I am sitting in London City airport, flying back to Zurich, then leaving Zurich tomorrow at 12:05
I am a little stressed about a long flight and hoping that my bike makes it. I will take my pedals, shoes, helmet and tri kit in hand luggage. If worst comes to worst, I might have the possibility of borrowing a bike from a Saturday racer if mine doesn’t arrive (@SidSnot what size is your bike?)
This week I have been at a conference all week, no training, lots of customer dinners, too much beer, a bit of decompression is probably a good thing
Socials will be full of triathletes tagging in an airline with something like “I am in Kona why is bike in Singapore when I flew from Amsterdam?”. With a screenshot of the app showiing where the bike is.
Yep, reckon that can only be a good thing. I followed the ‘reverse taper’ approach that they’d outline on IM Talk years ago - ie full taper before travel and then high volume low intensity training in the week leading into the race to acclimatise.
The airline did lose my bike which was pretty stressful and I had to wait three additional days for it to arrive. In the meantime I did a 3.8k swim on the Saturday, a 14 mile run in the energy lab on the Monday and finally an 80 mile bike on the Tuesday when my bike arrived. It was all low intensity (although my hr was sky high to begin with) and really helped me acclimatise. Not necessarily recommending this for others but it worked for me.
Interesting that, I doubt at this stage we’ll not gain or lose much fitness and might be both fresher and more resilient to aeroplane bugs!
I seem to be deploying the same tactic accidentally for my race!
Interesting to see what you did that week, I’m not sure I’d fancy an 80 mile ride but it would probably help to acclimatise rather than just walking around.
Haven’t seen the GTN episode but my ears did prick up when I heard KB and GI talking about how bland the course is. Maybe this generation of pros aren’t so in awe of the history?
In practical terms is is ‘just’ a highway and thinking about it in a logical way it is a rather dull course but (for me at least) it was THE highway and never in my live have I been so excited to be on that course and that highway.
If they move the WC in the future then they’ll definitely need to find somewhere with a more interesting course but there’s so much history on that island and that highway that for now it doesn’t matter.
Getting proper FOMO now. Go and get it you two! You’re about to have the experience of a lifetime!
I think that’s part of their conscious plan though, even if they do fan boy it in secret.
It’s all about controlling the controllables for them. The course is just a course. Objectively it is indeed a really boring course. Treat it as such. Demystify it. Energy lab? Just another soulless, hot section of road. No big deal… Get the nutrition right. Be prepared for it.
Exactly this. When I was fortunate to go in 2013 I’d watched so many videos of the race over a few years that I was practically in tears that this mystical place was for real when I drove in from the airport. Yes, the bike course is pretty dull (the Hawi climb and descent is fun) and I loved the Ali’i. Drive part of the run. The Queen K part of the run is vast and empty (other than struggling athletes and aid stations) but that’s part of the draw. It’s just special and to be part of the iconic race really makes the spine tingle.
As for the swim, I’m not a fan of swimming but I could swim in that ocean for hours. It’s lovely.
