JW's Kona Race "Plan"
This will be my 11th Ironman and my 2nd time Racing Kona. My 5 yrs younger self raced Kona in 2014. Compared to that 38 yr old self, I will be racing this year ~11lbs heavier (~190lbs vs ~179 lbs). My FTP is about ~11% lower (~300W vs. ~333W). And my vDot is ~1.1 points lower (~46.6 vs ~47.7).
BUT, I still expect to be faster in ALL disciplines. I'm definitely not winning anything (against anybody else) in this race, but I'd still like to beat my younger, lighter, faster self.
Yes, I know full well that at Kona, the conditions of the day will dictate actual race times on the day and you should never actually have a time goal... I don't care, I'm setting a time goal anyways...
My rationale for thinking it's actually possible to beat my younger, lighter, faster self is the following...
1) I am WAY more relaxed and confident now, I literally ZERO stress about this race
2) I may not have the same top end, but I have DEEP DEEP low end "go for days" fitness now
3) I have religiously been doing a 1 hour personal training session per week, every week for ~2 years now focusing on strengthening my glutes/quads/core (my quads have always been my limiter in IMs)
4) I have the added experience of having done 4 more Ironmans since I last raced in Kona
5) I have ~5 more years worth of cycling in my legs since then
6) I swam all winter for the first time in my life this past winter, and have continued to swim since
7) 2014 had pretty horrifically windy race day conditions. I know that it's always windy in Kona, but a bad case this year is "probably" a push compared to last time and a best case scenario is that we have "less bad" conditions this year and I use less energy going faster on the bike.
8) I have a new Ventum with a much more comfortable bike fit and shorter cranks with the sole goal of using my glutes more and saving my quads (even at the expense of a bit less power)
9) Nike Vaporfly 4% shoes exist now!!!
10) I have continued to learn from my EN Superstar coach and teammates for almost 10 years now!
11) This is my YOLO Race (11th IM) and I will be retiring from Ironman (again) after this race, so may as well leave it all out there!
Comments
Love your "plan". Best of luck; see you there; save me something to eat. I'm going to be out there for a loooooooong time.
Keep it simple
Keep it smooth
see you on the Big Island!
have a great one.
have fun with the 1x rig.
family coming ?
My experience says that if @John Withrow says he is going to do something.....it pretty much happens.
so much I can dissect here, but I've learned never to doubt you! will be watching with my pint of Ben & jerry's in hand!
@John Withrow Enjoy the race. The only thing I could jokingly call you out on is a slower T2 time as you sandbag it to get the 11:11:11 time. Just like the guy holding up on first to complete the cycle in baseball.
I LOVE this @John Withrow !
“Most blokes will be playing at 10. You’re on 10 here. All the way up, all the way up.... where can you go from there? Where!?! What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff ..... do you know what we do? ....put it up to ELEVEN.” 😂😂❤️❤️💪🏼💪🏼🔥🔥🦄🦄🎉🎉
JW will YOLO Kona so hard.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o
@John Withrow Wouldn't bet against ya!
But I will say this: if you don't beat my Kona run PR of 4:22 (@ age 57), I (and YOU) will be sorely disappointed.
See you soon...
Love everything about your plan. If this mediocre biker can match your bike plan, it should be easy for you. Especially if the new waves open up the first 30 miles out to Waikoloa. The 4:15 mary is the only ? That run course was not designed for super middleweights. That said, the IM Wisconsin bike course wasn't designed for fat bikes. And last time I bet against the fat bike, I paid dearly. Won’t make the same mistake here. Go make it happen and enjoy the ride.
Thanks guys! Really looking to have fun with this one (in a suffering is fun kind of way).
@Robert Sabo see you soon
@robin sarner Only Jess is coming. My parents are driving to MN as I type this to watch my boys. Too hard to take them out of school for over a week in October, not to mention Jess deserves kid free vacation.
@scott dinhofer video of the B&J or it didn't happen
@Gordon Cherwoniak The total time just randomly happened to be 11:11:11, weird. I hadn't even noticed that. And for the record, I specifically added 10 extra seconds in T2, because I want to make sure I take the extra time to hydrate better before starting the run! 😜
@Larry Peters best movie clip ever! I'm seriously gonna take it to 11...
@Al Truscott 4:22... I'm on it...
@Mike Roberts "Super Middleweight"!!! I love that. I'm more like an "Almost Clydesdale"... I am absolutely not built for the Kona Run course... But, I'm going to give it "what I got" anyways! What's the old drag racing saying, "Run what you brung"?
11 good reasons why you will be faster this year, specially the first 6. Well there’s that and then there’s , your @John Withrow and you said so.
Your rational makes compete sense to me! Enjoy the Big Show again and I'm looking forward to tracking you.
I have no doubt of the 11:11:11 finish. Have fun and YOLO
YOLO!
As you state the conditions will have such an impact (particularly on the bike). Last year in my supremely underwhelming Kona performance my bike split improved by 18 minutes (technically only 13 but I got a 5 minute drafting penalty) on 15% lower watts thanks solely to nearly ideal weather.
I miss being in Kona this week and the increased social media activity there is making it worse...but I want to be spectating not racing. Last minute airfare anyone ?!?!?