Well, unfortunately, my hopes and prayers for a sudden cold front haven’t come to fruition. \u00a0In fact, when I left the hotel this morning en route to a swim session, I was met with instant humidity and just mild heat, but it was clear that the temps would get higher as the day progressed.<\/p>\n
I got into the water around 7 a.m. along with dozens of other athletes. \u00a0My coach, Christian, had prescribed a 30 minute swim with some incorporation of drills and other skills on the return trip back to terra firma. \u00a0On the way out, I felt very comfortable and felt as if I was navigating well and quickly getting from one orange buoy to the next one. \u00a0That sensation abated rather quickly when I stopped just briefly to check out my navigation, fix my leaky goggles, and take an assessment of how far I’d come and need to go on race day. \u00a0Unlike the other three Ironman events I’ve completed, all of which feature a two loop swim course, this course features just one really looooong loop. \u00a0Upon noticing that the final buoy was so far way that I’d need to swim forever to get there, I began to feel those feelings of self-doubt. \u00a0I know these feelings well; I’ve been facing them my whole life, but I pride myself on my ability to overcome this adversity, and or course in this application, there was no way I couldn’t swim back home easily.<\/p>\n
After exiting the water, I actually felt good. \u00a0Also felt good to see that I had shed some pounds in the recent weeks and could go shirtless without too much concern for feeling or looking flabby. \u00a0You know, just because I do this Ironman stuff doesn’t mean I’m cut up like Arnold. \u00a0There are plenty of really fast dudes who are even bigger than me. \u00a0I have a bit of complex about my physique, and feeling good about how things have turned out in recent weeks gave me a bit of a boost and sense of confidence as I majestically strolled from the pier back to my hotel. \u00a0As I write this, I can’t help but smirk at the idiocy of this.<\/p>\n
After a quick change in the hotel, I set off for an hour run along Ali’i Drive. \u00a0Plan was to run for 30 minutes or so, then head back… and that’s exactly what I did, in the really hot weather and high humidity. \u00a0I passed an old guy, said good morning to him, and was ready to chat him up when he suddenly put on this burst of speed and put 20-30 seconds into me. \u00a0It surprised me that he was so passionate that he vowed to not let some young (I compliment myself often) buck show him up.<\/p>\n
For the most part, my run felt great. \u00a0Legs were rested, overall spirit was positive, and I got to see three pro women triathletes at various times. \u00a0My heart rate however was at the higher end of my acceptable spectrum, likely because it had to devote energy to cooling systems. \u00a0I did feel like, despite the heat, that I could run this frickin race and do well. \u00a0It was a good omen and good confidence booster.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, I’ll meet up with my buddy Steve, we’ll drive to the cement factor near the \u00a0base of the climb to Hawi, then ride up that climb, head down, and then head to the Natural Energy Lab to do another short run, mostly for recon. \u00a0I’m VERY excited to get out onto the course and survey the bike conditions. \u00a0Afterwards, I’ll pick up my race packet, then move to our group house just a few miles south of town. \u00a0Naturally, I’m very excited about seeing my posse too.<\/p>\n
All good things are happening here in Kona. \u00a0I just need to survive the next few days and keep my positivity flowing without interruption. \u00a0Things look good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, unfortunately, my hopes and prayers for a sudden cold front haven’t come to fruition. \u00a0In fact, when I left the hotel this morning en route to a swim session, I was met with instant humidity and just mild heat, but it was clear that the temps would get higher as the day progressed. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}