Epic Camp Lite Kona 2017 - day 6 - Tri Simulation

• Bike to Hapuna beach (race venue)
• Swim – Mauna Kea Beach to Hapuna 1.75km
• Bike - 17km with a touch of HIM effort
• Run – 5km off the bike (alternate 1km easy to steady / 1km mod hard ~4min/km)

I planned todays swim by purely eyeballing it on google maps. It was a good call. Only 4 of us choose the point to point swim which happened to be downwind and with a current, some great sea life (Jimi saw a manta ray).

An uneventful short ride with a run off the bike. 5km is about as far as I want to go without any fluids – hot and windy today!

Bike file: http://tpks.ws/1hYwm

Run file: http://tpks.ws/z0GZD

Epic Camp Lite Kona - Day 5 - high road to Hawi

Bike – High road loop to Hawi ~100km

Run ~3km / swim skills / Run ~3km

This really is a classic ride that everyone should do if you have the time in Kona. From Mauna Lani we head to the end of the Queen K where instead of turning left on the ironman course to Hawi turn right up to Waimea for a long juicy climb typically into a head wind. Just before Waimea take a left turn with more climbing and spectacular views before bombing down to Hawi to rejoin the ironman course.

The coaches instructions were for today to be a recovery ride. When you are climbing from sea level to over 1000m that is easy said than done. So whilst we took it as easy as we could it was not recovery going up. It’s all worth it though with stunning views and a huge amount of downhill in the 2^nd half. My joke of reminding everyone that is was a recovery ride as they climbed in their smallest gear for ~1hr was wearing thin with some athletes by the end of it.

To close out the day we ran 3km down to a nice little beach near Mauna Lani, swam and run back.

So some good mileage today at a low intensity. Time to start resting up tomorrow.

Bike file:http://tpks.ws/9Fn9x

Epic Camp Lite Kona 2017 - day 4 - Kona to Waipio Lookout

SWIM 3.6km to Captain Cooks monument return

BIKE – Kona to Waipio ~100km with 3x10km @ Half IM power

RUN – ran out of time

We caught up the swim we missed a few days ago as I really wanted everyone to experience this point to point classic. We had a beautiful morning with some nice sea life early and late in the swim. It’s also fun to have a point to significance to get to rather than just swimming (Captain Cook was allegedly killed in this bay). Our super support crew of Dave Dwan and Jayne Ward-Young were on hand in kayaks so if anyone got in danger we had support on hand. As it turned out one of them (who shall remain nameless) was actually the one needing the rescuing after we were done. So I ended up with some kayaking time myself for additional upper body conditioning.

Todays ride was a point to point rode to Waipio lookout which I have not been to before. I had some logistics to sort out in town so missed the first part of the ride. It was a bloody long climb up Palani - ~15km taking ~50mins taking it rather gently but due to my gears there was a fair amount of strength work.

Once up onto the Mamalahoa Highway I got stuck into my 3x10km Half IM efforts. Rep #1 was a bit of struggle with too much downhill hence power a bit off but #2 & #3 were close to the mark but RPE was pretty high. Sore quads and tired legs once I was done so it was convenient that I caught super trooper Suzie from Nashville and Marie just after finishing the last rep so I gently towed them in for the rest of the ride. We finished at Waipio lookout which was absolutely spectacular.

No time for running this arvo which was a bit of a bugger.

Dinner at Café Pesto in Kawaihae which was very good. We have not had a crap meal yet!

Swim file: http://tpks.ws/cgiov

Bike file: http://tpks.ws/Su7yZ  

Epic Camp Lite Kona 2017 – Day 3 –Energy lab run + Ironman swim course

RUN 13km from energy lab to the pier aiming for 1km easy / 2km  Half IM effort

BIKE 30-40km recovery ride in the hills

SWIM 3km on the ironman course

The energy lab run is a must do when you come to the Big Island. It’s a boring as shit run along the highway but it gives athletes a real appreciation of how brutal it can be out there on race day. We ran at 7:30am and it was still bloody hot for most of us. On this run the group almost always splinters immediately and most run solo. I had Andy from Christchurch for company who commented that every time we started the 2km harder efforts we seemed to be going uphill. I was aiming for 4:05-4:10/km for the efforts which I wasn’t too far off factoring in the hills. A good run.

The optional ride today was only taken up by myself and Jimi. It was supposed to be a recovery ride but with 560m in elevation combined with my poor gearing meant I had to work harder than easy just to get up the climbs. The Mamahaloa Highway is a nice quite road with cooler temps – check it out if you get over here.

We finished the day with a  3km swim at the pier (twice out to the 1.5km turn buoy.

Dinner at Kona Brewing Company. As well as all the training, the race and more we focus on getting to all the best eating spots.

Run file http://tpks.ws/yNLYs

Bike file http://tpks.ws/mcP1F

Swim file http://tpks.ws/99eIt

Epic Camp Lite Kona 2017 - day 2 riding the Ironman course

BIKE – 189km on the ironman course

RUN – had to skip for a massage.

SWIM – 1.5km easy recovery swim

Today was the litmus test. I’ve been to this island many times and have yet to master the full ironman course. I’ve done really well in the 70.3 but even in training I have not mastered the full course - it's partly due to us always doing it very early in the camp but I did not want to pull out that excuse again.

My plan was to ride controlled out to Hawi aiming for ~200w (with the speeders of Andrew, Matt and Jimi) take it easy’ish down from Hawi then try to ride Ironman power back to town on the Queen K (around 50km @ 235w).

We had ridiculously easy conditions today. Of course it was hot but there was more or less no wind on the entire course other than some head breezes before Hawi. It was by far the least wind I have ever encountered.

Arrival into Hawi was OK. I was not too chipper but doing OK. I knew I needed something to fire me up so I did a test run of the Fuel 5+ from Extreme Endurance which has 90mg caffeine.  All the way down all I could think about was nailing the Queen K however my optimism was not high given the way my legs felt. When the time came I settled in and was just making the numbers until bang, my first flat about 200m from the next aid station. It was an immediate flat and on inspection I had a nail all the way through my rim. After a brief stop at the aid station I was back on it and I was cranking it. Power was high and I needed to hold back rather than push… this was looking good. After ~30mins if nailing it the Kona heat started getting to me. My legs were OK but my body and particularly my head were started to explode with heat. I whimpered into the next aid station and desperately tried to cool myself down which got me back in the game for a while until the melt down continued. Legs were still OK, alertness was OK but I was just melting. At the next aid station I threw in the towel and let Matt and Jimi tow me home which at times was a struggle as those boys were riding well. Once I finally cooled down on Ali’I drive I felt absolutely fine.

Whilst I did crumble somewhat on the Queen K I did manage over 1hr @ 228w which is better than the past but I think I just need some more time to get used to this heat (same excuse again I know). 

The schedule was to run off the bike 4-6km but we needed to crack into massage so I had to skip that.

To round out the day I did an easy 1.5km swim. Not an incredible day at the office but better than past effforts. 

Bike file http://tpks.ws/xuXwJ