So how about that Kona? Man, if you are like me, then you’re not entirely happy with the results. I’m not the biggest fan of Ryf or Lange, pretty much not a fan at all. They look so fresh especially at the end of the run and I just think, “That’s not possible”. But, I love Kona, this sport, and I look forward to this day each year. While I am in the pursuit of getting back and experiencing it again for myself, watching the full show was fantastic. Watching on Facebook Live with 60,000 others from around the world made me realize how small our sport is; not even enough people to fill the Superbowl stadium that is witnessed by 100million. But, I like this sport because it is not for everyone. But it is for my wife and me and this weekend was an awesome weekend for us.

I had Friday off. I did a 90min bike ride at 100TSS (the effort of an all out 40K Time Trial taking about 1 hour. I was in London (On Zwift) and climbed some hills for some quality Zone 3/Zone 4 work. Later I did a 45min lift (since my Rhombus and Traps are extremely weak and have been causing much unrest during bike and runs so with 5 weeks left till IRONMAN Arizona, I’m trying to add a bit of strength to them.

Saturday, we started with a 3x1KM Swim at 8:11am in the outdoor 25m, heated, salt-water pool. We drove the 90sec back home and put on Facebook Live tuned into the pre-start of the 2018 IRONMAN World Championship. For the next 6 hours we biked watching the biggest day in our sport. I held around 240 watts for the first 3 hours and then started feeling it. We had Hawaiian Punch, Cokes, Red Bulls, Bagels, Toast, and mandarins. I rode the longest since this day 1 year ago. It was 6 hours and 273 TSS which is just above an IRONMAN Bike Effort. In other words, I plan on burning the same amount of effort in about 4hr45min in 5 weeks vs the 6hours it took me yesterday. Of note is that this 228 watt effort was the highest intensity I’ve held for this long of a ride. And, because being on a trainer is one of the best ways to improve at cycling, I only had 12 minutes of Zone 1/Recovery.

We went to Miss Saigon, the best Vietnamese Restaurant in Tucson and head to bed around 10pm after a massive Brownie Sundae from The Screamery.

We woke up at 5:15am and drove 30min to the University of Arizona. We registered for the Jim Click 8km run where we joined some of Fiona’s work mates. With yesterdays 6hr ride/50min swim the idea was to go out at a Tempo pace or ideally what we’d hold for the first miles of the IRONMAN which was 7:15/mile.

After watching wheelchair athletes and Team Hoyt head off we started a few rows back on the Gun Timed race. We took off and I quickly dialed Fiona and I into a 7:10 pace. The entire course was essentially flat with some slight undulations looping the UofA Campus. It had just downpoured and puddles were everywhere. At first I tried to get away from them, then I though “Screw it, when do you get to run in rain?”. Then I was leaping into the puddles. Athletes took off at the start including local Professional Triathlete Jesse Vondracek who is from upstate NY and just won a race that my own mother was a volunteer at, he was 5th overall male. Lauren Reasoner was also there who is an incredible runner taking 26^th Female in the Boston Marathon and from our town of Sahuarita, she was 3rd overall female

Within 2 minutes of the run, I was happy that I had decided to go Zone 3 with a manageable 7:15 pace goal because I haven’t done any Threshold work and would certainly have struggled with that effort. Breath rate was a solid tempo pace and it felt quite manageable. 7:11 mile 1, 7:11 mile 2, 7:09 mile 3 when we came up alongside a girl and I thought “Ok Fi, you gotta drop her now, make the move”. So I did, and Fiona came. Mile 4 with some slight down hill at 7:05, and then I thought, why not? And I wanted a 6:53 mile. Instead I got a 6:58 and grabbed Fiona’s hand running across the line.

I dialed in the Tempo goal also because last years results told me I had no chance with the top 3 in my a/g running 25minutes for the 5 miles. So my effort was an 8^th place finish but netted Fiona 2^nd in her A/G! We both really had a lot of fun on this run and it was good confidence for us.

After a trip to Amy’s doughnuts and other errands we were back on the treadmill and ran another 15 miles to total 20miles on the day.

It’s been my best 2 weeks in my IRONMAN Arizona preparations. 1000TSS back-to-back weeks, our 6^th week of a long run day totaling 20 miles or longer, 19.6 hours of total training, All-Time-Best swim fitness, 43run miles on the week after 46 last week, and my longest ride of the season with an IRONMAN Cumulative intensity.

I am still trying to work on my weakness (My mind on the run) but I’m enjoying it and looking forward to once again becoming an IRONMAN. This week coming up is our second Big Day Out (1hr swim, 5hr bike, 2hr run). Stay tuned!!!