A week since Ironman Wales and I’m still making sure I’m recovered before doing any training for Kona. It’s been peeing down so the idea of a test run is out the window. What to do all day? I start by having a fry up and coffee whilst watching two rugby matches live. Then I put Heroes on in the background and start pottering with some race results and decide I need to get overall rankings and age group rankings for all my Ironman races for each discipline and both transitions. Not as simple as you may think but finally, bar some rankings for transitions, I got them all together.

Why did I do it. Initially for the sheer hell of it and I find it fun. Also, I thought it may give me some fun goals for Kona. So here goes… (all rankings are in my age group)

SWIM (Kona circled)

This highlights how hard the Kona swim can be first time. It took me a few efforts to get used to  it. Think this is probably more of an issue for good swimmers who in other races get nice clear water but in Kona have to deal with swimmers around the whole time. Also, to get a good start spot requires getting in the water early, potentially shivering on the start line for 15 minutes whilst being very agressive to hold your position. It’s interesting that my time in 2010 was 2 minutes slower than 2008 which is almost certainly due to no speedskins. So for Kona if I manage top 6 again I’ll be over the moon.

T1

The zeros are where I don’t have the data. Kona last year was fast because I biked in what I swam so I didn’t even go in to the change tent.

This year – top 10 again

BIKE

Initially looking at the rankings other than Kona the worst ranks had specific reasons – Germany my tri bars snapped, New Zealand this year I got cold in first lap and Austria was perplexing but appears to be due to me not playing the game.

Looking at Kona I’ve rarely ridden well. In 2008 I felt sick after the swim, last year I just didn’t have it but with hindsight I felt lack of sleep was key. The 2009 split is what I want to aim at. Given my wattage at Wales and recognising that last year I was tired I’m hoping I can replicate 2009. I’m focussing on recovery from Wales and making sure I get enough sleep.

So… 250 watts and hopefully top 20, Simples….

T2

Austria stands out but I had a long pee in T2. A minute or so can make a big difference. Generally I’m pretty good at T2 … in T1 my biggest issue is I can never get my wetsuit over my heels easily.

Anyway, for those FiveFinger wearers who are worried about time in T2 note that I’ve worn vibrams ever since Kona last year. Kona last year was slow because I changed from a one piece tri suit into run shorts and a long sleeve top. It was fairly slow. This year I may just run in the one piece. So target is to try and break in to the top 50 at Kona for this.

Run

My run splits were taking a turn for the worse prior to the snap. I knew this and I was throwing more volume at it but never managed to test it because I snapped my FHL tendon just before New Zealand 2009. No coincidence I’m sure.

Anyway, since then it’s been a long journey to get any semblance of run form back. Since Helen help sort out my running I’ve felt I’ve been on the road back to run form but I’ve been patient. All my running this year has been forefoot running. Wanaka looks better than it really is as I’d be surprised if there were many more than 50 people in my age group. My running has been improving and I feel a winter of focus will make a big difference. Clearly that won’t happen before Kona but I do feel I’m running reasonably well.

So, probably the key goal out of all this, break in to the top 100 (in my AG) for my run split.