This morning in Winter Park it was 26 degrees F. That is a little chilly. This reminds of a morning back in 2006 when I was preparing for Kona. It was below freezing and I met Kelly-Lear Kaul and her posse for a ride from Winter Park to Boulder. That was a great ride. But today I was staying in and drinking some hot coffee.

The Kona Ironman is just a short three weeks away. If you are training for it the race can not come soon enough. It is getting chilly in many places and the good heat training is not a possibility sometimes. Many people walk around sneezing and Kona bound athletes start getting paranoid about catching a cold. But there are just a few more longish rides and runs then it is all downhill from there.

We at MarkAllenOnline also have to prepare for Kona. I need to do some training so I can look like I did the race before. I am serious but I think is a lost cause. However I do have to swim because I love to swim on Kailua bay. I did a great set of 16x100 on Friday. We also have to prepare for our booth at the expo. We do not have too much help this year so i will be sitting at the booth most of the day from Tuesday to Friday. It gets really hot in there. I rather be training but I know no one is going to feel sorry for me. I am still working in Hawaii eh? Plus there is an ocean view.

The best thing about the Kona trip is meeting our athletes. This year we have 41 once again. The same number as last year. That is always fun. I am trying to get them all to wear some of our clothing so they are easy to spot.

Finally I am also going to work with NBC as a volunteer once more. That is always fun and I get good vantage points to watch the race.

I am also going to try to organize a run from the energy lab into town. Those are the last miles of the Ironman marathon and it is a good place to do a run. So if anyone wants to run 9 to 10 minute miles with me email me. I got in a perfect training run this afternoon. 50 minutes, Min HR 67, Max HR 139, Avg HR 134. I felt good to boot which is not always the case trust me. I thought for sure the HR would be a struggle with 9000 feet of altitude here in Winter Park. I am back living in Boulder. But in Winter Park just for the weekend. The altitude did not bother me at all. After living in Winter Park for over two years I have not lost it. Good to know.

Stay tuned and remember in Kona we will blog the entire week prior to the race and on race day.