First off, thank you for your continued support and encouragement. Karel and I are incredibly grateful for this incredible opportunity to participate together in the 2019 IM World Championship. We will also be sharing the course with three of our coached athletes. Your virtual high fives and kind words will help us get to the finish line so keep the cheers coming. If you are planning to watch the race, here's a link on how to watch the Ironman World Championship. There will be 20 hours of coverage on Facebook (Ironman Now), beginning at 10:30am EST (4:30am Hawaii Time). You can also track via the Ironman Tracker App or online.
Thursday was a low key day of training. We have been trying to sleep as long as we need (~9 hours) so we are never rushed to get up and train in the morning. We started off with a quick 20 minute swim in the ocean around the time of the end of the underpants run. The pier/swim start was packed with athletes so it was a bit chaotic swimming out into the ocean. There were also some swells and the current was strong. After the swim, we were planning a bike ride but then it started to rain. We sat around in our cycling gear for a good hour until we decided to postpone our ride until the afternoon. Since it was cloudy out, we went down to the expo to chat with our friends at Ventum. Although the sun wasn't out, it was extremely humid and hot. Once the roads dried, we went out on our bikes for a 45 minute spin. We headed up Kuakini and then took a side street to Ali'i drive and then biked the old and new run course in town. After the ride, we picked up pizza from Lava Java (my typical pre-race ritual) and yummed while watching Breakfast with Bob interviews. Around 3pm, our athlete Roman came over so that Karel could give him a course talk in Czech before our other athletes arrived at 4pm for the English version. With a combined 9 times of racing IM Kona, Karel and I have learned a lot over the years.
Thursday was a low key day of training. We have been trying to sleep as long as we need (~9 hours) so we are never rushed to get up and train in the morning. We started off with a quick 20 minute swim in the ocean around the time of the end of the underpants run. The pier/swim start was packed with athletes so it was a bit chaotic swimming out into the ocean. There were also some swells and the current was strong. After the swim, we were planning a bike ride but then it started to rain. We sat around in our cycling gear for a good hour until we decided to postpone our ride until the afternoon. Since it was cloudy out, we went down to the expo to chat with our friends at Ventum. Although the sun wasn't out, it was extremely humid and hot. Once the roads dried, we went out on our bikes for a 45 minute spin. We headed up Kuakini and then took a side street to Ali'i drive and then biked the old and new run course in town. After the ride, we picked up pizza from Lava Java (my typical pre-race ritual) and yummed while watching Breakfast with Bob interviews. Around 3pm, our athlete Roman came over so that Karel could give him a course talk in Czech before our other athletes arrived at 4pm for the English version. With a combined 9 times of racing IM Kona, Karel and I have learned a lot over the years.
Around 6pm we made our way to the King K hotel for the athlete opening banquet. The athlete briefing didn't start until 830pm (which has been our bedtime) so it was a bit of a late evening for us.
We made sure to sleep in as late as possible on Friday so it was nice to get up just before 7am. We took our time in the morning and eventually started our workouts. I did a quick swim and run and Karel went to the energy lab for a bike/run.
I was super excited to finish my workout as a giant cinnamon roll from Lava Java was calling my name. Yum yum!!
As for the rest of today, we packed up our gear bags and we will be heading down to the excitement of checking in our bikes and gear bags - which is quite the spectacle.
With the weather looking to be hot and very windy, we will utilize our "race smarts" and try to put together the best performance possible on the day. Thanks again for following us along to the start line.....see ya at the finish line!