Okay, maybe that title to this post is overkill. \u00a0It’s not a storm I’m about to face really; it’s just a long day of doing exercise. \u00a0What seems like me trying to rationalize the Ironman isn’t far off from the truth. \u00a0All athletes have specific methods to deal with big events ahead of them. \u00a0For me, it’s all about breaking things down into small pieces. \u00a0So, here it is:<\/p>\n
On the swim: \u00a0I fully expect to have a hard time. \u00a0I don’t want to have a hard time, and I’m not trying to be negative, but my swim mileage waned a lot in the last month for a variety of reasons, and this particular swim is in an open water setting that, this morning, featured some strong swells that I’m frankly not used to. \u00a0Can I adapt? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0Will it sap some energy? \u00a0Definitely. \u00a0Will that result in me taking more breaks (a break meaning a switch from free-style to breast-stroke)? \u00a0Most likely? \u00a0End result: \u00a0a slower swim time. \u00a0Another reality is that, again, I’m participating in this event with the world’s fastest athletes, so most will be way ahead of me in no time thus leaving me pretty far back and likely, with an ocean to myself. \u00a0That’s good because I’ll not get clobbered as often, but it’ll be slow going for sure. \u00a0For context, the fastest swimmers will be between 50 and 55 minutes. \u00a0My buddy Steve will be likely be between 58 and 62 minutes. \u00a0I’ll likely be between 90 and 100 minutes. \u00a0That’s a big margin! \u00a0On the bright side, at least Roya and my friends will have no problem trying to find me in the crowd. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
As most of my close friends know, I’m particularly good at Transition. \u00a0That is, for the uninformed, the timed section between the end of the swim and the beginning of the bike legs. \u00a0The clock never stops ticking, and athletes need to be able to “transition” from one sport to the other as fast as possible. \u00a0In short course events, I’ve been known to be among the fastest at this particular skill, and this past August, I actually “won” this swim-t0-bike transition (aka “T1”) at a race at Harriman State Park. \u00a0In this Ironman, I have no designs on being fast in T1. \u00a0I intend to take my time, get my clothing on right, apply plenty of sunscreen and anti-chafing creams, and stroll out of the changing tent to get my bike. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong: \u00a0I’m not going to purposely kill time and have a latte while discussing world politics with the volunteers, but I’m not going to fly through transition and potentially forget something or otherwise jeopardize the 112 mile bike leg.<\/p>\n
Once on the bike, I will ride at my Ironman pace. \u00a0What is that? \u00a0It’s the pace and speed where I feel comfortable. \u00a0If at any time, it feels like I’m working too hard, that my muscles are being strained, or that my heart rate is racing to levels that I’ve pre-determined to be too high, I will back off my effort level and find an easier one to settle into. \u00a0Now, this strategy is one that should take me through the entire race feeling good and ready for the marathon, but the reality is that there will be hill sections that will tax me physically and where muscle strain, high heart rate, and general fatigue will be unavoidable, and that’s part of any long course endurance event. \u00a0In my long training sessions leading up to Saturday, I rode up to Bear Mountain and did other long rides where the hills nearly destroyed me, so I expect that I should call upon those experiences and survive relatively unscathed.<\/p>\n
I’ve broken down the bike course into the following segments: \u00a01) \u00a0There is an out-and-back section of 10 miles where the course runs south of Kona for 5 miles and returns back to town. \u00a02) \u00a0There are about 33 miles of rolling hills between lava fields from town to the turn-off to Hawi. \u00a03) \u00a0The round trip from the turn-off, up to Hawi (including the 6.5 mile climb itself into horrible headwinds, and the 6.5 mile descent into what should be tailwinds but actually include tremendous gusts of sidewinds) is 36 miles (18 miles each way). \u00a04) \u00a0The return trip to town is another 33 miles. \u00a0Okay, four segments seem manageable, and assuredly I’ll find small segments within these once I’m out on the course thanks in part to the GPS watch that I’ll wear as well as the cyclometer on my bike with plenty of metrics for me to play with in my head. \u00a0Total time should be 6 hours and 40 minutes, but even a 7 hour bike leg would be just fine with me.<\/p>\n
The second transition, the bike-to-run transition known as “T2” will also not be conducted the way I would do so in a short course event. \u00a0I’m going to change my entire outfit and put on my Terrier Triathlon Team “kit”, reapply the sunscreen and creams, then set out to… gasp… run a friggin marathon.<\/p>\n
On the run, I’ve again broken it down into segments that I might be able to mentally manage. \u00a0The run course, like the bike course, sets out on a course that takes athletes south of town for about 5 miles. \u00a01) My goal is to run those first five miles at an easy pace and to not walk at all. \u00a0At the turn-around, I plan on walking a bit to get some nutrition and fluids. \u00a02) \u00a0I would LOVE to run those second five miles, taking me back into town, without walking once. \u00a0If that happens, I’ll be well on my way to a banner day. \u00a0Really, it’s that simple. \u00a0I will have knocked off just about 40% of the marathon just with that out-and-back section. \u00a0Amazing… if it happens. \u00a03) \u00a0The next 6 miles will be on the Queen K highway and there will be aid stations at each mile. \u00a0My goal will be to run to each aid station, walk if necessary through the aid station while getting some nutrition, then run again… and repeat. \u00a04) \u00a0There is a turn-off into the Natural Energy Laboratory that takes athletes closer to the shoreline, then turns again parallel to the beach going north. \u00a0To the turn-around point is two miles and it is said to be a challenging portion of the course, but as I sense, that’s most likely the case for athletes who have to brave scorching heat… because they’ll be so much faster and therefore face the hot sun. \u00a0I will be considerably slower and by the time I get to the Natural Energy Lab, it’ll be either dusk or night (the sun sets around 6 pm), so my expectation is to only face topographical challenges, not meteorological ones. \u00a0Really not sure what strategy to employ here, but this is essentially a four mile section… from the turn from the Queen K highway and back. \u00a0I suppose the goal is to survive. \u00a0Short and sweet. \u00a0If I have to employ a run\/walk strategy, so be it. \u00a0Goal is to just get through it however I have to. \u00a05) \u00a0When I get back to the Queen K highway, I’ll have about 6 miles left to go. \u00a0That’s about a 10k run. \u00a0Professionals can run a 10k in 35 minutes (the fastest ones closer to 30 minutes). \u00a0I might go a bit slower. \u00a0At this point, I’ll be at mile 20. \u00a0Psychologically, that’s amazing. \u00a0Seeing the number 20 will be so good for me, I’m sure of it. \u00a0Assuredly, I will be super tired and I fully expect to continue to employ the run\/walk strategy until… 6) \u00a0The final half-mile. \u00a0The course turns right onto Hualalai Road from the Queen K, then turns right again onto the famous Ali’i Drive. \u00a0From there, it’s probably just 2-3 minutes of running until the most famous of finish lines in all of endurance sports.<\/p>\n
As I write this, I can’t believe that I’ll have the amazing privilege to experience this. \u00a0I remember how amazing it felt to cross the finish line at Ironman Germany. \u00a0Ironically, that race was known as the European Championship and it was a big deal for all involved. \u00a0This is bigger, by a large margin. \u00a0I fully expect my eyes to be sweating a lot on Saturday evening, and that could result in some salty discharge from the corners of my eyes. \u00a0That is not crying; it’s eye-sweat!<\/p>\n
I’ll write a little more tomorrow. \u00a0For now, I’m horizontal at our house, and friends are all around me helping to keep me distracted. \u00a0I’ve been getting well wishes from friends from all over the US and internationally. \u00a0I can’t believe how generous and thoughtful everyone has been. \u00a0I am humbled by it, and I will be sure to go through my roll call on race day as I remember everyone who has offered so much love and support.<\/p>\n
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Okay, maybe that title to this post is overkill. \u00a0It’s not a storm I’m about to face really; it’s just a long day of doing exercise. \u00a0What seems like me trying to rationalize the Ironman isn’t far off from the truth. \u00a0All athletes have specific methods to deal with big events ahead of them. \u00a0For […]<\/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-693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693","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=693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}