Very heavy winds down here, sustained 20-30 mph. This will likely not be a fast day, but that wont prevent me from giving it my best shot.
Woke up yesterday with a raw sore throat and sinus crap. Gargled with listerine and salt water alternating all day long and about 5 times during the night. Woke up this morning and throat is 90% better and sinuses congested but slightly better. This is the price of traveling. Should be fine be Sunday if I keep hitting my throat with listerine 8-10 times per day and hydrate.
My Goals?
Swim within my ability and dont expect miracles. I hope 1:03-1:05
Bike: Hold ave power at 270 watts, speed? whatever...watts are my goal.
Considering my PR watts at Roth Germany in June were 215, this is a 55 watt increase.
Run? Come through 16 miles at 3:20 pace or slightly faster and try to hang on. Who knows...I've never held 270 watts for 5 hours so this may be just a hope. But I dont want to finish this one wishing I biked harder. Holding 270 is venturing into the unknown for me. If I run slow off this then so be it.
Kona? This is one of the most difficult races in the world to qualify. 3 spots in M40 and last 2 years they have been around 9 hours +/- few minutes. I dont feel I can go this fast unless some miracle occurs.
I am thinking its good that Ann's disc is still sitting in the bike shop in Portland where she forgot it. She does have 404's which I think are the best thing for this race given the wind. No wind? This is definately a disc course. However...just about every woman I've seen has 404's or something similar. Only 4-5 discs that I 've seen
Yesterday, Thursday, rode 26 miles of the course with the headwinds and severe cross winds knocking my bike to the center road line. Did 4 X 2 min intervals on 3 min rest.
1 = 306 watts/HR av 113/23.7 mph/80 rpm
2 = 310 watts/HR 117/23 mph/ 78 rpm, heavy cross wind
3 = 330 watts/HR 122/20.5 mph/81 rpm, heavy head wind
4 = 440 watts/HR 135/23 mph/81 rpm, again, heavy cross wind
Yeah, I pushed the 4th one to have a little fun with the watts. Wanted to see what I would take to go 23 mph in a 25 mph cross wind. No way I could sustain these watts for more than another 2 minutes so if wind stays the way it is...no way I'll be biking 23 mph!
Swam 20 minutes in early morning, with 4 x 20 stroke sprints. Water was nice.
Ran 2+ miles off bike, about 7 min pace. HR in zone 3 high, about 5 beats higher than expected from the heat and humidity.
The run course? Changed for this year. Now about 23 of 26 miles totally exposed along the beach trail. Trail is paved but there is no protection whatsoever. About 600 meters through some trees helps a little on each of the 3 loops.
The bike couse changed this year also, for the worse by talking to Luke Bell yesterday. Swam with Luke in the am and heard some good Kona stories. Ann and I met and had dinner with male Pro Brent Lorenzo last night as well as the night before. He went 8:40 something in Florida a month ago and is here to roll the dice. Good guy...he's graduates med school in June of 08 and is to start his ER residency (4 more years) in July of 08. He's been flying all over the US including Portland (OHSU) interviewing for residency and still managed an 8:40...yeah, thats a pro.
All in all, I feel good...it just wont likely be a fast day like I was hoping.
