Fiona was tired and she slept in. I went to the ART Massage tent in front of the King K hotel and met up with Natasha who my Chiropractor, Craig Sperling, in from the Alice Therapeutic Center in Alice Springs put me in contact with. Craig has been to Kona before working on athletes so had some good connections including this woman based in Seattle who has come to Alice Springs before. Craig is Canadian and they went to school together. It was a good experience and I’ll be going back for the rest of the week. I dropped off Sami at the bike shop to remove the screw I threaded. (Last time I did this on Shelly after Busso’13, they had to use a saw after the race. Then I had to get a new part from Scott and Profile Design and I was without the bike for a month or two! Be careful fastening screws!

I hit up the store to make Pesto Pasta for dinner, rented A Hologram of a King with Tom Hanks which was interesting, and saw Yvonne Van Lierken and Lionel Sanders on Alii Drive. Back at the condo Fi’s Mom Wendy and sister Jacinta (who competed here in 2009 taking 6^th in her a/g) arrived early. We drove to the airport to pick them up and there were many more cars and people around. Then it was just hanging out for the rest of the day spending time off the feet while Mom and Jacinta went to the beach down Alii Drive.

I have updated my training log and Strava and here are the numbers for the 14 week Kona Season (not including Race Week): 284.7 hours, split 19% swim, 61% bike, 19% run, and an extra 4% of non segments. Average 20.2 hours/week, One week of 29.4 hours/week split up with 3  – 3 week Builds of 2 on, 1 off (to time the marathon and get adequate recovery). It included 2 Big Day Outs of 8 hours at race intensity with the highest power ever held on the bike, the highest FTP test I’ve ever hit, and a 3:19 marathon half way through the training for 2^nd place in the Alice Springs Marathon. I completely changed my cycling training, got a swim coach, and kept up the running including more outside. We also hit the sauna 3x at Mombasa Day Spa (Incredible Sponsorship!) in the week leading to our departure. I carried most of this direction to Fiona who truly looks at me as her Coach so next season (IMNZ) I’ll make sure to continue pushing higher to new levels and upping my game for her.

Totals for the year as of today are: 326,890 swimming meters, 7,018 Cycling Miles, 981 Running miles. 641 hours total. The first 2 disciplines are greater than 2008 – 2014 yearly totals even with 3 months left in the year. The running has been reduced with recovery from Ironman Cairns and the Alice Springs Marathon with focus on the bike.

Fiona mentioned that the Heroes of Hawaii was on so we decided to head on down and see what it was all about and boy are we sure happy we did so!

The cultural event had lots of different stalls with raffle tickets. I saw a local show how to open a coconut. I drank the milk and ate some of the coconut. Tried local honey and tea as well. There was a band, dancing, and singers. The free event included a luau with local foods and I actually had 2 servings of pig which is the first meat I’ve had in probably 3 months; I figured it was the most natural pig possible probably quite far away from all the shit that is usually in processed meat. They pulled it out of the ground too. Then, the best part. I saw Dave Scott and Mark Allen. Then I saw Peter Reid, the voice of Ironman Mike Reiley, then we saw Paula Newby Fraser, Heather Fuhr, and Kathleen McCarntey who are pretty much all Ironman Hall of fame athletes and the absolute legends of Triathlon. We heard them speak and then got to meet them, shake their hands, and get autographs on 2016 IM Posters.

After an autograph session and a raffle win of an Ironman bag that we got fully autographed, we headed home for Classico Pesto Rigatoni Pasta with Bread. In bed by 10pm after introducing American Apple Pie and American Pumpkin Pie to my Aussie Family.