Kona - Day Two...

I woke up with a sore back this morning. It wasn't from training, it was from 9-hours of sleep and lying on my back too long.

After a breakfast at Denny's, we stopped at Safeway and Wal-Mart to pick up some water, pop, fruit and vegetables. Wal-Mart had this really cool display with cases of Pop that spelt "Ironman".

Post Wal-Mart we drove around looking for a waterproof case for the flip video camera and had no luck. Reid wanted to get some underwater shots of the fish.

We asked a couple people if there was a "Best Buy" around and no one knew what a "Best Buy" was. With no luck finding an underwater case, we went back to the hotel and I did my last major training sessions before "Race Day".

I started with an open water swim at the pier. At 6-9 am in the morning, there are hundreds of people swimming. At 11 am, there was only about 10 of us. The late morning advantage is "we didn't have to worry about swimming into oncoming traffic".

Today was the most windy day since we arrived and as I swam farther out into the sea, the waves got bigger. I was bobbing up and down and at times it was tough to sight the next buoy. The waves also "pull" you in a direction and it's easy to be "drawn" off course. I can see the swim portion of this race being challenging and potentially causing slower than normal swim times.

When I got to the turnaround buoy, I stopped and had a brief chat with a guy from Australia and another from the United States. They commented how beautiful it is to swim in the ocean and look at the fish. The water temperature is also perfect, it was comparable to the pool at the YMCA.

After I finished, I stopped briefly at the Ironman expo to pick up a cycling jersey WITH sleeves, to protect my sunburn. I'm glad I didn't bring one of my cycling jerseys, the one I bought is really nice. I had a picture of me wearing it post-ride, but deleted it by mistake.

I had another solid bike ride. The winds were stronger than yesterday, luckily they weren't dangerous and I didn't get blown around. Going out, I had the crosswind at my back and got to the turnaround averaging 35.9 kph and returned with a 32 kph average.

If I wasn't in a race and didn't have to worry about my time, I enjoy cycling in the wind. It's challenging and with the hard pedalling and slow speed it gives me a similar sensation to running and time seems to go by quicker.

When I got back, I went for my 30 minute run and I expanded it to 55 minutes. My buttocks / hamstring was feeling much better than the last few runs and I decided to give it a bit more of a workout. It may not be what the "coach" wanted me to do, but I intuitively felt I needed it.

In 1988, I saw "very few" people training in the day's leading up to the race. At that time, if I saw someone training, my immediate reaction was to say to myself, "they're stupid". The standard thought process at the time was to taper by doing NO training for at least 5 days before the race.

In fact, with no word of a lie, I remember seeing "Mark Allen" out doing a pre-race training run in the days leading up the the race. He was one of the few.

Today, that theory is no longer in effect. The streets were full of people running and everyone is so damn "fast". I was running at a 5:00 per km pace and a couple of people just blew by me. I'm actually getting "sick" of all the "Men's Health" cover models running shirtless. It's getting old and I'm so damn "jealous" and don't appreciate it rubbed in my face.

With that said, if I had a body like them, I'd run shirtless all the time. I'd even consider going to work shirtless, at least two days a week.

In Wal-Mart, I saw a couple of guys walking around in "short shorts" with a shirt on. I assumed they were "Europeans" or "very vain Europeans" or "village people wanna-bees".

I can't tell you how many times I'd pass by one of these "athletic freaks of nature" and have to remind myself that I deserve to be here as much as they do. I too qualified. If I came here on the lottery, I'd definitely enjoy the experience and I'd feel a much higher level of "shock and awe".

Alice keeps telling me, "I'm sure they don't have much of a life outside of Ironman training" and she's probably right. I've often said, if they had a Ironman that required everyone to drink heavily the night before and race "hungover", I'd probably win. Craig Alexander would be "my bitch".

I was really happy with today's heat training and acclimatization. My body feels like it's adjusting quickly and it showed with a decent run time in the heat and maintaining a low heart rate.

Overall, providing I don't do something stupid with my diet, I'm feeling as good as I think I could feel at this point in time. Mentally I'm looking forward to the race and physically I feel as strong as I ever have before any Ironman.

I'm so glad I showed up on Monday and was able to do about 7 hours of training in the heat over the past two days. I'm also glad we got a hotel in the "heart of the action" and the finish line is literally steps from our hotel lobby.

During today's run I went down All'i drive and after about 2.5 km's out of town it starts to get very quiet. It reminded me of condo's in Palm Springs, "where old people go to die". For my personality and especially with Reid and Alice around, it's not where I'd want to stay, unless I enjoyed "hearing them complain".

Kailua-Kona feels like "IRONMAN TOWN", everywhere you look, everything "breathes Ironman". One of the shop owners told us that many of the locals go to the other side of the Island during Ironman week. It doesn't feel like Ironman is "infringing" on the town, it feels like "Ironman" IS the town. Kind of like how "college kids" own Daytona Beach for Spring Break.

I only had one "slight" mishap during training. I was running opposite of traffic and a bike was heading my way. I stepped to the left, to hug the curb and the cyclist tried to go the inside. I thought, what an "idiot" and "what was he thinking?"

The only explanation I could come up with is that he was from one of those countries that drive on "the wrong side" of the road and his natural reaction was to go to the inside. Or, he was just an "idiot".

The new hotel room they moved us to is GREAT. It has much more room than the previous one, which Alice thought felt like a "prison cell". She was right and in such "closed quarters" it's easy to get "snappy" with each other. I'm still a little "snappy" but that's just "normal" pre-Ironman stress. From experience, I'll be "a new man" the minute I cross that finish line.

We went for dinner tonight at a place that has 36 draught beers on tap. I told the waiter, "Not now, but I'll be back on Sunday". Tonight was my carnivore night and I ordered a 16-ounce ribeye steak. The next two days will be lots of "carbs".

I also think I'm serious about this race, I brought all my vitamins and even whey protein and Hammer Recoverite drink. When I go to the washroom right now, I'm "peeing yellow sunshine".

Finally, I've been taking "lots" of video. Unfortunately, our Internet service at the hotel is very slow and there's no way for me to upload it and have it appear online before Christmas. I'll post a "video montage" when I get home.

It doesn't look like I'll be able to do the "underwear run" tomorrow, Mark Allen is hosting a breakfast for the MAO athletes. I may have to do the "underwear run" on my own.

Swim - 1:00:23 / 3000 meters

Bike - 1:41:17 / 54.01 km / 32 kph avg

Run - 55:17 / 10.75 km / 5:07 per km avg / 135 avg hr