Mike R's Kona Race Plan
Ironman World Championship
Personal Stats: 48yo (49th birthday on race day), 5’10”, 145 lbs., ~260 FTP, 51 vDOT
Goals: Soak it all in, celebrate, enjoy, finish.
This is IM #11, and I've had 50 weeks to think about this one. Long before I ever entered an actual triathlon (1995), I religiously watched the Kona telecast each and every year. The triumphs and especially the collapses on Ali'i were legendary (Julie Moss, Chris Legh, Wingnut & Sian Welch, Paula, etc.) I thought the competitors were absolutely nuts to even consider an event like that, in such horrible conditions, but I think the seed was subconsciously planted. By the time I entered (and finished) my first IM in 2004, Kona became - like it does for many of us - the Holy Grail. I entered the lottery starting in 2004, always paying double to join some silly club that had no benefits other than a second entry, and continued throwing away good money on a dream until the lottery was declared illegal. When I had my "breakthrough" IM finish in 2007, by cracking the top-100 in my AG, I attended the roll-down ceremony to see if 73rd was good enough. Not quite. It went to 7th. I just needed to go an hour faster. Which made no sense. I could cut a few minutes here and there, but an hour? In 2009, I let the dream die. I no longer wanted to spend my weekends destroying my undercarriage on a bike seat and slogging through silly three-hour runs just for 73rd place. So, I retired. But when friends convinced me to go to Kona in the fall of 2012 to watch the race, the bug got me again. The following year, I decided to jump back in and give it another shot, this time with a coach. Or two. That's where EN entered the scene. And four years later . . . I'm sitting here, writing this.
This was a long, somewhat complicated race season for me. It started in March and will conclude in mid-October. My ACL-challenged knee started bothering me after Blue Ridge Camp in April and persisted through the IM Lake Placid build. I dedicated the three weeks after Placid to serious rest, recovery and healing, then put in a focused six-week block of work. I knew I wouldn't be able to do six weeks of 18-20 hours of hard work on all three disciplines, and I probably should have emphasized the bike and cut way back on the run. But I know what that would have produced on race day: a lot of walking. But I want to run the second half of the Kona course. I want to suffer through the Energy Lab between Miles 16 and 19 - while running. I want to run Mark and Dave Hill. And I want to run down Hualalai and Ali'i. Selfishly, I just don't want my memory of the last seven miles of the race to be . . . well, you know. And unlike my KQ race where finishing wasn't even a goal - it was supplanted by a desire to push the envelope and suffer like never before - I really, really want to finish this race.
So, I come into Kona in pretty good shape. My bike and swim are about the same as when I started Placid, and my run fitness is a bit better. I performed alright at LP (less than 3 minutes from getting/turning down a Kona slot), so I'm confident I have enough fitness to get through this course. Looking back at the last year of running since the OS, my data looks a bit like a jagged train wreck. But other than post-race recovery weeks, pre-race taper weeks, and the bike-only Blue Ridge Camp, I was pretty good about consistently getting 20+ miles per week throughout the year. And I averaged 3.1 more miles per week than 2016.
Pre-Race:
Land in Kona mid-afternoon on Friday, eight days before the race. My condo on the beach is just south of Lava Java, about Mile 1 and 9 on the run course.
Saturday morning is the Ho'ala Swim, a full race rehearsal on the course (almost). That should knock off any jet-lag rust. Retrieve bike from TBT later in the afternoon. It will have been on a truck across the entire US, then who knows how many days on a boat, so I'll be giving it a thorough check and cleaning. On Sunday, I'll probably drive up to Waikoloa and ride the 55~ miles to Hawi and back.
The rest of the week is soaking in the incredible vibe and energy, adjusting to the heat and humidity (Charlotte was very hot and humid until a few days ago, so it shouldn't bee too difficult to adjust), and sticking to my checklists and workout plans. Ali'i Drive is an absolute zoo during race week. And, yet, hundreds of runners and cyclists insist on training on it, weaving in and out of non-stop vehicle traffic, presumably because "it's the course." But it's flat, hot asphalt. The island has an abundance of that stuff elsewhere. I'll definitely avoid the Ali'i Mistake. And I'll definitely avoid trying to match the 5-minute-pace VO2-max efforts that many will be putting out in training runs all week. On Ali'i Drive, of course. Same for the 300w efforts on the bike on the Queen K. Stay in my box.
Tuesday: check into the race.
Wednesday: Team dinner.
Thursday: Underpants Run, followed by team brunch. Begin low-residue diet in earnest. Salt and hydrate all day. My spouse lands mid-day. Attend Welcome Banquet at 6pm. Go to sleep early to establish routine.
Friday: Big, healthy, low-residue breakfast. Salt and hydrate all day. Short swim in the morning. Drop off bike and transition bags during my 11:30-2:30 window. Do final walk-through of TA. Finalize/double-check morning gear according to checklist. Light, no-fiber carb dinner before 6pm. In bed by 8:30pm.
Race Day: Wake by 3:15am. Two Naked Juice smoothies (500 calories total), English muffin + honey (200), beet juice (100). Sunscreen, lube, Band-Aids, chip, EN tri-suit. Once at TA, body mark, top off tires, attach/turn on/calibrate Garmin 500, load food into bento, fill aero bottle and one behind the seat with lemon-lime GE. I'll have no access to the bike or run gear bags, so I'll go for a one-mile jog, then a warm-up swim.
Swim: Plan for the worst, hope for the best. I'm used to finishing toward the front end of the swim, so I have to accept the fact that there will be hundreds of sub-60 swimmers in the race, with many hundreds more in the sub-65 club. It’ll be crowded from the start. I asked @Jeremy Behler when the swim congestion eased last year, and his response was, "somewhere on the return trip from Hawi." Thus, I don't expect to ever get clean water, but I hope to get into a fairly organized group that moves along at a decent clip. After the turn, I'll focus on my late-race form issues (core engaged, maintaining high elbow, especially on the right). I don't really care about the time, as Kona can be fast (last year) or slow (year before) depending on the swells and currents. But I've got pretty good swim form right now, so I shouldn't be too slow.
T1: Smooth and efficient. Grab my bag and helmet, speedsuit off and in the bag, helmet on during the pretty long jog to my bike. Once past the mount line, hop on the bike and slip my feet into my pre-mounted shoes.
Bike: Patience, discipline, hydrate, fuel properly, stay cool, more patience. Best Bike Split says I should be in the 5:30 ballpark on light watts, BBS has been really accurate for me in my last 6-7 races, and the 5:30 ballpark is plenty good to me.
Gear: Cervelo P5 Six, Dura-Ace Di2, 52/36 cranks, 12-25 cassette, P1 pedals, Zipp Firecreast carbon clincher 404/808, 23mm GT4000 IIS (measuring 25mm) w/ latex tubes at 90 psi. Two CO2 canisters, inflator and butyl tube with an external valve extender on the XlabDelta behind-the-saddle bottle holder, another butyl tube and a tire lever strapped under saddle. Xlab Torpedo between the bars. LG P-09 helmet, LG M-2 EN-branded tri-suit, Sidi T4 shoes.
Execution: I'm going to do my best to replicate my effort at IMLP. There, I purposefully under-cooked the bike a bit at 173NP, gave up some time in the process, but set myself up for a good, enjoyable run. Like the swim, the weather conditions on the bike will dictate the finishing time in Kona. First order of business is getting safely through the first couple of admin miles, being smart down Palani, then getting my HR down to 125-30 on the way through the town toward the turn-around at Mile 5. Garmin set to auto-lap every 5 miles, and I'll stretch and drink every beep. Once HR is down, put a hard cap of 170 watts until we're out of town and up on the Queen K. There will probably be 1,000 AG men exiting T2 within 10 minutes of each other, so the ride out to Hawi will be a non-stop draft-fest. I will just let them go by, even though it will mean sitting up and coasting. I'll view it has a "break" that I'll tap into later on the run, rather than "crap! I'm losing time." Be safe, try to avoid penalties. Patience, discipline. What I won't do is get frustrated and try to re-pass an entire pack at 300+ watts. Aid station execution will be crucial. At each one, make sure my aero bottle is filled before I reach it, dropping any empties as soon as I'm allowed, safely grabbing/storing a new GE bottle, then grabbing a bottle of water to douse over me, disposing of it before the final litter line.
Otherwise, try to enjoy the course, even though it's not much more than a barren, hot rock. Waikoloa will appear around Mile 30, drop down into Kawaihae around Mile 40, then the storied eight-mile climb to Hawi where we'll be totally exposed and the winds will appear in earnest (it's not whether, but how bad and from which direction). If I can get to Hawi before the winds shift, try to enjoy the tail wind all the way down. If not, then I'll be one of the poor souls who gets to face a head wind on the way out and back. The ride will probably get quite real around Mile 80, after the hot climb out of Kawaihae, and the last 30 miles on this course are usually pretty brutal for most. I suspect it's just a byproduct of the constant sun, heat and wind that just grind everyone down. But like all IM rides, it too will end.
Nutrition: Drink every Garmin beep. Target two bottles of GE (48 oz., 84g of carbs, 294 calories, 1,200mg of sodium) every hour for the first 3.5 hours (Mile 75-80), then moving to watered-down GE, then to water for the last 30 minutes. Early and constant hydration is critical, as a mistake here will quickly destroy my race and can’t be remedied later. If I don't quite get two bottles of GE each our, I will supplement with GE chews (two provides 31g, 120 calories, 105mg of sodium). I'll take a double espresso gel (100mg of caf) at Mile 80, with two more caf gels at Miles 90 and 100. After Mile 100, I’ll only allow myself water and salt before dismounting.
T2: Efficiently get in, get out, no mistakes. Leave shoes on bike, hand bike to vol, jog with purpose while unbuckling my helmet. Grab my bag, remove go-bag during the jog and have hand inside the bag on my shoes as I enter tent, sit down, remove shoes, find volunteer to stow my helmet while putting on my (pre-rolled and pre-lubed) socks and shoes, grab my go-bag, go. From my go-bag I’ll put on my race belt (gels, salt and Race Saver bag attached), put on visor and sunglasses, and strap on and fire up the Garmin 935. Haven't decided on whether to wear arm coolers, although I'm leaning that way.
Run: Execute the first 11 miles, focus between 12 and 19, suffer/celebrate all the way home.
Execution: I'll consume a Clif banana/beet gel as I exit transition. I'll find my friends, family and teammates for a brief celebration. Once my HR is down below 145 and I’ve got my run legs under me, start focusing on heat-management and getting in some nutrition when/where I can. On paper, the first 10 miles look like fun, right along the beach, plenty of vistas and ocean breezes to keep one cool. But my experience running along most of Ali'i is that it's windless, stifling and just stupid hot. In 2012, we cheered near the Mile 2/8 markers, and I dripped sweat non-stop. And I was sitting in the shade. I'll walk the aid stations, I'll take full advantage of my RS bag, and I'll keep the HR at 145 or below. During this out-and-back stretch, I'll get to greet a couple of the EN mentors who helped make this day possible coming the other way. After re-entering the town and enjoying the crowds, we have the climb up Palani at Mile 10. This climb is eerily similar to the Lisa G Hill on the Placid course: both are exactly a half-mile long and both are steep (I think Lisa G rises 135 feet, and Palani goes up 115 feet, but Palani will feel 30-70 degrees warmer). If I have to walk the hill to keep the HR down (I did at Placid), then so be it. If Tony DeBoom yells, "welcome to Kona, punk!" like he did to Macca as he fell apart on Palani in '02, I'll wear it as a badge of honor. From there, we get onto the Queen K, totally exposed, no more spectators, nothing but lava, sun, other competitors and aid stations. Focus will continue on hydration, cooling, salt and heart rate. The three miles in the Energy Lab will almost certainly suck. But it's supposed to. I will almost be disappointed if we get a nice cool rain shower between Miles 16 and 19. Almost. Once back up on the Queen K, I will start drinking Coke and will embark on the long, difficult six miles back to town. But I'll be more than mentally prepared for this stretch. As I mentioned, I've had 50 weeks to think about this race. This is where the Iron War took place, both the original (and best) in '89 and the re-make in 2010. This is where Paula melted down in '95. This is where countless races have been won and lost. At the Palani turn, I'll have a mile to go. I will high-five anyone who will accept one, especially my family at the Hot Corner and then again approaching the chute down on Ali'i. Odds-makers say this is likely my only shot, so make it count. And I plan to.
As for time goals, I don't really have any. I'll be a bit disappointed if I post an embarrassing time, which to me is 11:00 or more. If that's all the day gives me, so be it. But if the conditions are only extremely oppressive. I think I can crack 11 by a pretty good margin. If not, then I'll have a very compelling reason to try and re-punch my ticket in Chattanooga next September.
As always, all input is welcome and appreciated.
MR
Comments
Have great race, Mike, and congratulations.
Enjoy the ride from Hawi, I got to ride some of the course during Honu. It's a barren beauty. I'm sure the showers will stay up high on the island, so you'll get your dose of suffer as you wish.
Drink some of that good 100% Kona coffee for me and live it up!!
You've designed it to suffer at just the right spots it seems; and you know those spots. Kinda wish I could be there to high-five you, that would be cool
I'm betting against the odds makers BTW ... you know precisely how to get back there whenever you want to. And definitely yes on the arm coolers
- Ride so you don't blow up on the run
- Run so you can enjoy the day, especially the last hour.
That's absolutely the right frame of mind to take into this...Your planned schedule from Friday arrival thru Sunday is spot on with mine.
And FWIW I am not at all embarrassed by my 11:54 2015 time or the not much better 11:35 2014 time
Will be following you and other ENers on Saturday !
Like how you approach that race by focusing on just having fun and enjoy it!
@tim cronk, yes, I'll be drinking Skratch Hyper Hydration a few times during the week, before workouts. Definitely the day before and definitely race morning. At least 60-90 minutes before the gun, so I'm not burping mango (been there). Salt has always worked well for me, and this stuff is pure money. I blatanltly stole the idea from @John Withrow. It may be nothing more than a placebo, but I'll take it. It's a ton of salt, so no one should blindly follow this.
"Embarrassiing" is probably the wrong word. Internally, I feel like I will need to provide context or an explanation if I tell someone about my 11:xx post-race (i.e., heat, wind, cramps, puking), even though I fully understand that those explanations are totally legit on this course. With a 10:xx, no explanation or context needed. I may be placing unreasonable pressure on myself, but I'm OK with that. Just another One Thing in my holster.
Because you are so detailed there really is no stone unturned. BUT...what are your plans if something goes awry? I know you have plans for any issues that may come up, but I know I could learn even more if you shared your plans for gut issues, cramps, etc.
Signed, your Michigan Fangirl
Have an awesome race! Enjoy the week as well as the race!
Enjoy the day!
I have a feeling your going to do well and I look forward to seeing you and all of the EN'rs out on the course.
You are a highly analytical and planful guy which is reflected in this race plan. The first half of the bike will suck....huge packs and no way to avoid drafting. Agree with your approach to use it as a way to relax and save your effort for the run. I'd have a backup plan if you plan to rely on aid stations for solid nutrition....last year it was highly inconsistent.
I'd run the energy lab in the week prior so you know what to expect. I wish I had done this as it was much longer than I anticipated, even after having driven by multiple times that week. It's the hardest part of the course, but disconnecting from the pain and remembering how many people yearn to suffer there in this race helped me push through. Your pace will slow, but know that once back on the Queen K it's all flat/downhill from there.
Waiting until mile 20 to start coke is way to late for me. I often plan to start around mile 13, but then typically start around mile 6 "In case of emergency, break glass" is my approach there and has helped me dig out of early dark spots.
The run will be very busy and congested on Ali'i. Get your nutrition as early as possible and move away from the chaos.
And don't forget to got back for the final finishers at night. I've done this at every IM and it's as special in Kona as anywhere.
Safe travels and have fun my friend!
So excited for you!! Last year was my first time toeing the line in KONA The one thing I remember coming out of the swim was to use the showers to rinse the salt out of my mouth. Then, when on the bike I wished I had one bottle of clear water because I was so 'salted'. I 'm a slow swimmer so you may not have the issue.
Hyper-hydration is not placebo. It increases blood volume. Do it!
Above all - slow down on Alii Drive. Take it in. I want to go back just for that part.
Aloha - I'll look for you. I'm going to be there to play.
Overall Mike, your plan looks fantastic. As I would expect, very well laid out and planned...exactly what you need for the day. Sounds like you are now enjoying some relax time there as well before the big event to have fun soaking it all in. Super congrats on getting to the big show and look forward to following you on race day. Enjoy every minute!