Journey to Kona Day 216: It's About the Run, Kind Of

I know that I can swim with a lot of the top athletes in my age group.  At Kona, if I have a decent swim, I'll be within 10 minutes of them.  At Ironman Boulder, my bike split was within 16 minutes of the top guys in my age group, with the exception of the winner.  Coming of the bike in Boulder, I was within 30-40 minutes of some of the best age group athletes in the world. I'm pretty damn proud of the fact that this once asthmatic kid, the one always picked last in team sports, has worked hard enough to be competitive in my age group at the ironman distance.  At least so far as swimming and biking is concerned.  But then we get to the run.

I often joke that the running craze in the 70's spawned a group of talented runners who have aged along with me.  I wasn't a runner in the 70's or the 80's.  I didn't start running until I was 32 years old.   My 5K times were decent, but were probably pedestrian compared to the guys I'm now competing with. Something tells me that these guys could run 3 hour open marathons, and the best I ever did was 3:35.  The fastest ironman marathon that I've ever run was 4:32.  The top guys in my age group can run sub-4 hour marathons at the end of an ironman on relatively "easy" courses.  At Boulder, these guys ran between 4:00 and 4:30, while I was running 5:13. The good thing about my Boulder marathon was that my legs felt good, my breathing just didn't hold up. I sometimes wonder if my childhood asthma has followed me all these years.

I've set a goal of running a 4:30 marathon at Kona.  Last year, under ideal conditions in Kona, a 4:30 marathon would have been 15th in my age group. A 5 hour marathon would put me smack in the middle of the age group, with the best age group athletes in the world.  I know that I'm capable of running between 4:30 and 5 hours.  I've never hoped to be competitive in Kona.  That's impossible. However, I feel like I can acquit myself well against the best in the world in my age group. I also think that my preparation for Kona will set me up for trying to be competitive next year. I've already signed up for Ironman St. George, and I'm confident that all of the hilly bike training that I'm doing, and will continue to do, will serve me well.  But, I'm digressing. With all of my talk about being competitive having to do with the run, there's a reason that I added "kind of" to the title of this blog.  My top potential marathon time won't stack up with the other athletes in my age group, if we're doing an open marathon.  Perhaps that might become a future goal.  In the meantime, there's a reason that the top Kenyan marathoners in the world aren't winning ironman events.  It's about how you run off the bike.

This is the reason that my coach has pushed me to focus on my bike training.  The better my legs feel coming off the bike, the smaller the difference between my open marathon time and my ironman marathon time. So, while my ability to be competitive in ironman comes down to the run, my opportunity to have the best run that I can have comes down to my bike training.  I had originally set out to do some super long bike rides during my training for Kona.  I'm hoping that what I haven't completely done from a bike volume (time on the bike) perspective, I've made up for with my attention to doing tons of climbing. With that said, my bike preparation for Boulder was solid, and my result speaks for itself.  Since Boulder, I've continued to build on that preparation.

Today I rode my bike for 6 hours and twelve minutes.  I could have biked longer, but I wanted to save something for the rest of the week. It's important to note that my legs were tired and a little sore (very little) when I got on the bike today.  I was less than 48 hours removed from a 3 hour and 52 minute hilly run.  That means that my 6:12 bike ride, with 1000 feet of climbing per hour, was performed on tired legs.  My coach often points out that adds to the value of such a workout.  My goal right now is to do another similar bike ride at the end of the week.  That will leave me with four weeks to go before Kona, and my coach and I can figure out what else to try to fit in.

The other really good news was that my short run today felt fine.  Was I tired? Sure.  Were my legs sore? No.  Did my legs feel ok to run after spending over six hours on the bike? Yes!  My recent 20 mile runs have helped to set this up, but at the end of the day, it's really my bike training that's making it work.  If you're going to be competitive in an ironman, it's about the run, kind of.