First off, congrats to Ray Tissink with his 7th after there being rumors of a non-start a week before. Proud of the man.

It was The Big Show over the weekend. What a show indeed. In the last few years, the men have upped the game, with no clear favorite going into any Kona for the last few years. If you had a rough patch, you were out and only a perfect performance brought you the win. So how does the man called Crowie do it, so often, so well?

For me, he is the calm in the storm, the eye of the moving machine that is Ironman. Always quiet, always calm, always professional. If you look at his week before the race, switching 2 key sponsors, you have to know that it must have been a long few weeks leading into the race with those negotiations.

Add the pressure of winning 70.3 Worlds, just a few weeks before.

Don’t forget that he had a puncture in Vegas and raced having just come off anti-biotics, after a 4 months struggle with a virus.

Somehow, his preparation was perfect and his race was perfect. I would imagine him to be a delegator of epic proportions. He clearly has a team around him who he trusts who handle the pressure for him.

I would imagine he gave 50 interviews in the week before the race.

I imagine that he knew he had to cover every move and suss out which one would stick, then it was time to show everyone he COULD ride at the front. For me, it had nothing to do with the bike. His slowest marathon in a few years, despite running a 1:11 in Vegas tells you that he bikes his freaking heart out, hoping the poker face would not crack.

But he kept calm, managing energy on the run as Raelert & Jacobs chased, but for me, he won the race by riding almost too hard, running along the edge of a sword with his desire to be Champion, again. Hunger is beautiful thing to watch as it gets let out. Throw in a bit of anger, a dash of regret and a handful of calm and what you are left with is an incredible mix which gives that quiet power, that awesome-to-watch-goosebumps-power when the guy/girl passes you on the run, fluid, easy and looking like a Sunday stroll when you really know they are going FULL TILT.

Look at Chrissie – look at her patience, her resilience and her attitude. Man, I wish I had just some of that. When the moment obsessed media and minds went “she’s out of it, too far back”, I bet she was thinking “Be smart, ride your own ride, you have the run”. Inside, raging like a wounded buffalo, she picked off her competitors until simply, there were none left and the history book will show her as the victor, unbeaten at the distance, Champion of the World, again.

Watching the race unfold and reading some reports today made me realise that I need more calm, which in turn, means more confidence in my form. I know it comes from putting in the work and this weekend, I covered 350km on my bicycle and tapped out 15km of running at the end of a big week of exercise, so I am getting there. I found some quiet, powerful moments out there. Perhaps the Ellipsis is the Calm of a Champion. The pause to believe in yourself entirely, to back yourself when the chips are seemingly down but when you know that there are still miles to be covered, competitors to smash.

Either way, this weekend’s race was so full of lessons. We witnessed 2 races being raced for 226km, over 8 or 9 hours flat out. That is incredible. In the end, we saw the Calm of 2 great Champions triumph over the best in the world.

Great inspiration for the week.

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I recently discovered that I am a bit of a Quantified Self guy. I have also long been fascinated with what it takes to qualify for Kona. I come from a massive athletic background and had the perfect build up for Ironman racing as a kid (not that I even knew of Ironman racing until I was around 17). All these things count in my favor to qualify for Kona. So often I hear of guys who spent 6 years racing 18 Ironman’s to qualify and it breaks me a little inside when I hear their stories, especially those who have yet to qualify. Recently, Endurance Corner have started running a series on what it takes to qualify for Kona. This post is about the realists view on qualifying. It makes for fascinating reading.

by Alan Couzens, MS (Sports Science)

Last week I talked about the different improvement curves that I’ve observed for different types of athletes. I identified three basic athlete types: the natural, the realist and the worker.

As part of our new “How to Qualify for Kona” section that recently kicked off, I’m going to put some of those observations into the context of what it means to different types of athletes looking to qualify for Kona.

In a previous article for the Training Peaks site I conveyed some of the typical chronic training load ranges that I tend to see for athletes of different types and ability levels. The table from that article is reproduced below.

The times that qualify an athlete for Kona are getting faster by the year. The 2010 ranges for flat (Florida, Arizona, Brazil) and hilly courses (Lake Placid, CdA, St. George) for differing age-groups and genders is shown below.

So, comparing the two tables, if you’re a young(ish) male, you’ll likely need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/VO2 score of 60-67ml/kg/min* corresponding to a Chronic Training Load somewhere in the 75-150 TSS/d range. If you’re a young(ish) female, you’ll need the fitness level represented by a VO2max/score of 57-60 ml/kg/min* corresponding to a CTL somewhere in the 70-130 range.

*I am using VO2max here as a general indicator of fitness here, but in reality the components of ironman fitness necessary to qualify are more complex and multi-faceted. I elaborate on some of these factors here.

As I conceded in the training load piece, these are some pretty big ranges! In hours per week terms, we could be talking about an average training week as low as 10 hours or as high as 25 hours per week! This is where last week’s article on different athlete types comes in. There will be a fortunate 15% who can sign up for one of those “Get to Kona on 10 hours a week” plans and actually get to Kona on 10 hours a week! If you’re one of those athletes, you can close your browser; this piece isn’t for you. But for the vast majority of us, Kona level fitness is going to be take more – a lot more! If we convert these CTL numbers to hours: a chronic load of 18-20 hours week of easy-steady training for five or more months prior to the event.

Think about this, two-and-a-half to three hours a day of training, eight to 10 hours of work/commute, eight to 10 hours of (necessary) sleep, eating, bathing, etc., is going to lead to five or more months of very structured living and not doing much else. It is no coincidence that those who qualify typically have atypical work or family situations. Kona qualifiers have different fitness levels to the rest of us generally because they have different lives to the rest of us.

According to VO2max data from the Cooper institute, Kona qualifiers are in the top 0.5%-.0025% of the population when it comes to fitness. In other words, if you’re a young (college age guy) and we randomly sampled 200 folks from your dorm, you would consistently be the fittest. Taking this a little further, if you’re a 40-something guy living in a pretty good-sized town of 40,000 people, you’re the fittest guy in town! This kind of stat doesn’t happen without living a little differently to those 39,999 folks who have more “normal” fitness.

Faced with such stats, it is tempting to pull the genetics card, but based on what I’ve seen, genetics isn’t the limiter, at least when it comes to getting to Kona level fitness. The vast majority of folks respond to training load quite similarly and most of us have the potential to reach a very high level of fitness. As I suggested in the previous article on athletic types, for 70% of folks, if they do the work, Kona is within reach but setting up your life to do the work is another matter and for many it is far easier to attribute the limiter to genetics than to make the required change.

Merely setting up your life to have the space to fit in five months’ worth of 18 to 20 hour weeks of training in your Kona build isn’t enough. The realist knows that even with the life space to fit the training and sufficient attention given to recovery, you can’t just get up off the couch and throw down one 18 to 20 hour training week after another. You also need a fitness “base” to pull this off. So you’ll want to factor in a period of preparatory “training to train” weeks, progressively building up the fitness to tolerate the back to back big weeks that will comprise your Kona build.

Based on my experience, most folks coming in from normal active fitness levels are going to need to both be generally fresh and healthy (that is, come into the hard training unloaded), and have a base fitness of five to six months of preparatory training in the 12 to 15 hour range to tolerate those 18 to 20 hour weeks of your “get to Kona” push. If you’re coming from below normal fitness (less than 45 VO2) you’ll probably need another five to six months of preparatory “get in shape” work before even beginning the “train to train” period.

Additionally, we both know that your chances of putting together 20 or more back to back weeks in the 18 to 20 hour range without recovery isn’t good. You’re going to get tired and need some recovery weeks sprinkled in to your Kona build. In fact, if you manage a ratio of 3:1 loading to recovery weeks in the context of a 9-5 job and family life without getting sick or injured you’ll be doing very well! So that five months of specific training, more realistically becomes six or seven months.

Adding it all up, the realist should be planning for:

Six to 12 months of uninterrupted, consistent “basic training” to get ready to train for the event.
Six to seven months of focused “specific training” directed specifically towards your (first) Kona push.

This is harder than it sounds.

Think about how many ways life can get in the way over a 12 to 18 month period…

You start a new job/your work commitments increase beyond the 9-5.
You start a relationship/end a relationship/have relationship issues
Your family commitments increase
You get sick/a family member gets sick.
You get injured.
You move
You go on vacation
You race too frequently (and have too much time for each devoted to taper and recovery)
You/your significant other plans a home improvement project!

It only takes two weeks of disrupted training (or disrupted recovery) to lose a significant amount of fitness. Any of the above could lead to that. Any more than one of these interruptions over the course of a six month period and maintaining fitness will be a best case scenario. The realist doesn’t fight this, is aware of a certain level of unpredictability in life and is committed to “as long as it takes.”

That said, the realist is also going to be inherently aware of the consequences of inconsistency and is going to control the controllable and whatever they can to avoid the above and put together at least a couple of relatively uninterrupted seasons where their training load is limited by their level of fitness not by life circumstance. Gordo wrote about some of the proactive ways to enhance life stability in the intro article to the “How to Qualify” section.

Also, the realist is going to realize that there are no guarantees. While a VO2max of 60-67, a threshold of 85% and metabolic fitness of 4-5kcal/fat/min are all likely going to be necessary to qualify, they are not in themselves sufficient. You need both the fitness and a good day on an appropriate course to pull it off. In other words, you may need to put together more than one of these builds before high fitness and a good day coincide!

In my way of thinking, it is the combination of these factors (physiological, life and race) necessary for ironman success that make up the beauty of ironman racing. We’ll go into some of these additional factors that maximize your chances of qualifying in coming articles.

Until then…

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I will be back there sometime soon.

I miss the preparation, the discovery process of getting conditioned enough to rock over there. I miss the vibe, the energy and the people.

I will be back.

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Today I am leaving our wonderful accommodation in Kona for this place:

I am racing this weekend, just two weeks after Ironman Hawaii. A whole new experience, this training immediately after an Ironman. Will I do it again – hell yes. I feel way better than I ever have, two weeks after any previous Ironman. A combination of better preparation and better conditioning, sure, but also nice to have stayed active and kept moving. Exercise has been very light with only a few runs and lots of short bikes and swims. Feels pretty good.

Will upload some more Garmin stuff after the race, so you can see how that went. I am going to go all in with the Forerunner on Sunday, covering all 3 disciplines. It’s going to be very important to watch my top end heart rate as I would imagine I am going to have very little speed but a very solid sub maximal effort in me, so its going to be all about those last 5km on the run where I am either going to lose or gain 5minutes, which is podium in age group.

THBK Jnr did quite a cool interview for Xterra TV and you can catch that by clicking here…

Also, have a read at this, It’s what i`m going to be reading on the airplane to Maui. I need a break from my current book which I am slightly obsessed with. Thankfully its 1200 pages so lots to be obsessed about and much going on there, but a break is needed today.

Here is a great preview on the weekends race too…

I have new tires, new chainrings, new (well, have run in them to wear them in) shoes, new clothing, gear and all the energy inducing nutrition a dude could dream of. I am ready, set and hopefully, will save enough for the Spooky Forest and the last few hills home.

Have a great weekend out there…

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If THAT doesn’t get you pumped up, then nothing will. Right now I am on a jetplane, to Johannesburg, connecting to London, to Los Angeles and to Kona. I am shooting halfway across the globe for my moment, to rely on myself and only myself, to give myself a shot at the greatest triathlon race on the planet. Over the next few weeks I am going to attempt something truly ambitious.

Failure is not going to get into my head. Here is the bit you are going to love:

I cannot fail, because I am only going out there to race myself. I cannot lose or come second, because I am going to go out there and DEMAND everything from myself, because I owe it to myself. That is why I cannot fail. Once you learn this, one of the biggest lessons in life, you too will drop from watching the others, racing the others and you will too learn that the greatest competitor you will EVER face, is yourself.

I am going halfway across the globe to put myself in the toughest conditions ever, to race myself in the place that brings out the deepest, darkest moments to the very front of your mind like a sledgehammer beating on your forehead, because I want to know what it’s like to look myself in the eye and wipe away every morsel of doubt, every fear I have ever had and smash through it. I want to run through the pain and into pure release, glory personified with a blank stare running back to Alii Drive where that finishline will not define me, where it will be an Ellipsis before my simple life carries on.

I am going to go and smash my second place into a million pieces so that there is only a 1st place left for me. There may be 1800 competitors out there in Kona on raceday, but I am racing only 1 of them…

So when you ask me what my goals are, when you ask me if I am ready, if I am scared, the answers are here for all to see. Now watch that video again, go find yourself in the moment and race yourself, completely in your own world, where nobody is visible but the barrier that is stopping you from becoming the absolute best version of yourself.

Bring. It. On.

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With the wind howling on the weekend, I had to make my way out to Durbanville to ride what was supposed to be 114km in 3 hours. That was the goal. The attached Garmin file is therefor, a little misleading. There are a few km’s missing, where I am at fault for pressing the wrong buttons (I am still learning), right at the start. I had a mechanical issue out the gate and stopped the watch, only to realise this 10km down the road, which is too bad, as it was about the only 10km with tailwind. The rest was side on and not much fun. Learning to handle the new Urban Ninja wheels in this wind though, was a fantastic opportunity to test them in a race scenario.

Either way, the two main sections were covered at good pace and I called it with 8km to go for a bit of a cool down, as I was quite dehydrated (I went in the middle of the day and ran out of water at 10km to go, so just soft pedaled home until I could refresh before my t-run.

Nice little widget this, from Garmin. Something you`ll be seeing more of on here. I have, indeed, found an amazing new partner for 2010, and 2011, in Garmin. A big thank you, they have come to the party for the Kona trip in ways you cannot imagine. Also, this now makes me accountable for the mileage I do, as well as being able to show you what I am trying to achieve.

I wanted to push 37km/h for around 110km on the weekend. 37km/h gives me 4:51 at the Ironman distance. I went and found a course specific to Kona, with loads of rollers and drags. Indeed, only 600m in the 110km I have registered on the Garmin, but if you had to look at the altitude widget, you would find lots of little bumps in the road. What you will also not see is the headwind on the way home. In Kona, the wind kicks up once you get to the halfway mark, so simulating that meant having to suffer exactly like it, going through the mental notes of “damn, no tailwind to help early, and now, a headwind on the way home”.

Emotionally that is tough.

It took a lot of focus to do the ride on my own. Much bad language was heard around 80km by the birds and the bees. But you have to tough it out, get in the moment and make sure you get back home. I had SA Blog Awards to deal with that night, where Urban Ninja was voted the 2nd best sports blog in South Africa. Congrats to you, for voting so many times.

Just nice to beat all the football and rugby blogs… it shows you are a tight community who get involved. Thank you.

So, back to the brick. We do the brick because we want to simulate race day, what it feels like and to get a reality check on that.

For me, to have ridden the 114km mark in roughly 2:56-57 I reckon (factoring in 10km of downhill-esque riding missing from the data) at a heart rate of 141, I am super happy. I averaged around 145-148 in PE and will look to roughly do the same in Kona again. I am even more pleased that I was able to hold the same pace, into the headwind as with the tailwind on the way out. It took quite a bit more focus, effort and a higher heart rate for sure, but I managed.

My run after went great until about 2km when my mouth was so dry I had to make way for the Engen garage to get a coke into the system at 4km. Without a doubt, under fueled all day. When there is no aid station every 10km, its tough to stop and refill on a rural road. Still managed 6km in 25min. I only need to run 4:25 at Ironman to hit my ultimate goal, but the idea is to take it out a little harder in these bricks, but to follow the watch religiously in Kona. Hopefully, the thought goes, it will seem quite easy then, and that is the point, because when I hit the lab, I want to be able to shift a gear…

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I believe I am going to be talking to my legs many a moment in the next few weeks as I absolutely do my best to obliterate them into being the strongest, leanest most economically endurance sports orientated pins in the world. Well, my world at least. The aim is to build a bit more strength for the purposes of going up the volcano in Maui on the mountain bike, but for me the greatest gain I wish to make is more economy at slightly faster speeds.

In true style, I am even going to tell you how I plan on doing it. Then you will sit back and watch and if it works, follow the rules, but if I crash and burn, laugh and point… right? You with me sunshine?

Swim:

I am going back to squad as of 1 August 2010. 8 weeks with squad should sort me out 1 shot in terms of open water swimming (by open water I mean in the sea with the turtles in Kona) for the Ironman swim. No wetsuits allowed, even if I will have an Orca RS1 Swimskin to help me along.

Last Kona I neglected my swim a little and I missed a key pack early on. 8 weeks of hopefully chasing the White Rabbit in the pool will make me a better man.

Bike:

So apart from having what will be the most tricked out Ceepo Katana in Kona, as well as the most tricked out Morewood Zula for Maui, I actually need to work on the bike, as I will have to do for the next 5-60 years of my life. Work on the bike never stops, contrary to popular belief.

Some of the key components to building a faster bike (Maui):

a. Threshold training (AT)
b. Weight Loss
c. Mental coaching (the pain means its good, right?)
d. Bike skills (learn to bomb down a volcano in the big ring like a Caveman or a Gollywog (when he doesn’t shave for 2 days))
e. More ME work (endurance power)

They key components for the Kona bike are different to the one in PE, by virtue that the course has about triple the climbing in. So here are my focus points:

a. ME work (sustained power) for the rollers, of which there are MANY in Kona.
b. Aero climbing, so staying aero over the rollers by teaching the body to remain aero and get the extra power to be as economical as possible.
c. Pack riding. I will more than likely be in a group of 40 guys in Kona, not on my own like PE, so I have to practise a bit of pace variance as the advantage of the pack is huge.
d. Economy. The run in Kona is freaking brutal. I need to bike as easy as possible, but want to ride under 5 hours again. This means I have to be stronger than in PE, but also that it has to be sustainable for 3 hours after the ride.

Run:

I have enrolled in a testing program at the Sport Science Institute here to learn a little more about my running. I outran best hopes in PE by 5 minutes, and almost outran it by 15minutes if I had just known a little more about my running. I am hoping the lactate testing, VO2max etc will give me a better insight into how I need to be training to achieve what I want to on the run in Kona. I will continue to use all the things which have taken me from 3:52 to 3:15 on the marathon at PE but I wanted to try something new, so according to the smartest people around, we are going to work on my ability to run more economically, not necessarily faster. The speed will come as a byproduct. More than anything, I want to be able to run stronger over the last 10km than I did in PE. Not by much, all I am looking for is a 10% extra at the end of the race. I faltered in PE due to a bloated stomach (too much sugar) and ill preparation (Sani2c and Cape Epic limited running in the last 8 weeks before Ironman) and this time around there are no excuses to NOT have that 10%.

Maui – realistically, I am going to be hanging on for dear life at that point, running a super tough 11km beach/rock/road/mud run 2 weeks after Kona, but I am going to try and remain calm and rip the legs off it.

In the middle, during this big block of training, however, my legs will come and go. Today, for instance, it hurts when I sit still (mean new gym set on Monday being the major culprit). I have hurt them this week already, but now need to manage the recovery process to the weekend where 10 hours of training await the poor pins. There is planned massage and floatation planned, so I should be ok. If I do blow up, you will be first to know, saying “I told you so”.

If I don’t push the limits out, I will never know how good I could possibly be. I am willing to risk the occasional blow out to know how far the rabbit hole goes, if you know what I mean?

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this, from one of my favorite new sites, First Off the Bike

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Wellington and Alexander rule Kona

The day started off with a bit of wind but this dropped as the athletes jumped into the warm waters of the bay. With the navy SEALS doing there thing and jumping into the bay from a few thousand feet the cannon sounded to send off the pros. All the talk was done and all speculation as now going to end.

The swim was the usual affair with the pros all drifting from the start as the poor officials were getting pasted by them as they tried to restore order. By the time the cannon went it was a bit of free for all with so many edging ahead. By the end of the swim it was Andy Potts who got out ahead of the rest. He proceeded out on the Queen K Highway but was not really expected to ride away with this one. One guy who got out early was British athlete Phil Graves. He is a real talent and had talked up a bike course record pre race. What he was getting was a lesson in the lava fields as he slowly lost hi momentum.

The real momentum was with Chris Lieto as proceeded to write the damage report for this year’s edition of the race. Not content to just sit in the bunch he took off out of Hawi and rode away. The groups splintered on the road with the other athletes not quite knowing how hard to chase. it was decision time for the rest of the group and the end result was a a broken up bunch and pros strung out on the highway.

The women’s race was not going to script for the other contenders. Linsey Corbin and Teresa Macel were nowhere to be seen and Wellington was opening up a lead that would prove insurmountable. The rest of the women were riding hard but making little impact. Wellington had booked a ticket to a sub 5 hour bike time and had not invited anyone else along for the ride.

So it was going to come down to this. Could the hare out run the hound. Crowie had done this before in other races but all the mail pointed to the improved running of Lieto. Throw in upstart Andreas Raelert Chris McCormack and the mix was complete. Macca was the first to crack, walking through some aid stations. Then went Raelert before Crowie was able to pull away front the rest and do what he does best. His marathon time (2:48) was some 14 minutes better than the time set by Lieto. Lights out.

For Wellington she has no challengers except herself and the clock. She is immune from those would take her crown. She’s 8 for 8 over this distance and it would have taken a truck to stop her. While all her competitors imploded she remained calm and continued to apply pressure. In the end it was a new record set on this course and buoyed on by the voice of Ironman Mike Riley she greeted the tape with her trade mark smile and roll across the line. She was then joined by her family to soak up the line and wait a full 19 minutes before young Aussie Mirinda Carfrae ran herself into second with a 2:56. Carfrae’s time was also a course record. Rounding out the top three was Virginia Berasategui.

But the day belonged to Alexander and Wellington. They came into this race with all the pressure on them and delivered on the world’s biggest stage.

Women’s Results

1. 8:54:02 Wellington, Chrissie 54:31/4:52:07/ 3:03:06
2. 9:13:59 Carfrae, Mirinda 58:45/5:14:18/2:56:51
3. 9:15:28 Berasategui, Virginia 58:52/5:01:42/3:10:43
4. 9:23:43 Macel, Tereza 53:29/5:04:17/3:21:12
5. 9:25:48 Keat, Rebekah 57:17/5:15:50/ 3:04:32

Mens Results

1. 8:20:21 Alexander, Craig 50:57/4:37:33/2:48:05
2. 8:22:56 Lieto, Chris 51:07/4:25:11/ 3:02:35
3. 8:24:32 Raelert, Andreas Drage 51:00/4:38:01/2:51:05
4. 8:25:20 McCormack, Chris 52:51/4:32:45/ 2:55:59
5. 8:28:17 Henning, Rasmus 51:06/4:37:07/ 2:55:33
6. 8:28:52 Bracht, Timo 54:30/4:33:49/2:56:27
7. 8:29:55 Bockel, Dirk 50:50/4:37:29/2:57:42
8. 8:30:15 Jacobs, Pete 50:03/4:38:41/2:57:14
9. 8:30:30 Potts, Andy 47:45/4:46:07/2:52:15
10. 8:31:44 Al-Sultan, Faris 50:53/4:33:40

    firstoffthebike.com’s Kona coverage is presented by Powerbar.

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Right now you are going about your day like it’s any other day…

but 12 hours behind SA there is a small town on the Big Island of Hawaii going through the best week of the year. The Big Show happens this week. Last year I was there, blessed to be a part of the action. this year, I have many friends racing. Big up to Greg, Sarah, Marta, James, Johan, Sandra, Bek, Yvette et al for making it there this year – biggest SA contingent ever I reckon.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, watch the clips here and here.

Its Ironman World Champs time.

Goosebumps

I will post my predictions on thursday, but I expect a superb contest to go down in the mens race, and yes, in the womens race as well. Its not the Chrissie show anymore.

I wish I was there this week. Its the coolest week of the year. Definately going back, sooner than later….

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these are some of the best videos out there…

goosebumps all over after that one…nice little intro.

Now for the big daddy. Let all 7 minutes load, grab a cup of coffee and let it sink in. Turn the volume up. Close the office door. Prepare for it. Take it all in. I know I did…

Now carry on with your life. As if that never happened. Pretend that you wouldn’t give up everything to have been there. That it wouldn’t consume you once you were there. That you wouldn’t be inspired, just as a spectator, to compete this year in an Ironman.

Pretend you don’t want it. I dare you. I double dare you.

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