For my run workouts I'd run the 3 miles down the kuakini highway from our place in Kona Vistas to the local coffee shop drink a double macchiato and then head back up to the house. One of the days I ran the hill the Ironpeople were doing circuits on the kuakini highway so I was being constantly passed by men and women dressed up as bullets whizzing by on their carbon rocket ship bikes, pretty crazy stuff; simultaneously intimidating and inspiring.
Tuesday and Thursday are swim workout days. In the morning I'd ride my bike the bike I rented from http://www.bikeworkskona.com/ 3 miles to the Kona Community Aquatic Center Pool. The ironman world championship http://ironman.com/worldchampionship is October 10th in Kona so everywhere I swim/ran/biked there were ironmen and ironwomen crushing it. When I think of triathletes these are the people I think about: Insanely ripped and fast men and women tearing it up. When I'd get to the pool, I'd get into the slower pool - note, not the slower lane, the slower pool. One pool was filled with Iron(men/ladies) pulling really fast in large numbers like pods of dolphins, leaving serious wakes behind them. My swim workouts vary between 45 minutes to an hour and up to 2800 yards, so to make sure I stayed out of the pro's way I swam in the slow pool.
I've been a runner for a number of years. I found my running groove my final year at UCSD running ever longer distances to Torrey Pines Beach and back. It's a great feeling to just be able to run without any effort, relaxing through miles. You may remember from a prior blog post that one of my goals of this season was to find my groove swimming, to swim for a mile and half without thinking about it. I'm glad to say that I finally did it while in Kona. One of my workouts was a 35 minute continuous swim after a 200 yard warm up. For the continuous swim, I simply started my stopwatch and started swimming. While in Kona my stroke and gliding had improved a lot. I found the minutes slipping away. I'd done it, I'd achieved my groove. It was really exciting to relax through 35 minutes of swimming.
I also had many chances to swim in amazing warm water at Hapuna and a few other local beaches on the big island.
We spent the last week vacationing in Kona-Kailua, Hawaii. Since I'm in the middle of training (the triathlon is only a month away) this meant I had to train while I was away. I actually love being highly active on vacation. It's great to spend a couple of hours a day training before hanging out on the beach. Luckily, this is exactly what I did. Typically, I woke up at 6:30 to either swim, bike or run. Read along as I take you through my workouts.
