Being something of a relentless perfectionist with high standards, wanting to get the best out of myself, I've been thinking about how I could have performed better in Kona. Certainly a sub-10 is possible, and I would think I could probably do a sub 9:50 and possibly a sub 9:40. If I chose to spend a huge amount of money on a new uber-bike, then there would be a small chance that a sub-9:30 might be possible.
Even if I did a sub-9:30 at Kona, it would be nowhere near topping any age-group podiums or anything, but that's not the point. The point is to get the most out of yourself! However, improving my 10:05 time at Kona wouldn't necessarily be the problem, but qualifying to get back to Kona would be, if I decided that it was something I wanted to target again...
I would also love to go to a flat Ironman course like Barcelona and see just how fast I could go. If I am saying that a sub-9:40 might be possible at the hot, windy, humid and fairly hilly Kona course without having to buy a new uber-bike, then surely at a course like Barcelona (which is flatter, and less harsh in terms of heat, wind and humidity) a sub 9:30 would be possible...?
An interesting saying is "You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything..." meaning that you can target excellence in one thing, but not everything, as has been evidenced by not being the best runner I could possibly be over the years that I've been doing triathlon.
But I think if I had to target either a fast Ironman PB or going back to Kona, I would target qualifying for Kona again. To me, a two-time Kona qualifier with a Kona PB of something like 9:47 would be worth more than a 1-time Kona qualifer with a Kona PB of 10:05 and an Ironman PB of 9:29.
Which begs the question: why not just qualify for Kona at Barcelona then...? Simply because I am not good enough! You'd need to do something like 8:30 to 8:40 to qualify at Barcelona. I know what is realistic or not. 8:30 is beyond me. Which begs another question: why not chase an Ironman PB at Barcelona after Kona? Well I'd have to first qualify to get back to Kona (which may never happen), go to Kona, and then decide to do yet another season of Ironman after that...
Anyway, all that is not really for consideration or discussion right now...
After reflecting on and dissecting my Kona experience and Kona race, I came up with the following list of what I could/would/should do to improve my Kona time.
1. Don't race the world sprint and standard triathlon championships 6 weeks after your Kona qualifying event and 6 weeks before Kona! This is too tiring, and short-course training is very different to long-course training. Focus entirely on Kona and on long-course Kona-specific training.
2. Don't force the Kona-specific training. I probably forced it just a little bit too hard (which is a product of not having quite enough time after the world sprint and standard championships to prepare exactly as I would have liked for Kona. I probably did a little too much heat training, and came down with a cold the week before travelling to Kona, because I was so fatigued and had asked a bit much of my body. I could have been a bit fresher going to Kona. The excitement and adrenaline of it being Kona probably helped to carry me through.
3. Don't over-do things in Kona in the 7 days before the race. With hindsight, I did too much. It's a difficult balance between enjoying the trip of a lifetime and seeing and doing "fun"/touristy things, and maintaining focus on the race. The priority should have been the race. The long day spent travelling to and from Volcano National Park was a trip too far and ended up wrecking my neck.
4. Build a lot of "doing nothing" time into the week before Kona. Sitting (in the shade) by the pool or by the ocean is better than chasing round Hawaii being a tourist. I was constantly on the go during race week. At the time, it felt sensible and fine and manageable and enjoyable (apart from the sore neck), but again, adrenaline and excitement probably helped carry me through. Had I been at home, my preparation would have been different in race week.
5. Don't get too much sun during race week, and don't forget that in the heat, you will dehydrate, so drink. But don't over-drink - it's a delicate balance.
6. Travel with a friend who can take the strain - I was with three others in Kona but we all arrived at different times. I arrived first and so had to deal with sussing everything out myself. I "most needed" someone to help with the travel, luggage and associated thinking needed to get from one side of the world to another, as opposed to "needing" help when everything was "set up" in Kona in terms of car rental, luggage handling and unpacking, settling into the condo etc.
7. In the mornings don't let waking up time slip - the couple of mornings after arrival were early wake-up mornings, due to the jet lag. As time passed, waking up got later and later. I should have gone to bed at 8pm and got up at 5am consistently as then the body would have been better ready for the early start on race day.
8. I knew the course well, but I should have "learned" transition better when I was racking my gear. I should have insisted to my volunteer helper when I was racking in transition that I needed 10-20 minutes to walk through it all as it would happen on race day, from the points of view of swim exit, bike exit, bike in and run exit, and taken photos that I could look back over later to imprint it all in my brain. I made a mess of my transitions (in particular the swim to bike transition), I couldn't find my blue bag in the melee when I'd finished the swim, and was not at all mentally ready for the heaving, sweaty mass of bodies in a small transition area - usually when I'm in transition I'm one of the first out of the water and mostly have the transition area to myself, but in Kona everyone is a fast swimmer and a lot of people all exit the water at the same time. Which means transition is chaos...!
9. My swim wasn't bad. It was salty and long. It was a good call not to do the official full-length practice swim, this would have just tired me out. I should have been more careful entering the water and wading out to the start, as I stood on a stone and it hurt (although it turned out to be superficial, it could easily have been a lot worse). I wasn't at all mentally ready for or expecting the super-strong swimmers in the starting waves behind me to come charging over the top of me. Coke and water in transition was good to get rid of the saltiness. And I made sure to have suncream put on, which I thought was a very good idea.
10. Going up Palani hill for the first time on the bike, I was intentionally so slow compared with most others. Still, I was doing 240 watts, which isn't that low. People were absolutely flying up the hill, which I am sure would cost them later in the race. As 6-time champion Dave Scott told me, "the bike doesn't start until you get to the airport..." (which is after about 15 miles).
11. Knowing how to approach the aid stations on the bike: pour any remaining water over your head and body, ditch the empty bottle, grab a new cold bottle and put it in the bottle cage, grab a gatorade and have a swig then ditch the gatorade bottle. All while watching out for other riders, staying upright, and not hitting any discarded bottles (this nearly caught me out at one aid station). You had to be on the ball with all of this, and it took me a few aid stations to develop a system for getting through them effectively.
12. A lower front end on the bike, with narrower arm pads, and aero bars angled closer together to make my hands more of a single unit, would have made me more aero and therefore faster. And, a more aero computer mount would also help, as would reducing the amount of bar tape on the base bars and making sure the bar tape only remained on the front of the hand grips rather than following the curve of the bars. Small gains here with the aero computer mount and bar tape, but it all adds up...
13. Faster tyres and (latex) tubes (all at higher risk of puncturing) would make me faster.
14. Better clothing - I had a cheap pair of shorts and an old top - a new super-tight, wrinkle-free, super-aero skinsuit would make me faster. Also, you can buy aero socks and aero arm cooling sleeves, which would also help.
15. A new uber-bike: When I started triathlon in 2010-2011, £6k would have got you a really top-end bike. My bike isn't bad but it's getting on for 10-year old technology now. A new uber-bike these days could cost £15k-20k. It would have a fully integrated front end, no visible cables, properly integrated hydration and storage, electronic gear shifting, hidden aero brakes, the best bearings, CeramicSpeed jockey wheels, top-end super-light components, the best wheels, 11-speed gears, the latest and stiffest carbon fibre, the best of everything. Undoubtedly it would make you faster... I can dream... this is the only time-saver than is unrealistic for me to implement, unless I suddenly become very wealthy. But instead of a new aero bike, I can buy a new aero stem, which will give some small benefit!
16. A specially-waxed racing chain on the bike - this would help to save a few watts and give me a little more speed. Every little really does help...
17. Shaved legs and arms. I never thought I'd do this... But recent wind tunnel studies by Specialized (a top bike manufacturer) have showed that shaved legs save around 60-80 seconds per hour at race pace, and shaved arms save another 10 seconds or so per hour. That's a total of about 90 seconds per hour, or 450 seconds (7+ minutes!) over the 5 hours of an Ironman bike - that would have been an easy way to go sub-10... plus, being hairless would save time in the swim too.
18. Having a heart rate monitor that worked - mine died after about 90 minutes on the bike (I don't recommend Garmin heart rate monitors!) - I paced the bike reasonably well but the winds were sapping and tough, and the climbs on the way back were tough - the climb into the wind up from Kawaihae and the climb up to the scenic point were tough and and a bit dispiriting. Having accurate heart rate data for the whole bike (and the run) would have been helpful.
18. Using the aid station on the pier just before the run starts. This is a tricky one to see as it's kind of "hidden" as you are focused on getting yourself kitted out for the run and making your way off the pier and onto the run course, and you are looking for where the run course actually starts. I ran right past this aid station and suffered a lot in the first few miles of the run, in the hottest part of the day, when I had just lost the cooling effect of the speed on the bike. I should have walked through this aid station, put ice down my front and back and shorts and in my cap, put cold sponges down my top, drank some cold water, fuelled up with a gel, got myself cooled off, and I would have been in much better shape for the start of the marathon.
19. Knowing how to "use" the aid stations on course. Everything in the aid station comes so quickly, so you need to be prepared. I thought an aid station might be 100m long with short gaps between each item in the aid station. But everything was just one thing immdiately after another. You need to take out the pre-existing (now warm) sponges from your clothes to make room for new ones, you need to be able to identify and grab what you need and put it where you need, you need to have taken a gel before you take a drink, and in short, you need to be really on the ball, know the order in which the items will appear as you run past them, and know your system for approaching and getting through them. It took me a while to got this sorted.
20. I should have used the special needs bag in the energy lab. I carried a couple of emergency gels in my back pocket but I needed more, and the special needs bag would have been an opportunity to re-stock for the final 10 miles.
21. Where I didn't manage to get what I needed from an aid station (as happened in the energy lab), I should have stopped, reversed, and got what I needed. This is more important that "keeping running."
22. I should have started on caffeine sooner - on the climb out of the energy lab. See next point for the reason!
23. Once you get out of the Energy Lab (and the climb out of the energy lab wasn't actually that bad), you think you're "nearly done" and it's just a short run remaining: less than 10km along the Queen K and then a victory lap in town to the finish line. The 8km or so from the Energy Lab back to Kona were very tough. Into the wind, and undulating, which at that stage of the race meant "mountainous"! I should have trained on my long runs with hills in the final 2-3 miles. The last climb from the Makala boulevard up to Palani was very tough and so slow. Had I fuelled a bit better in the Energy Lab, then I might have been a bit stronger on this section.
24. Nike vaporfly shoes. Apparently they can give you 2-4 minutes in a marathon... and in addition, if I could be something like 15-20 minutes faster on the bike, then I will be 15-20 minutes less tired on starting the run, which will mean (in theory) more energy for the run.
25. Enjoying Ali'i Drive and the finish - I should have really, really, really savoured it, as it might never happen again. I should have listened for Mike Reilly saying "you are an Ironman" as I've never heard this being said to me at the finish of an Ironman - it has always just been a blur.
26. Experience. The experience of having been to Kona once before would in itself be worth a bit of time.
27. Training: I could probably train more specifically for Kona. I would adopt the philosophy that, for an Ironman, it's not about improving your maximal output (as is the case for short-course), rather, it's about improving the length of time you are able to spend at a lower intensity.
Some of the above could be applied to a qualifying race as well. I reckon that the time savings I mentioned at the beginning are realistic. The faster tyres and tubes would be a tough call if I ever got back to Kona: all that effort of qualifying again could go to waste with a flat tyre. It's so tough and time-consuming to change a flat tyre as they are so tight-fitting. I could run tubeless tyres with sealant, but my "old" bike doesn't accommodate wide enough tyres for tubeless to be an option. I would also wrestle morally with the Vaporfly shoes and their big bouncy soles and carbon fibre "springs". But they are legal... I wish I could buy a £15k bike, but I think all the other points I made could be implemented.
The problem is simply qualifying to get back there, if I did decide that was what I wanted to do. It took 10 years to qualify the first time. I don't know if I could do another 10 years... but I've learned all the lessons and found a formula that works for me to do an Ironman as well as I can, and with the lessons above implemented, then it shouldn't take 10 more years to deliver an Ironman as well as I can. And that's all I could do - deliver a qualifying race as well as I can. If that resulted in Kona, great, and if not then you'd just have to say you couldn't have done any more...
Even if I did a sub-9:30 at Kona, it would be nowhere near topping any age-group podiums or anything, but that's not the point. The point is to get the most out of yourself! However, improving my 10:05 time at Kona wouldn't necessarily be the problem, but qualifying to get back to Kona would be, if I decided that it was something I wanted to target again...
I would also love to go to a flat Ironman course like Barcelona and see just how fast I could go. If I am saying that a sub-9:40 might be possible at the hot, windy, humid and fairly hilly Kona course without having to buy a new uber-bike, then surely at a course like Barcelona (which is flatter, and less harsh in terms of heat, wind and humidity) a sub 9:30 would be possible...?
An interesting saying is "You can have anything you want, but you can't have everything..." meaning that you can target excellence in one thing, but not everything, as has been evidenced by not being the best runner I could possibly be over the years that I've been doing triathlon.
But I think if I had to target either a fast Ironman PB or going back to Kona, I would target qualifying for Kona again. To me, a two-time Kona qualifier with a Kona PB of something like 9:47 would be worth more than a 1-time Kona qualifer with a Kona PB of 10:05 and an Ironman PB of 9:29.
Which begs the question: why not just qualify for Kona at Barcelona then...? Simply because I am not good enough! You'd need to do something like 8:30 to 8:40 to qualify at Barcelona. I know what is realistic or not. 8:30 is beyond me. Which begs another question: why not chase an Ironman PB at Barcelona after Kona? Well I'd have to first qualify to get back to Kona (which may never happen), go to Kona, and then decide to do yet another season of Ironman after that...
Anyway, all that is not really for consideration or discussion right now...
After reflecting on and dissecting my Kona experience and Kona race, I came up with the following list of what I could/would/should do to improve my Kona time.
1. Don't race the world sprint and standard triathlon championships 6 weeks after your Kona qualifying event and 6 weeks before Kona! This is too tiring, and short-course training is very different to long-course training. Focus entirely on Kona and on long-course Kona-specific training.
2. Don't force the Kona-specific training. I probably forced it just a little bit too hard (which is a product of not having quite enough time after the world sprint and standard championships to prepare exactly as I would have liked for Kona. I probably did a little too much heat training, and came down with a cold the week before travelling to Kona, because I was so fatigued and had asked a bit much of my body. I could have been a bit fresher going to Kona. The excitement and adrenaline of it being Kona probably helped to carry me through.
3. Don't over-do things in Kona in the 7 days before the race. With hindsight, I did too much. It's a difficult balance between enjoying the trip of a lifetime and seeing and doing "fun"/touristy things, and maintaining focus on the race. The priority should have been the race. The long day spent travelling to and from Volcano National Park was a trip too far and ended up wrecking my neck.
4. Build a lot of "doing nothing" time into the week before Kona. Sitting (in the shade) by the pool or by the ocean is better than chasing round Hawaii being a tourist. I was constantly on the go during race week. At the time, it felt sensible and fine and manageable and enjoyable (apart from the sore neck), but again, adrenaline and excitement probably helped carry me through. Had I been at home, my preparation would have been different in race week.
5. Don't get too much sun during race week, and don't forget that in the heat, you will dehydrate, so drink. But don't over-drink - it's a delicate balance.
6. Travel with a friend who can take the strain - I was with three others in Kona but we all arrived at different times. I arrived first and so had to deal with sussing everything out myself. I "most needed" someone to help with the travel, luggage and associated thinking needed to get from one side of the world to another, as opposed to "needing" help when everything was "set up" in Kona in terms of car rental, luggage handling and unpacking, settling into the condo etc.
7. In the mornings don't let waking up time slip - the couple of mornings after arrival were early wake-up mornings, due to the jet lag. As time passed, waking up got later and later. I should have gone to bed at 8pm and got up at 5am consistently as then the body would have been better ready for the early start on race day.
8. I knew the course well, but I should have "learned" transition better when I was racking my gear. I should have insisted to my volunteer helper when I was racking in transition that I needed 10-20 minutes to walk through it all as it would happen on race day, from the points of view of swim exit, bike exit, bike in and run exit, and taken photos that I could look back over later to imprint it all in my brain. I made a mess of my transitions (in particular the swim to bike transition), I couldn't find my blue bag in the melee when I'd finished the swim, and was not at all mentally ready for the heaving, sweaty mass of bodies in a small transition area - usually when I'm in transition I'm one of the first out of the water and mostly have the transition area to myself, but in Kona everyone is a fast swimmer and a lot of people all exit the water at the same time. Which means transition is chaos...!
9. My swim wasn't bad. It was salty and long. It was a good call not to do the official full-length practice swim, this would have just tired me out. I should have been more careful entering the water and wading out to the start, as I stood on a stone and it hurt (although it turned out to be superficial, it could easily have been a lot worse). I wasn't at all mentally ready for or expecting the super-strong swimmers in the starting waves behind me to come charging over the top of me. Coke and water in transition was good to get rid of the saltiness. And I made sure to have suncream put on, which I thought was a very good idea.
10. Going up Palani hill for the first time on the bike, I was intentionally so slow compared with most others. Still, I was doing 240 watts, which isn't that low. People were absolutely flying up the hill, which I am sure would cost them later in the race. As 6-time champion Dave Scott told me, "the bike doesn't start until you get to the airport..." (which is after about 15 miles).
11. Knowing how to approach the aid stations on the bike: pour any remaining water over your head and body, ditch the empty bottle, grab a new cold bottle and put it in the bottle cage, grab a gatorade and have a swig then ditch the gatorade bottle. All while watching out for other riders, staying upright, and not hitting any discarded bottles (this nearly caught me out at one aid station). You had to be on the ball with all of this, and it took me a few aid stations to develop a system for getting through them effectively.
12. A lower front end on the bike, with narrower arm pads, and aero bars angled closer together to make my hands more of a single unit, would have made me more aero and therefore faster. And, a more aero computer mount would also help, as would reducing the amount of bar tape on the base bars and making sure the bar tape only remained on the front of the hand grips rather than following the curve of the bars. Small gains here with the aero computer mount and bar tape, but it all adds up...
13. Faster tyres and (latex) tubes (all at higher risk of puncturing) would make me faster.
14. Better clothing - I had a cheap pair of shorts and an old top - a new super-tight, wrinkle-free, super-aero skinsuit would make me faster. Also, you can buy aero socks and aero arm cooling sleeves, which would also help.
15. A new uber-bike: When I started triathlon in 2010-2011, £6k would have got you a really top-end bike. My bike isn't bad but it's getting on for 10-year old technology now. A new uber-bike these days could cost £15k-20k. It would have a fully integrated front end, no visible cables, properly integrated hydration and storage, electronic gear shifting, hidden aero brakes, the best bearings, CeramicSpeed jockey wheels, top-end super-light components, the best wheels, 11-speed gears, the latest and stiffest carbon fibre, the best of everything. Undoubtedly it would make you faster... I can dream... this is the only time-saver than is unrealistic for me to implement, unless I suddenly become very wealthy. But instead of a new aero bike, I can buy a new aero stem, which will give some small benefit!
16. A specially-waxed racing chain on the bike - this would help to save a few watts and give me a little more speed. Every little really does help...
17. Shaved legs and arms. I never thought I'd do this... But recent wind tunnel studies by Specialized (a top bike manufacturer) have showed that shaved legs save around 60-80 seconds per hour at race pace, and shaved arms save another 10 seconds or so per hour. That's a total of about 90 seconds per hour, or 450 seconds (7+ minutes!) over the 5 hours of an Ironman bike - that would have been an easy way to go sub-10... plus, being hairless would save time in the swim too.
18. Having a heart rate monitor that worked - mine died after about 90 minutes on the bike (I don't recommend Garmin heart rate monitors!) - I paced the bike reasonably well but the winds were sapping and tough, and the climbs on the way back were tough - the climb into the wind up from Kawaihae and the climb up to the scenic point were tough and and a bit dispiriting. Having accurate heart rate data for the whole bike (and the run) would have been helpful.
18. Using the aid station on the pier just before the run starts. This is a tricky one to see as it's kind of "hidden" as you are focused on getting yourself kitted out for the run and making your way off the pier and onto the run course, and you are looking for where the run course actually starts. I ran right past this aid station and suffered a lot in the first few miles of the run, in the hottest part of the day, when I had just lost the cooling effect of the speed on the bike. I should have walked through this aid station, put ice down my front and back and shorts and in my cap, put cold sponges down my top, drank some cold water, fuelled up with a gel, got myself cooled off, and I would have been in much better shape for the start of the marathon.
In transition, still on the pier, having ran right through the "hidden" aid station and
not taken anything to fuel or cool me - error. All the cups and sponges on the ground
should have been an indicator that aid was available but I was too busy getting my watch
on and trying to work out where to start it (i.e. where the marathon "start line" actually
was, to see or notice or do anything about this aid station...
19. Knowing how to "use" the aid stations on course. Everything in the aid station comes so quickly, so you need to be prepared. I thought an aid station might be 100m long with short gaps between each item in the aid station. But everything was just one thing immdiately after another. You need to take out the pre-existing (now warm) sponges from your clothes to make room for new ones, you need to be able to identify and grab what you need and put it where you need, you need to have taken a gel before you take a drink, and in short, you need to be really on the ball, know the order in which the items will appear as you run past them, and know your system for approaching and getting through them. It took me a while to got this sorted.
20. I should have used the special needs bag in the energy lab. I carried a couple of emergency gels in my back pocket but I needed more, and the special needs bag would have been an opportunity to re-stock for the final 10 miles.
21. Where I didn't manage to get what I needed from an aid station (as happened in the energy lab), I should have stopped, reversed, and got what I needed. This is more important that "keeping running."
22. I should have started on caffeine sooner - on the climb out of the energy lab. See next point for the reason!
23. Once you get out of the Energy Lab (and the climb out of the energy lab wasn't actually that bad), you think you're "nearly done" and it's just a short run remaining: less than 10km along the Queen K and then a victory lap in town to the finish line. The 8km or so from the Energy Lab back to Kona were very tough. Into the wind, and undulating, which at that stage of the race meant "mountainous"! I should have trained on my long runs with hills in the final 2-3 miles. The last climb from the Makala boulevard up to Palani was very tough and so slow. Had I fuelled a bit better in the Energy Lab, then I might have been a bit stronger on this section.
24. Nike vaporfly shoes. Apparently they can give you 2-4 minutes in a marathon... and in addition, if I could be something like 15-20 minutes faster on the bike, then I will be 15-20 minutes less tired on starting the run, which will mean (in theory) more energy for the run.
25. Enjoying Ali'i Drive and the finish - I should have really, really, really savoured it, as it might never happen again. I should have listened for Mike Reilly saying "you are an Ironman" as I've never heard this being said to me at the finish of an Ironman - it has always just been a blur.
26. Experience. The experience of having been to Kona once before would in itself be worth a bit of time.
27. Training: I could probably train more specifically for Kona. I would adopt the philosophy that, for an Ironman, it's not about improving your maximal output (as is the case for short-course), rather, it's about improving the length of time you are able to spend at a lower intensity.
Some of the above could be applied to a qualifying race as well. I reckon that the time savings I mentioned at the beginning are realistic. The faster tyres and tubes would be a tough call if I ever got back to Kona: all that effort of qualifying again could go to waste with a flat tyre. It's so tough and time-consuming to change a flat tyre as they are so tight-fitting. I could run tubeless tyres with sealant, but my "old" bike doesn't accommodate wide enough tyres for tubeless to be an option. I would also wrestle morally with the Vaporfly shoes and their big bouncy soles and carbon fibre "springs". But they are legal... I wish I could buy a £15k bike, but I think all the other points I made could be implemented.
The problem is simply qualifying to get back there, if I did decide that was what I wanted to do. It took 10 years to qualify the first time. I don't know if I could do another 10 years... but I've learned all the lessons and found a formula that works for me to do an Ironman as well as I can, and with the lessons above implemented, then it shouldn't take 10 more years to deliver an Ironman as well as I can. And that's all I could do - deliver a qualifying race as well as I can. If that resulted in Kona, great, and if not then you'd just have to say you couldn't have done any more...
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