Coming to Kona is always a busy time. The responsibilities just multiply. People are still training around the world under our guidance. Newbie and veteran triathletes alike. Many newbie triathletes we coach will not even realize I am helping them all the way from Hawaii. I am serious. The Hawaii Ironman is still not in their radar. This means we have to still help them with their training and then take care of everyone else personally here. That includes athletes, sponsors and organizing all our functions to get exposure for our coaching. The heavy work really starts Tuesday with our athlete breakfast and the opening of the expo. Here are a few of the happenings prior to that.
One good news is that the Vog seems to have lessen. We can see the blue sky from time to time. The bad news is the sun is showing up and it is hot. Some of our athletes are riding near the turn around of the bike and it is hot there. So as I just mentioned in a podcast with Mark today I did today the race has not changed. It is still windy and hot.
However, if you know someone that has a respiratory condition like Asthma. Let them know the Vog can flare it up. They need to take their medications for sure.
Saturday Mark and I drove to the Volcano and there was no lava flow. It stopped before we got there. You can read that story on Mak’s blog. How does this happen? Bad luck for us eh?. Well Mark and I got to talk about what our future plans are for the company during eh ride. That is always good.
Sunday I ran from the energy lab to Palani with some of our athletes. Thanks go to Cary Craig who volunteered to carry water for the group. I did not get as dehydrated as I would have. That was good and fun. I think I like the last miles of the Ironman marathon now.
Sunday night we had dinner with Bob Laird who is the Ironman Doc and runs the medical group for Ironman. A lot of medical people at this dinner. There is a medical conference here in Kona every year before the Ironman. So these guys present papers or have talks then they help put at the medical tent on race day. That is a great idea eh? Good thinking from whoever thought of this arrangement many years ago.
As I mentioned Monday is our last mellow day. The Ironman storm starts tomorrow. Monday morning Mark and I did the podcast with Roman. I also went for a swim on the Ironman course. What a great reef at the start. It looks like an aquarium with lots of colored fish. I may do an underwater video later this week and show you why this is the best place to swim. I just hop no big fish shows up. Late Monday I took the bike chosen by Mark from Cervelo for a spin. It is not a Cervelo P4 but a P3. Very nice looking bike. It is a white P3 with World Championship stripes, SRAM red, all Zipp components, Custom 808 Zipp wheels with special logo for Mark’s World championship. Nice ride.
Alright guys and girls. Got to hit the hay and rest before the storm tomorrow.