1 October 2011

Kona Diary - Days 28-30

Just 8 days to go!  The schedule for Wednesday was an early run with 800m repeats with plenty of recovery between intervals.  During the taper I've kept the intensity in the training programme, but as race day approaches the number of intervals comes down.  Later that afternoon I hit the pool for another 5500 yard session, with a main set of 8x 400 yards on 6:00, hitting 5:13-5:20. 

On Thursday morning I went to the pier and followed professionals Matty Reed and Tom Lowe (who were cruising) to the half way point of the course.  After turning around, I soon found myself looking down upon 20 or so dolphins, swimming just a few metres below me.  All swimmers stopped to tread water, gazing at the dolphins below.  As they surfaced, they were no more than a few metres away, almost within touching distance!  It was amazingly lucky timing to come across so many.  It was another reminder of how lucky I am (and everyone else is) to be here.  After the swim, I headed out for a 2 hour ride with some threshold efforts thrown in for good measure.  After another good training day, I took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

Today (Friday) was a scheduled rest day, but rather than stay inside and get condo fever, my brother and I went out on the Body Glove boat for a morning snorkel at Red Cliff (south of Kona).  It was a beautiful morning and we couldn't have picked a better day to get out. 



We spent a great morning relaxing and having fun, getting the chance to swim amongst some of the local wildlife.  It was great to take a proper break from training and all things triathlon for a few hours.  After seeing as much as we could in the time available, we got back on the boat for lunch, then slowly made our way back to the pier at Kona.

 

As this week has passed I've felt fresher thanks to the reduced training load.  Hopefully that feeling will continue into next week and I'll approach race day in the best possible state.  I'm eager to race and see what will happen, but at the same time I love the build up to this event and the atmosphere it creates - I don't want it to be over!  It's a busy island now, but it's about to get crazy as race week approaches!

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