). Arriving in Kona 8 days before the race.

  • Bruce ThompsonBruce Thompson
    After 2 weeks of taking it easy following IMMT, I loaded up the Advanced IM plan today.  I'm still going to go on the EZ end of the workouts until next week, then will follow the plan as written unless I feel fatigue setting in.  Will be very careful not to do too much and rest will be my default workout.  I'm arriving 7 days before the race and will use that as my heat climatization time.
  • danbillingsleydanbillingsley
    Thanks for the input guys. The Midwest is providing plenty of heat and humidity this week, I can only hope it stays more than a week.
Sign In or Register to comment.