My Body

My body tells me no but I won't quit
Cause I want more, cause I want more

Crush dreams in Kona y'all! Though I can't be there, I'll be suffering with you because I just realized my 50-miler is on the very same day on October 8. My goal is to finish faster than the first place pro male at Kona, and to help me get there, this tune has served me well in training and will be on replay in my head come race day. I hope it serves you well too!

Sans Feedback

I am thinking about racing my next ironman with no feedback (power meter, Garmin, etc...), except for maybe a watch but only so that I can keep track of my nutrition. Though I think feedback is generally useful, where it can go wrong is when you are having an off day, or a bad patch on the course. If you aren't hitting your wattage or holding your pace, what good is it to quantify how bad you are doing? Racing for most people is about getting to the finish line in the least amount of time, and for those chasing championship slots, finishing ahead of your competition. At any point in the race, you should be going as hard/fast as you can but still finish the race in the shortest time possible. Also, feedback can lead to self-imposed limits, but what if your body is totally "on" and ready to race to a PR; and in the process breaking previous wattage/pace barriers. I wouldn't recommend racing "blindly" for most people, but for someone like myself, who has had such bad luck at the ironman distance, I'm ready to give this a go. I have yet to nail down an IM distance race, and I carry lots of demons from previous races. I just want to race IM Canada on feel, and just be in the moment with no clue as to how good or bad I'm doing.

I practiced this type of racing during my ride out to Hawi today. I did the entire ride on feel, with my sole goal being to finish the ride feeling strong. I didn't quite nail the feeling strong part, but I found it a nice change to not know how off the mark I was when I was riding tired. I just kept asking myself if I was riding as strong/fast as I can knowing that I have this much of the ride left. So at any point during those last fatiguing 25 miles, I was always trying to ride as fast as I could and still finish in the least amount of time. And the result? I finished averaging just 0.1 mph slower than my PR pace for this ride. I would have never guessed I was that close to my PR based on the way I was feeling. Had I saw numbers, I think I would have just beaten myself up mentally. What's that saying, "Ignorance is bliss?"

I fly home tomorrow, and I have a lot of fond memories from this trip. In typical fashion, I made a video of some of the highlights from the trip. There were definitely more highlights (training with Michelle), but my camera stopped taking pictures and videos.

And finally, I have a new Kona favorite. Check out Basik Acai! I had a nice talk with one of the very young owners yesterday, and the guy impressed me. He came off as a compassionate capitalist, and his desire to feed people good food in a place with a good vibe is worthy of your support. I'm a big fan of wheat grass shots and he told me, good wheat grass, like the organic stuff he sources from Kona, taste a bit sweet and not bitter like the cheap stuff. Basik Acai also has a Facebook page. My favorite is the Banyan Bowl.

Three Day Camp

I'm still on a training high from my three day training camp with Michelle, maybe that's why I'm still up at 9:41 PM composing this entry (or maybe it's all the e21 recovery pills Michelle was pushing on me...gladly received I might add). I'll do another blog on my experience with this remarkable little pill. All I can say is that Michelle is the real deal. Our first bike ride was a 109 miler to Hawi, and I was scared shitless. Yeah, it was blowing like hell that day, but even more scary was the speed at which we started the ride. I had already been on Kona for close to one week, and I had gone on several group rides, mostly with men, and not once, did we start a ride as fast as the day I rode with Michelle. If you could see Michelle ride a bike, you would get a strong sense that she is in her element. All the way out to Hawi, even more scary than the wind pushing me off my bike, was the fear that I would bonk trying to keep her pace. But with each check of the body, I was hanging in there and gaining confidence. On the way back from Hawi, this guy on a Trek Speed Concept wearing a Radio Shack kit (i.e. he looked like pro) went flying by us and yes, Michelle hopped on his wheel. I was immediately dropped and for two miles or so, I was riding about 15 meters behind them, in no man's land, torn if I should be sensible and drop back or just commit to a potential blow up and sprint onto a wheel. I eventually decided to sprint and get on their wheel. After 5 or so minutes of being on their wheel, I realized that I had some spunk in me, especially on the little risers so I decided to take the lead. It was both scary and exhilarating. I was scared that I would bonk because the effort was just too hard for a 109-miler, and exhilarated because I was hanging in there. We hammered it all the way home, splitting a 5:13 for 100 miles. The ride was such a confidence booster because I actually felt strong the last 20 miles, a rarity for me.

The second day started with an hour warm-up followed by 8 x 5 minute hill climbs in the big ring, holding 30-40 rpm's. Michelle asked me if I had any IT band issues, and when I responded no, she said that I had the green light to grind the gears so hard that I was going to rip my knee caps off, or some part of my glute/hip muscles (she didn't quite say this but this was the feeling I had). During the warm-up, I felt like death. But once we started the hill climbs, I really really enjoyed the nature of the workout. We were able to keep a low heart rate and rather than fatiguing our heart, we were fatiguing our muscles. Before the workout, Michelle said we had the green light to ride as much as 4 hours and I was thinking, yea right. But after the hill climbs, somehow I was so motivated to ride and we ended up getting in 3.5 hours and 63 more miles of saddle time. After the ride, it was an 8 mile run off the bike, and I felt absolutely freaking amazing! It was pure type 1 fun as I was running, and I was getting goose bumps during the run because I was so happy because I felt so great. We finished the day with a pool swim at Kona Aquatics.

The final day started with a morning ocean swim followed by a great breakfast sitting on the rocks right by the water. Michelle was being the poster child for the benefits of being a coffee drinker, and I was struggling to stay awake. The plan was to back up two solid days of training with an ironman effort focused long run. And we nailed it! In fact, we nailed every workout, and that my friends, is why I'm on such a training high.

Michelle was an awesome training partner, but a picture-taker, not so much. My camera is kaput, finito and though she brought a camera, it never made an appearance. Where Michelle lacks in picture taking, she more than makes up as a training partner. She is both tenacious and detailed. I've never ridden with anyone who carries ALL of their nutrition for every ride. I was a patron of at least 3-4 different markets while Michelle never stepped foot in one. The other great thing about Michelle is that she always thinks like a coach. I have a tendency to sabotage workouts because of stupid things like going out too hard, or not paying attention to nutrition. She was always saying things like, if you bonk because you are riding too hard or not eating enough, I'm not pulling you home. At every point during our training, she always appeared to be in control. Our time together was a perfect balance of intensity, relaxation, and laughter. Can you tell I'm now a big Mama Simmons fan? And finally, when I think about this training camp, I have to thank her husband (Scott) for agreeing to let his wife fly to some island to stay with some man she met over the internet. You gotta love the 21st century.

Fun Scale

I have a scale to rate the different types of fun in my life. Type 1 fun is when you are enjoying the fun in real time. Type 2 fun you don't actually enjoy until it is over. Type 3 fun takes months or years of reflection, and only then do you recall it as fun. I flew into Kona on Wednesday and ran 8.5 miles, and followed it up with a swim at Kona masters. Both activities were type 1 fun, I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I was running and swimming. The following day, I biked the South Loop with the Kona group and once again, it was type 1 fun, even the hammerfests up the hills. Friday was an early masters swim workout and I was tired, relegating the fun to more of a type 2. However, there were definitely moments of type 1 fun during the swim. I ran 9.5 miles in the afternoon and once again, it was a mixture of type 1/2 fun. The plan called for a hundo ride on Saturday, and my body was feeling both the heat and the previous two days of training. I did not want to ride hard at all, and I just wanted to get time in the saddle. My plan was to start with Kaitlin and the Kona crew at a social pace and then break off and do my long ride. I flatted and my friend Jano waited for me, telling me that he would be my domestique to pull me back to the group, what a nice gesture I thought. The nice gesture, however, was lost when I was swearing at Jano in my head as we basically time-trialed 25 miles to get back to the group. This was not how I wanted to start my 100-miler. Thoughts of changing the plan and just cutting the ride short crossed my mind. But type-A/OCD triathlete reared his ugly head and next thing I knew, I'm rolling toward Hawi and doing my 100-miler. The last 20 miles were rough, not bad enough to be type 3 fun, but definitely type 2, and I couldn't wait to be done. Today's 50 mile ride and 10 mile run off the bike was definitely type 2 fun. I just wanted to be done with the training, and once done, I knew I would be happy (and think it was fun) because I finished another solid block of training.

Unlike my prep for IM CDA, I made a goal to never hit type 3 fun in my IM Canada training. If I think it's going to be a type 3 fun day, I'll take the day off. Tomorrow is a rest day, just an ocean swim and some canoe paddling with my friend Jason, both very much type 1 fun. And then on Tuesday, Michelle flies in for what she promises to be three epic days of training, and knowing Michelle, she's gonna be pushing my type 3 fun limits.

My Favorite [Kona] Things

Unlike Oprah and her favorite things, I won't be able to give you anything other than some advice. Since arriving on the island Wednesday, training is going really swell. Superman is a mere mortal on his home planet of Krypton, but on earth, the sun gives him superpowers. I feel like Superman and Kona is my sun. I don't know why but I always train really well over here. I know some of you will be on the island in a couple of months, for reasons far more bigger than my little training camp. Thus, I've been documenting some of my favorite things:
• Hayashi's: It's not the best sushi I've had but it is damn cheap, best eaten post hard and long workout because it will taste a lot better, and it won't empty your wallet.• South Loop Ride: This was one of the first rides that Bree shared with me, and I still have fond memories of the painted church, picking mangos and avocados, and coming across a bunch of free lemons. It's nice to get off the Queen K and if you like climbing, this is the ride for you. Southern Kona is also very different scenery and a must see.• Island Naturals: I think I end up here at least once per day. The hot food and salad bar is great. It ain't cheap but if your philosophy is that your body is your temple, then you'll want to eat and shop here.• Kona Aquatics: Good people, good coach, good facility, and it's free (I think, I've never paid)! But if you swim a masters workout, Coach Steve does not do the paddle and buoy thing, so out of respect, save the equipment for when you swim on your own during rec hours.• Farmer's Market on Alii: Not everything is certified organic and it's geared toward tourists, but great if you are looking to pick up cheap papayas and mangos.• And finally, if you are lucky, anything from Bree's kitchen: I came over to borrow her car to do some shopping, and waiting for me was some homemade granola. This chica is so generous, and I'm so lucky to know her.